gravel okay with cory's?

[HelplessNewbie]

We have this type of gravel in our 10g: https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/imagitarium-blue-jean-aquarium-gravel-20-lbs-2558286

Will it be safe for pygmy, false julii or albino cory? We know sand is preferred but this is all we have right now.

Thank you.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Gravel is absolutely fine with Corycats. 

[Guppysnail]

Gravel is fine all mine breed on it. That type of gravel you have is slightly larger so tons of food falls in the cracks. Good gravel vacuum weekly will keep the barbels from getting infected from old food stuck down in. I had that in one tank and switched to a smaller gravel to help prevent the food decay a bit. 

[Lennie]

On 6/30/2023 at 7:08 PM, HelplessNewbie said:

We have this type of gravel in our 10g: https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/imagitarium-blue-jean-aquarium-gravel-20-lbs-2558286

Will it be safe for pygmy, false julii or albino cory? We know sand is preferred but this is all we have right now.

Thank you.

Besides substrate, you gotta pay attention to the adult size of the cories. Because some grow BIG.

In a 10g, I would do only pygmy cories from those three you mentioned due to their size.

I used to have my sterbais in 29g. After sometime, when they reached sexual maturity, they went nuts. Upgraded them to 42g tank and now they are chill. 

Pygmys stay small, so they would be the best choice for you given your 10g tank size. Or you can also check other similar sized small cories, such as hastatus or habrosus(salt and peppers) .

[Ken Burke]

agree with comments above, except I keep my red sailfins in a 10 gallon without any issues.  I used to have panda cories in that tank, no problems there ether.  I know, I’m a bit of a contrarian here.  

[lefty o]

as long as its a normal smooth gravel, and not some jagged abrasive stuff, cory's are fine on gravel.

[nabokovfan87]

Yes gravel is "fine" in the sense that it shouldn't do them a plethora of harm.

That being said there are things you can do to make their (and your) life a bit easier.

I would highly recommend a feeding dish of some kind or a section of the tank with finer substrate that contacts for them to eat off.

 

 

The other thing to note is to just keep an eye out for crush damage on their barbels. If those get damaged due to trying to dig through some pretty heavy substrate, then you may have a situation where that exposes them to bacterial or fungal infections as a result. Again, I mention this as something to monitor.

It is also not a good idea to keep them on bare bottom tanks because it has been reported to have a similar affect.

[Cinnebuns]

I'm confused about the link. It says blue jeans in the link but when it opens it loads twice for me. The first time is blue jeans and the 2nd time is river gravel. The river gravel looks fine. The blue jeans I'm not sure because it's hard to tell from the pictures petco supplies. If it jagged at all I say no. Jagged gravel causes cuts on them which allows bacteria and infection to set in. This not only causes their barbels to be destroyed but abrasions to their face and body as well. It can cause starvation and death. 

I once had an emergency where I spent all night taking fish out of my largest tank and putting them in various smaller tanks. Because of this, I had little choice but to put the cories in a tank with jagged gravel. In less than a month many of their barbels were ruined and a couple died. 

I know others have said this gravel is safe but I'm uncertain which kind of gravel they were looking at. If it's the river gravel then I agree. If it's the blue jeans then I'm uncertain because the pictures aren't clear. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/1/2023 at 4:05 AM, Cinnebuns said:

The first time is blue jeans and the 2nd time is river gravel.

It's just your basic blue aquarium gravel. It's tumbled.

[HelplessNewbie]

Our gravel has smooth edges, so looks like with regular gravel cleaning will be okay for cory fish. Thank you, all!

[Milliardo Peacecraft]

Yep, blue jean gravel works just fine with cories.  I always have cories in my tank and haven't had an issue.  Just took the picture below of one of the cories in my tank with basically the exact same gravel.