Spewing_nonsense_ Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 So, cory(the human) released a new short today from his trip to Peru where he was showing us the substrate of the cories(the fish) habitat. In the comments there were people saying how they had x substrate and switched and then their cories barbells came back. Now an interesting thing was that there were some on both sides, some had gravel and switched to sand, others had sand and switched to gravel, with the previous substrate being the one where the cories didnt have barbells and then grew them back once they switched to new substrate. Then there was someone in the comments who mentioned substrate doesnt matter, its water quality that affects wether cories lose their barbells, which made me wonder if anybody has recorded water parameters when their cories had and didnt have barbells to see what might be causing it, and if maybe this is the true cause and what we should be directing people to do rather than switching out substrate. I currently dont own cories but am planning on getting them and might do some experiments to see, altho I really dont know if I'll be able to see results or not bc I'm not gonna torture the cories who would have "bad water quality" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarayParay Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Ooh! I'll be following this to see what others say. I have Panda Corys and I have sand substrate. So far their little whiskers (I call them that lol) are still good. It's something i'm paranoid about so every morning I make sure to check to see if any have gone missing. I thought gravel was "bad" for Corys because of their whiskers, so reading that people have had success with gravel really interests me! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 I have keeped Corys on sand and had no problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machete Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 I have had corys with both gravel and substrate, and never had barbel problems in either. Maybe it's about water quality, but also about maintenance: a poorly mantained / syphoned substrate is going to grow all kinds of stuff that will maybe be bad for the little guys' whiskers and lead to infections. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 9 minutes ago, Machete said: I have had corys with both gravel and substrate, and never had barbel problems in either. Maybe it's about water quality, but also about maintenance: a poorly mantained / syphoned substrate is going to grow all kinds of stuff that will maybe be bad for the little guys' whiskers and lead to infections. good point but in the wild the substrate isn't gravel vacved and maintained. I have kept gravel and corydoras with no problem either 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 (edited) It is nice that we have the video clip for the next time that this topic comes up. I think it was also mentioned in one of the longer Peru videos. Edited January 25, 2021 by Streetwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machete Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Just now, James Black said: good point but in the wild the substrate isn't gravel vacved and maintained. I have kept gravel and corydoras with no problem either In the wild there are no filters either, and the water quality is A+! 😄 I guess that in a river, the current moves the substrate, thus making a "natural syphon"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 1 minute ago, Machete said: In the wild there are no filters either, and the water quality is A+! 😄 I guess that in a river, the current moves the substrate, thus making a "natural syphon"? yeah good point. theres also lots of plants pulling all the nutrients like nitrates out of water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 does anyone hear know how to speak corydora? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Billy Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 (edited) I have kept many species of cory doras and loaches in gravel tanks with no issue. Mind you i am picky and spend extra time to find nice semi small, smooth polished stones specifically for my khuli loaches as they burrow through my gravel as apposed to dojo loaches who are autonomous gravel vacs. None have ever had any barbel issues but i also watch my water parameters like a paranoid hawk too. I would be interested to see if someone has information regarding poor water quality being the main issue. Edited January 24, 2021 by Will Billy Darn auto correct cant read my mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenA Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 Lots of info here: www.corydorasworld.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancing Matt Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 I have corydoras in a tank with some sand and flourite red that was neglected for a bit and not cleaned well (I moved the tank so I can access it easier and care better) no issues with their barbells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 I think it more about water quality and doing regular gravel vac and I don't think you will have barbel issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirsten Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 This leads me to the question: what do you do if you have cories (who want sand, or at least soft and round) with some of the many larger fish that look best with dark substrate? Reviews for black or dark brown sand everywhere are abysmal. Say it's just sand dyed black with god-knows-what. Lots of reviews recommend black diamond 20/40 blasting abrasive (charcoal slag) but the pieces look so sharp and rough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted January 24, 2021 Share Posted January 24, 2021 This was posted the other day on the CoOp YouTube channel. It's only 37 seconds long but answers the Corydoras substrate concerns. BTW my Pandas do great on Black Diamond blasting sand. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted January 25, 2021 Administrators Share Posted January 25, 2021 From selling an uncountable amount of corydoras and helping customers. I find the problem tends to be the food fed, not the substrate. Corydoras will dig past their eyeballs to get food that has fallen into cracks. Something like frozen blood worms stay on top of the substrate where something like a shrimp pellet breaks up and falls in between. Sand prevents things falling into it. However it's not that sand is magically. It's that it prevents the food problem. So choosing the foods, and substrate when done with some forethought, is a winning combo for fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kabong Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2021/01/tiny-catfish-shrugs-off-piranha-bites/?cmpid=org=ngp::mc=social::src=facebook::cmp=editorial::add=fbp20210124animals-fishsurvivepiranhabites::rid=&sf242225923=1&fbclid=IwAR2N2dJ21wwRpvX31jVuDz0BJG8ek0PrIfaHwP9JzJxQ3yh3Lf4C2RT_Sic Not related directly to substrate, but might provide some info on just how tough these fish are... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 2 hours ago, Cory said: Corydoras will dig past their eyeballs to get food that has fallen into cracks. This might be why the Black Diamond sand seems to be okay with corydoras despite what internet wisdom would have you believe. I have never seen my corydoras dig into it, they can't, it's just too dense. The food and everything else just lays on top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I have kept corydoras for many years and on any of the different substrates you can get for an aquarium and never have I noticed barbels eroding away on any of my fish. I was even roasted a few years ago because of a picture I posted on a popular corydoras keeping page of some of my fish in a tank with eco-complete substrate. I believe, like @Corysaid, that it depends on what you feed and how much you feed. I make sure that plenty of food gets down to the substrate for the corys so that they don't have to go digging down into the substrate for food. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spewing_nonsense_ Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 15 hours ago, Ken said: This was posted the other day on the CoOp YouTube channel. It's only 37 seconds long but answers the Corydoras substrate concerns. BTW my Pandas do great on Black Diamond blasting sand. This was the video I was referring to in the original comment where people had commented and led me to ask this discussion 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphy1701 Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 (edited) Never had a problem with my Bronze Corys on gravel. Although I have slightly larger, rounded.... I guess you would call it river rock gravel. My Corys dig in it like crazy, as do my Yo Yos and both have great whiskers. I like to think I keep good water quality. Change it biweekly, and skip feeding a few times a week to give the "cleaners" time to catch up if there is left over food. 55 gallon BTW. Edited January 25, 2021 by morphy1701 Added some info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fonske Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 On 1/24/2021 at 11:36 AM, Machete said: In the wild there are no filters either, and the water quality is A+! That's what I thought too. Then one day I caught some wild fishes (not corydoras) and tested the water they came from (an interconnected system of several large ponds). The nitrite level was the maximum my test could read. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spewing_nonsense_ Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 1 hour ago, Fonske said: That's what I thought too. Then one day I caught some wild fishes (not corydoras) and tested the water they came from (an interconnected system of several large ponds). The nitrite level was the maximum my test could read. Yeah see this is why I dont think the motto of mimic nature is necessarily the best. Bc in nature 90% of babies get eaten, theres all sorts of disease and parasite, they're constantly searching for food. Now granted nature does a lot of things right and we should take the good from nature, but not everything from nature is amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 I have corydoras on sand, gravel and eco complete. I see no issues with their barbels, they seem content and have been breeding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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