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Hi guys i was just recently reading that some vegatbles such as cucumbers or zuchini are good food for many bottom feeders like loaches or plecos.

Would my corys eat cucumber or other household vegtables, or is it best to just stick with my current feeding habits.

I have a 10 gallon tank with 3 bronze corys, 1 julius cory and 3 tetras.
Nitrate- 20
Nitrite, Ammonia- 0

PS- Am i overstocked??

Thanks

Hi. In my experience, cories will pick at zucchini, and almost everything else. They are curious eaters, and they like to try things out. But they are not vegetarians, like a lot of plecos are, so they really need their shrimp pellets, and tubifex worms, and other meaty items.

Good luck with your fish!
I don't think you're overstocked. Keep up with your maintenance, and those fish will be fine.

Deb

I haven't got any cories, but I've got Brochis Splendens, which is very similar.

They will "sniff" at Courgette (Zucchini), but not eat much of it.

They are "omnivores", so they will eat "anything", but I think the biggest problem would be to actually bite any of it off. They're better at eating small morsels, than rasping off hard vegetables (of coruse, if you boil them until they are completely soggy, they'll be better for the cories).

The general concensus when it comes to feeding cories is that they aren't really interested in "vegetarian diet", they like something more meaty. Sinking wafers or "bits" with high protein content is for them. Live/frozne bloodworms also go down a treat, as does finely chopped shrimps/prawns.

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Mats

I'll second MatsP - none of my two dozen or so cories seem to like veggies much, they will eat algae wafers but seem to disdain zucchini. My clown loaches like it, though, and of course the albino bristlenose are in like a dirty shirt. For everyday feeding, I use carnivore pellets, all the cories seem to like them. The cories do relish squashed snails, especially my big fat paleatus, and they all seem to like bloodworms and brine shrimp. I have to chop them up a bit for the pygmy cories since their mouths are so small . . .

Contrary to some comments Corys are NOT vegetable eaters, and should not be offered them. They graze amongst the Bio-film that form on just about every underwater surface and in the surface layers of the substrate, where they filter out micro organisms, worms and insect larvae. The so called catfish wafers are aimed at Ancistrine catfishes and are not suitable for Corys.

Ian