Newbie on keeping Corydoras

[yuki]

Hi all

I would like to find out what is necessary in a cory tank before jumping into this hobby.
Hope someone out there would be able to help me with my questions:

1) What is the preferred tank size for keeping 20-30 corydoras?
2) Do I need to have a heater in the tank?
3) Is a submerged filter more suitable or an overhead filter?
4) What fish food would you recommend for feeding corydoras?

These are my questions for the time being.
Tks a million!!

[zac08]

Location pls....

Wat's the weather like at your place?? If it's about 24 - 28°C, it's just nice... not too low or not too high...

Any lower, you may need heaters, too high, you'd want to get some fans or chillers (if you're rich enuff)

Tank size? I guess something of about 20 gallons or so should be just nice...these fishe prefer a long and low tank... they do occasionally come up to the surface for gulps of air...

Filtration... most advocate a external cannister filter, but you can also make do with internal cannisters, overhead filters, etc...

Fish food... there are a lot of types... I've tried Tetra's Tabimin, Hikari's Algae wafers, live tubifex worms, live blood worms... up to personal liking and choice... but I find that the cories responds the best to live worms...

[Nina]

Corys love fast flowing water, I use external filter AND internal filter because external has high filtering capacity and internal filters keep the water circulating rapidly.

Remember to cover your tank, Corys keep coming to surface to take up air and may do it so fast that they accidentally end up on the floor! Don't fill the tank up, leave a good air space between water surface and cover so that there' s plenty of moist, warm air for the Corys to inhale.

Gravel isn't a good substrate for Corys, the sharp edges damage their mouth. Sand is good, and the darker the better so they feel safe. Corys like small rock caves where they can rest. They prefer simple three-stone caves which are just high enough for them to comfortably swim in.

Frequent small water changes are a must for Corys, especially if you're interested in breeding them. I change 10-20 % of the total water volume weekly. The fish density matters of course.

My corys love insect larvae, blood warms, tubifex worms (don't feed tubifex too often though, they're very fatty), daphnia and small artemia. Tablet food is okay too.

If you're planning on buing other fishes as tank mates for Corys, don't get territorial or aggressive fish or too active/ greedy fish as they may disturb the Corys or not leave any food for them to eat! Corys can't really defend themselves against anything.

Do your research before you buy the fish, temperature requirements vary among Corydoras species.

Best of luck!

[Coryman]

yuki

What is your location, it will help if we know what the temperature range is where you live, plus the parameters of your mains water

Ian

[Graeme]

Is this a Species only tank set-up?






Graeme.

[sammich]

Cories are very easy fish to keep (in my experience). My first one lived 6 years without a single water change!