I just got 6 neon tetras and 3 cory's, and they are so different than the goldies I used to have!! We just got them all about 1 hour ago. The only problem is that one of the tetras appears to have fin rot. Should I quarentine it and treat it? The neons came out of the same tank and the corys out af a different tank. We got them about 1 hour ago (they are too fast and so many in the tank to hand pick them, but there were others in the tank that appeared to have fin rot). Should I maybe treat the whole tank instead...or quarentine just the neons? I do have a spare 10 gallon, but I lent my extra filter to a friend 'cause she didn't have one on her tank. I do have a spare old style filter (that sits on the bottom of the tank inthe corner), but it doesn't have the filter medium (so I used it as an air pump before, but it gives off a lot bubbles and agitates a lot). The other tank isn't cycled like tetras require.
One of the corys is a little more red by the gills than the others (although each is a little different) and isn't quite as social as the others. At first it kept swimming up and down (to the surface), but now it is mainly on hte bottom, but often by itself.

pH 7.0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
10 gallon
Penguin bio-wheel 200
6 neon tetras and 3 corys in the tank (no others) and just bought them 1 hour ago (I did buy a live plant, but I can't remember what it is called).
Has been running since Dec 2005 (has been empty since the end of Jan., but I kept the cycle going)
Just fed them a little bt of tetra tropical flakes and live brine shrimp
used Amquel to make sure that there is no ammonium (before I put them in, even though it tested 0), but I used Aqua plus with the last water change as well as Cycle.

I think that is all the q's that are usually asked inthe GF section to aid diagnosis and treatment.

Also, I bought a small piece of Hagen driftwood (which I am currently soaking in water to get the tannin out). Do I need to boil it as well (it wasn't out of a tank)? It won't mess up the water parameters will it? Just thought I would double check before I put it in.

Thanks for all your help!!

With the water params so low on a new tank i wouldnt want to risk bumping it with meds. Id try and get a filter going in a quarantine tank and try and find some filter media from an existing filter even if its just a bit cut off to try and kick start it. Then try and treat the neon or neons best you can.

As for the cory are they bronze cories? I have three of them and two seem to allways be together and one stays away or with the pepered ones more. All of mine are quite pinky red round the gil area but theyve been like that since i got them about 6 months ago.

good luck

My tank isn't newly running. I have had it running for over a year, and previously had GF in it. It has just been empty for a little over a month after my GF died, and we were deciding on what fish to get. These parmeters are the same as it was when I had my GF (am=0, ni=0, na=5).

I was watching the cory (albino I believe, creamy white in colour) and I think it is actually ok. It started swimmimg more and being more active with one of the other fish, not to mention suctioning the bottom now. It seems that there is always one cory on its own and 2 "playing" together.

With the Neon, I am not sure if it is finrot or just damaged fins. It is behaving normally and was eating. There is no fungus or anything like that; it is just slightly frayed/split.

Would taking a plant from my exisitng tank (fake) that has been in the tank since I set it up and putting some gravel in the quarentine tank help? I do have 2 filters in my penguin right now (one cycled, one not), so I could always place the cycled one in the Q.Tank, would that work? and then run the other old filter without medium (I can check if the LFS has a replacement as they still sell these things, or I could just buy it, as it was only $6 or something). I know just putting the medium in the tank won't filter, but it would bring beneficial bacteria into the tank. I just now it can otherwise take over a week to cycle the tank from scratch.