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Introducing the new Corydoras!


Anjum
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Count me in for the Corydoras fan club 😁

I picked up a 6 pack of Corydoras paleatus at the Co-Op yesterday for my 29g. They are so fun, but hard to get pictures of! 

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Now, I know conventional wisdom says to keep them on sand, but I figured my substrate is fine as it's a lot of smooth river stones. However I'm already seeing a problem where sinking food invariably settles down into crevices too low for them to get to. So, I'll be doing a bit of a rescape & adding some sand to the top. I'll probably pull some from my creek, but I'd also appreciate suggestions for a commercially available sand that's smooth enough for them. 

I'm going to pick up some repashy and would welcome suggestions for the best repashy for Corydoras, considering they'll get a little of the higher protein foods I feed the other fish. After watching a bunch of videos last night showing different ways to prepare it, I had the bright idea to coat some of the medium stones in repashy & feed it that way. 

Also, I didn't QT, and I accept full responsibility for my actions. I figure it's a low-risk venture as there's nothing rare or expensive in this tank. 

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On 8/14/2022 at 11:44 AM, Anjum said:

Now, I know conventional wisdom says to keep them on sand, but I figured my substrate is fine as it's a lot of smooth river stones. However I'm already seeing a problem where sinking food invariably settles down into crevices too low for them to get to. So, I'll be doing a bit of a rescape & adding some sand to the top. I'll probably pull some from my creek, but I'd also appreciate suggestions for a commercially available sand that's smooth enough for them. 

I wasn't going to say anything negative, but simply that it would be interesting to see these guys in video form and how they do over time with that substrate.  You might get away with something like seachem flourite and then sand as a cap in different regions.  It just depends on what type of a scape / look / tank you want to have.  The sand I like now is the one I just tried.  Slightly larger grain so I have less filtration issues, caribsea crystal river.  It looks gigantic online, but I promise, it's normal going to the beach looking beach sand.  Great stuff.

As for gravel / smaller gravel.  It might not be available, but check out this stuff!  Aesthetically pretty cool.  Would go well with these ones and their camouflage.
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On 8/14/2022 at 11:44 AM, Anjum said:

I'm going to pick up some repashy and would welcome suggestions for the best repashy for Corydoras, considering they'll get a little of the higher protein foods I feed the other fish. After watching a bunch of videos last night showing different ways to prepare it, I had the bright idea to coat some of the medium stones in repashy & feed it that way. 

I feed a lot of soilent green.  Now that I've used it I can say that one of their absolute favorites is bottom scratcher for invertivores.  Community blend is also a great one for so many different types of fish.  You can also mix them as you see fit!

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On 8/14/2022 at 2:44 PM, Anjum said:

However I'm already seeing a problem where sinking food invariably settles down into crevices too low for them to get to.

What little sweethearts 🥰 I have 3 tanks of Cory 2 panda /1 Pygmy as well as lots of other bottom feeders in tanks on gravel. I conquer the food sinking with food dishes. I use .99 cent terra cotta planter liners from the local hardware. I also smash tubifex worms to the glass. This may work until you rescape your tank. This video shows the dish and the tubifex. 

 

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I have had the same Cory's for a little over 2 months now. I keep mine on gravel and haven seen any issues yet with feeding. There in a 10 gal all on there own. They get repashy and frozen blood worms and frozen brine shrimp as there staple foods. I have the green,grub pie and community blend repashy. I tend to make mine a little firmer and slice them into wider thinner pieces and place a few about the tank. But I do like @Guppysnail idea of using the feeding dishes. Especially at a time when you want to help trigger a spawn. A nice fat dish of blood worms to pig out on before bed to get them going. I like @nabokovfan87 idea of the capping with sand. I just may have to give the sand get is using now a try. I have a few small rocks that I put Java moss on as well. I will sometimes place the repashy on that so it's a nice soft spot for them to graze at.

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@nabokovfan87 I did get some video, not the best but it'll give you an idea. Thx for the subatrate recs, I think my LFS has caribsea. That ada gravel is gorgeous too! And thx for weighing in on the repashy - I was particularly interested in the bottom scratcher so that's great to hear they like it! 

@Guppysnail thx for the feeding ideas! I do remember seeing your suction cup method, I'll try that for sure. 

@TeeJay thx for your ideas too! Frozen blood worms & repashy will be my staple foods for now. I need to get some java moss going. I know it's good to have for shrimp also which will be my next project. 

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On 8/15/2022 at 8:36 AM, Anjum said:

@nabokovfan87 I did get some video, not the best but it'll give you an idea. Thx for the subatrate recs, I think my LFS has caribsea. That ada gravel is gorgeous too! And thx for weighing in on the repashy - I was particularly interested in the bottom scratcher so that's great to hear they like it! 

Video looks great!  I think the look you might like is sand with gravel mixed in?  Maybe that is a happy medium if you don't want a full sand look.  There is a community blend repashy thread that cory started, some fun stuff in there.  Here is my corydoras going nuts first time they saw that food.
 

 

ORD but very cool ideas on how to solve the substrate stuff. Nice work everyone!

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On 8/15/2022 at 9:40 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Video looks great!  I think the look you might like is sand with gravel mixed in?  Maybe that is a happy medium if you don't want a full sand look.  There is a community blend repashy thread that cory started, some fun stuff in there.  Here is my corydoras going nuts first time they saw that food.
 

 

ORD but very cool ideas on how to solve the substrate stuff. Nice work everyone!

You are correct, I do like mixed substrate. I have some ideas... I'll update as I go. Probably time I started a journal for the 29...  For now I put a small saucer in the tank like guppysnail suggested. They still seem to prefer to "hunt" food, but at least I know there'll always be something easy for them to get to. I'll check out the repashy threads, thx for pointing me in that direction! 

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I got 6 of those about 18 months ago. I now have at least 25 spread out into 3 separate tanks. In any case, I mostly use fine gravel or sand, but in one tank, I have river pebbles/rocks in a corner, and it almost seems like they enjoy it more--an enrichment activity or something.

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Hmmm now you all have me thinking about the Corydoras breeding! As @TheSwissAquarist mentioned, they're supposed to be one of the easiest to breed.... That wasn't one of my goals, but hey I'd take it! Though, IDK how many fry could really survive with a school of Rasboras about. They are savvy micro-predators. I fed them live mosquito larva for the 1st time a few weeks ago & they only lasted a few seconds in the tank! But hey, with lots of plants & the cave system under the wood pieces, maybe I'd get a few?? 

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