Cory food

[Cinnebuns]

I hesitate to make a post about this because I feel like it's a topic that's brought up a lot but I can't seem to find an old post on it. 

I have been breeding panda cories for about 3.5 years now and recently started breeding paleatus (peppered) corie as well. I have mainly fed them Hikari sinking wafers this entire time. I love them because I seem to get good spawns and they don't make a mess like some sinking foods I've found. It is however kind of expensive. I feel that way about all Hikari foods tbh. I feel like they are amazingly high quality and a great choice but also expensive. 

Has anyone found a comparable food for less?  Maybe it's a situation where "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and I should keep to what I've been doing. Mostly wondering other people's thoughts. 

Gonna tag some people off the top of my head that I know keep and/or breed cories. 

@nabokovfan87 @Guppysnail @tolstoy21

Edited June 5 by Cinnebuns

[FLFishChik]

OK... I, by no means am even remotely educated about Cory breeding. That being said, I feed my Corys (both Albino and Peppered) an every other day rotation of Repashy, Xtreme Bottom Feeder Wafers withan  occasional canned green beans, a sliced cucumber or zucchini... The Albinos are constantly spawning. There are Eggs all over the glass weekly. The Peppers are still too young, b ut I imagine they will also be spawning quite a bit. They also get whatever hits the bottom from feeding the rest of the Community tank ( Xtreme pellets, Bug Bites pellets and flakes, Brine Shrimp, BBS, Mysis Shrimp, Blood Worms and Freeze dried Tubifex).. so they get a LOT of variety in their diet.

Edited June 5 by FLFishChik

[GoofyGarra]

I've recently started feeding Ken'sFish Ultra Meat Wafers as was recommended to me by @Guppysnail to my cories and they love them. Its a bit dirtier then some more expensive foods I've fed, but it is ultimately very cost effective and a decent food.

[tolstoy21]

My fish never eat wafers, as much as I would like them to. I have tried so many kinds, and nope, they won't touch them.

I'm reluctant to suggest foods, because I have learned that fish can be picky and temperamental when it comes to foods, and things everyone has success with, my fish won't touch, and vice versa.

I tend to get a lot of foods from Aquatic Foods and Blackworm Co.  I don't care for some of their foods, but others I have great success with (their sinking blackworm pellets, for instance). 

I feel you on the price thing. Once you start feeding a lot of fish, cost begins to become a larger factor.

I would just start trying small sizes of all kinds sinking wafers until you find something that's a balance between quality and cost.

Edited June 5 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

On 6/4/2024 at 8:18 PM, GoofyGarra said:

I've recently started feeding Ken'sFish Ultra Meat Wafers as was recommended to me by @Guppysnail

Man, I was just looking at Ken's Fish food.  His bulk prices are decent. I'm going to have to give some a try.

Thanks for mentioning him!

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/4/2024 at 6:09 PM, tolstoy21 said:

My fish never eat wafers, as much as I would like them to. I have tried so many kinds, and nope, they won't touch them.

I'm reluctant to suggest foods, because I have learned that fish can be picky and temperamental when it comes to foods, and things everyone has success with, my fish won't touch, and vice versa.

This is me too....

My fish will eat pellets, flakes, frozen brine, and when the mood strikes them they like repashy.  The hikari wafers are known to be great with corydoras far and wide, but there have been concerns about what's in them.

For me, the vast majority of my choices are based on the following:
 

 

The most recent documentary made on the topic and specifically applicable to this issue is going to be FIN by Eli Roth.  I watched in on HBO Max app.  I would point you to the above thread and or movie club link in my signature for discussion off those sorts of things. 

What this ultimately means is that my preference is to limit fish meal and fish oil.  I prefer to use krill meal and krill oils as well as spirulina (and chlorella) algae based foods.  NLS has probably the "best" recipe with their algae based wafers, but they have a lot of other things available too that I wish I could try.

Northfin is similar where they have a lot of the same things and the public perspective is quality ingredients in the food.

Aqueon nutrinsect is something I will shout about because it's very affordable and the ingredients are great.

For my corydoras they can be anywhere from little ones to big chunky 4" fish and they prefer nano pellets for their food.  The nice behavior I want to see when feeding them is this... and it's always fun for me to watch.
 

This is where the substrate matters as much to me as the food choice because I want the fish to be able to get to the food in question.  Have a half-sand tank for feeding if you wanted to is an option as well.  I won't say it's required, mine are not on sand currently, but it's just all back to the above behavior for me.

If I was to send someone a kit of "foods" for corydoras I would tend to look for:
-pellets that are 0.5mm in size (1mm works if you had to use it)
-krill oil as opposed to fish oil
-alternate sources of protein: algae, bugs, shrimp and krill
-frozen and gel foods

Things that have worked well for me is the typical "community blend" styles off food where it's a mix of protein and veggie foods.  This comes in forms of pellets and flakes from just about anyone as well.  I tend to buy them separate and make containers of them on my own ratio.  Usually it's around 70/30% up to 50/50 range leaning towards more of the krill based foods are the staple.  Bug foods you kind of want to make sure they don't go stale on you or rot (so I've heard), but I never have them ever last long enough for that to be an issue.

My favorite thing is probably frozen brine.  I thing it's one of the most underrated foods out there for corydoras.