Cory Catfish: complete care guide
- Aug 06, 2020
- Anshika Mishra
- 1924 0 0
How are you going to take care of your Corydoras? You have got the answer right here.
Schooling Fish
The first thing you want to do is; start with a group. The minimum number of these fishes you should have is 3, but that is the least if you can buy 6 it would be great to start with. They are in much bigger schools in the wild and when we say a group of 3 or 6 than they should be of the same type. If you are choosing Panda Corydoras, that's 3, 6, 12 of those Corydoras as opposed to one bronze, one albino, one panda. So, you have to get the group up. Saftey in a number of these guys.
Bottom dweller
These fishes are bottom dwellers. They have got whiskers on their face or a catfish and those are called barbels. They feel them around ricks, woods, decors to find little nuggets of food. Maybe it's a worm, maybe it's the wafer you are providing it.
These fishes eat by bottom-dwelling. So, you have to make sure that food gets to them. They are not just cleaner fish. They need to be dedicatedly fed with a dedicated feeding' so, that they don't starve to death. It's common to see them very skinny in a store because they are not feeding them enough. You want to look out for them, preventing them to turn that skinny.
Females should be nice and pulp with eggs and males should be more a little slender, but not super skinny. They are usually very easy to breed in an aquarium, especially albinos and bronzes and some of the cheaper corydoras.
Water parameters
Temperature: Keep the group in at least 72-82 degrees; depending upon the species you have. Sturdy goes a little bit hotter. Jullie cories go a little bit on the cooler side.
pH: 6.8-7.8
No Goldfish: One important thing to keep in mind is to avoid them from keeping with goldfish. Because the goldfish can be caught on their fins as they bite down on them and it might choke out that goldfish; not a good idea.
TankMates
They do absolutely well with almost everything else. So, everything that won't eat them, they do well if they are not really an aggressive fish at all.
You'll be having a nice little group of schooling fish going across the bottom. You can get some in really nice colors. Some are really expensive, most are not too bad. They inhabit a different level of the aquarium, which is nice.
Aquarium Size
There are some dwarf species that you can keep in less than 5. But the average fish you are going to find in most of the fish store, 20-gallons and up; 20 long is better than a normal 30 high. In that size of the aquarium, you can keep 4-5 of them. If they are bigger species like Emerland green, keep 4 of them in this size tank. If they are smaller `one like the pandas, you can have 6 or 7 in the tank.
Get one group of those, get yourself some schooling fish
Feeding Corydoras
They love eating worms
- Frozen Bloodworms
- Live black worms
- Sinking pallets
They are carnivores, they eat them all. You want to make sure that the food you are feeding isn't like getting barriers in, where they have to dig for it. You mostly want the food to stay on the top if you have a sharper substrate. That is why things like blood worms and other stuff that stay on the top are good for them.
Substrate
They do squiggle down and sometimes they'll go all the up to their eyeballs down in that substrate, looking for stuff. When they do that, know that if you have a crazy sharp substrate; sometimes that can be a problem.
If you feed them with brine shrimp pallet, it floats away in the gravel which is much harder and causes microbe regions.
Corydoras Toxin
The last thing that is rumored/ debated/ not 100% scientifically proven yet is the Corydora toxin. Corydoras have got a gland through which they can release toxins that are toxic to other corydoras. Sometimes they release that toxin in the bag and kill the whole bag. Sometimes bringing them home that can happen.
In theory, the experts say; stress them out in aquarium where you chase them a little bit, they release that toxin and then you net them; then you can put them in the bag. The other theory is you put them in a bag, stress them out, and put them in a new bag.
But don't be scared of it, because it happens in a very rare case. But this might happen so don't completely roll it out. There is a lot of studies going on for this toxin.
Good Luck!
Good luck with your Corydoras get yourself a school and have a party in your tank.
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