Mixing Corydora species/types? and a Pea Puffer Question

[Sandra the fish rookie]

I currently have 1 albino and a Pepper corydora that have been in my tank for 3 months. My LFS seem to have no issues getting the albino ones, but the peppered are more difficult to get it seems. I want to add to the ones that I have but don't want to alienate the peppered one because he has none of his own species in the tank. For Reference, I have a 20 gallon high, planted tank 🙂

The LFS had what appeared to be bronze. 

It was really hard to get a picture because they had black substrate.. but was able to crop and blow up the picture I could get

Question about Corydora species mixing:

1) It this going to be an issue for the peppered on that I have? If I can get some peppered I will get them for sure.. but finding corydora's in general lately is more difficult. Or they just don't last. 

PS: There were also PEA PUFFERS.. my first time EVER seeing one in real life.. seriously.. could that not be any cuter a fish??? I want one SOOO bad.. They were sooo tiny .. I mean itty bitty.. I am afraid my guppy (the last remaining tuxedo) will harm him.. he is a bit of a jerk in the tank.. 

Question about adding a Pea Puffer:

1) will the guppy hurt the pea puffer?

2) I have a large Mystery snail, and a decent sized ramshorn snail.. will this pea puffer eat them? 

Just thought I would ask people who have more experience than I do. 

[CorydorasEthan]

13 minutes ago, Sandra the fish rookie said:

I currently have 1 albino and a Pepper corydora that have been in my tank for 3 months. My LFS seem to have no issues getting the albino ones, but the peppered are more difficult to get it seems. I want to add to the ones that I have but don't want to alienate the peppered one because he has none of his own species in the tank. For Reference, I have a 20 gallon high, planted tank 🙂

Corydoras Question: It is not an issue at all with mixing different Corydoras species. Although I do agree that they need the company of others of the same species. Peppered cories are likely going to be coming into the shop sooner or later, as they are very common in the trade/hobby, so I think it would be fine if you put it into the tank you have right now. It will get used to the other albino and bronze cories as friends as well. They won't school much together, but they definitely will provide each other company.

Also, I think the bronze cory would be fine to add into the tank too. I also saw an albino cory in that picture you posted, behind a lot of the other fish, so I would consider adding/buying that one as well if you can't seem to get ahold of cories.

My Experience: I have two adult peppered cories (they bred so now there are 6), two female albino cories, a male venzuelan cory, and five pygmy cories in my 29 gallon. They are all very peaceful with one another. The reason I have only a few of each type is because my LFS I bought from usually doesn't carry many cories, similar to yours, so I got as many as I could each time I went. I plan on getting more albinos and venzuelans later on.

Sorry if my explanations were a little confusing. If you need to I can reword it. Hope this helps, and good luck!

PS Pea Puffers: Sorry, I don't know anything about pea puffers.

[Yanni]

For the pea puffers, I don't think that the guppies will bother it, if anything, the pea puffer might attack the guppies. Pea puffers are very nippy. They usually don't touch snails that are bigger than them, they'll nip at them here and there but your snails should be fine as long as you feed it well. Also, pea puffers aren't the easiest fish to feed. They usually only eat bloodworms or snails. Aquarium Co-op said that they have been able to feed their pea puffers vibra bites. 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@YanniThank you so much for the information. I just received a bunch of new food from Aquarium co op, Then all the guppies died except the one that I have left. I am going to watch the video Cory did on the pea puffers. It might be the excuse I need to get an nano tank.. LOL

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@CorydorasEthan okay GREAT! I will do just that.. 

Now.. next question... HOW MANY? How many albino's and how many bronze? I will add the same number of peppered as the albino's whenever they arrive. 

I am going to set up my quarantine tank STAT!! I am hoping to pick them up tomorrow. 

For a quick quarantine tank set up, I already have a filter going in my main tank (sponge filter) and was going to add some of my aquarium water as well.. to ensure all the parameters are the same. Thoughts??? 

[CorydorasEthan]

1 minute ago, Sandra the fish rookie said:

@CorydorasEthan okay GREAT! I will do just that.. 

Now.. next question... HOW MANY? How many albino's and how many bronze? I will add the same number of peppered as the albino's whenever they arrive. 

It really depends on how many you want, and how many you can fit. Albinos, bronzes, and peppered cories, although certainly not the largest Corydoras species, are fairly large, the females reaching almost three inches, and really wide as well. Below is a picture of a fully grown (pregnant) female, compared to the fully grown male, with some juvenile guppies as well. The female is about two-and-a-half to three inches long, and the male is about two inches long.

So I would recommend (assuming your tank doesn't have any other fishes yet) around three or four of each species. This means three to four albinos/bronze, and three to four peppered cories. The reason for the lower number is again, because the females of these species get larger than expected by most aquarists. If you get a good mix of males and females of each type, there is the possibility of breeding them and producing more babies, which it is very fun to raise them and watch them grow. Of course, the other levels of the aquarium would not be impacted much by the amount of cories you choose, so you could still probably fit in a school of guppies, tetras, rasboras, or something similar if you wanted to. With live plants and good filtration it makes this stocking a lot easier.

Hope this helps.

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@CorydorasEthan I currently have 1 guppy, 1 Ramshorn snail, 1yellow mystery snail, and the 2 corydora's. Okay I think 2 albino (with the one I have makes 3 total) and 3 bronze. When I can get some peppered I will get 2 of those to finish the set of them all. 

My albino is definitely bigger than my peppered because he was a small baby when I got him 🙂

I can always add more as I go along as well. I plan to quarantine them to ensure I don't see anything pop up. I am going to try to get the larger ones, because they confirmed they have had them a while already, so fingers crossed they are not sick.. ugh.. after my ordeal with the guppies.. one bitten twice shy if you know what I mean. See my posts under diseases.. ugh.. I am a rookie no doubt. I was VERY luck with these cory's from this LFS and they have done really well, and I did not quarantine them.. (rookie mistake # 500), but I plan to do it this time.. 

Do you deworm them? or do you just observe them first and watch for illness? I really want to get it right this time 😞 

[b_ball34]

The guppies wont mess with the pea puffer quite the opposite. The pea puffer would tear the guppies to shreds I always kept 1 solo they are so small you can do it in a 5 gal feed bloodworms and snails and they will suck them right out of the shell. You can try but I never got mine to eat prepared food just live and frozen.
 

[CorydorasEthan]

10 minutes ago, Sandra the fish rookie said:

@CorydorasEthan I currently have 1 guppy, 1 Ramshorn snail, 1yellow mystery snail, and the 2 corydora's. Okay I think 2 albino (with the one I have makes 3 total) and 3 bronze. When I can get some peppered I will get 2 of those to finish the set of them all. 

My albino is definitely bigger than my peppered because he was a small baby when I got him 🙂

I can always add more as I go along as well. I plan to quarantine them to ensure I don't see anything pop up. I am going to try to get the larger ones, because they confirmed they have had them a while already, so fingers crossed they are not sick.. ugh.. after my ordeal with the guppies.. one bitten twice shy if you know what I mean. See my posts under diseases.. ugh.. I am a rookie no doubt. I was VERY luck with these cory's from this LFS and they have done really well, and I did not quarantine them.. (rookie mistake # 500), but I plan to do it this time.. 

Do you deworm them? or do you just observe them first and watch for illness? I really want to get it right this time 😞 

Okay then I think that you could add the peppered cories in any time to be honest, as long as they are healthy.

Also, I don't quarantine either, which led to an ich outbreak in my first aquarium, killing everyone. Then again, the fish was from an unreliable PetSmart, and since I have bought fish from my LFS instead. I haven't done it yet, but I plan on setting up quarantine soon once I get more fish.

So given that I don't have any experience with quarantine, I don't really have an answer to your last two questions, so if I were you, I'd check with other, more experienced nerms. But in my opinion, I would just watch them to see how they do. Deworming would be a good idea though, because I think that might be common in cories (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Anyway, I hope this helps. Good luck!

[SWilson]

I do not have pea puffers, I ended up getting Amazon puffers instead but I have researched pea puffers a lot because I originally wanted them. I think the general consensus is that these puffers would do best in a solo or species only tank. The pea puffers, despite their diminutive size, are known for being aggressive and nippy.  As someone else said, it would likely attack your other fish and your mystery snail. It IS a great excuse to get yourself a new nano tank, 🙂 

or you could try it in your community tank but make sure you have a plan for separating your pea puffer(s) out.  you may also want to make sure it’s well planted with plenty of line of sight blocks.  They really are cute though. It’s hard to predict how they will interact with each other because of their aggressive personalities but note that they live in very large schools in the wild. Also, I don’t see this fish leaving the hobby anytime soon, people are wild about them and they can be bred in captivity. So you will probably be able to get them down the road and give yourself more time to prepare and decide if it’s the right fish for you at the right time. 
 

re corydoras, I’ve always heard they prefer to be in schools of six or more of the same type of cory. Is your peppered Cory a habrosus Cory (aka pygmy salt and pepper?) sorry I’m not familiar with all the different names and types but those prefer to be in even bigger schools if possible.  But it is course is not your fault that your LFS doesn’t carry them often.  I think the plan of building up your numbers over time is a good one, I would pick one and try to build up the school. You also know your own fish better than anyone else though, so you can observe to see if there’s any behaviors indicating stress that might be alleviated by getting them more friends of their same species. 
 

as one rookie to another, I affirm your instinct about always quarantining in the future. I do it now always unless they are the first fish I’m adding to a tank.  It’s more to give myself peace of mind, if something pops up with the new fish (inevitably, it seems, something does), at least I don’t have to worry about or figure out how to treat the whole aquarium (for ex, I also have a mystery snail in my endlers live bearer tank, so salt is a no go) or if I have just doomed all of the animals I already had. 
I’m trying out month-long quarantines where I observe and treat only when I see issues, or only for very likely issues like parasites in wild caught fish. Alternatively, you could follow the AC recommendations and treat prophylactically with the med trio and cut your quarantine time down to a week or two.  (Cory recommends repeating the parasite treatment again after 2 weeks, so that still is a 4 week treatment timeline).

Don’t do what I am currently doing which is get too many new fish at once so all my quarantine tanks are full and now I have very limited options if one of my fish in the display tanks gets sick. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Edited February 26, 2021 by SWilson

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@SWilson Thank you for the great feedback. I am setting up the QT this morning. I am taking a sponge filter and some of the tank water from my initial tank and will get it up and running. 

Rookie mistake #501, not getting the appropriate # of corydora's was my mistake because it was a new tank and I was afraid to over stock.. ugh.. 

Well, I will get them some friends today, and will keep my eye out for some peppered corydora's (mine is not the pigmy variety I have the Corydoras paleatus) I guess is the species name.

 

 

 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

I am worried not to get enough 😞 

My tank is SOOO close to being completely cycled, and will likely be once they are done out of quarantine. I am afraid to get too many or not enough. My original thought was add 2 to my albino population (would give me 3), get 3 bronze and then when I can get some peppered get 2 (would give me 3) with a total corydora population of 9, with 1 guppy (if it lives) 1 mystery snail and 1 ramshorn snail. 

Is that enough??? Should I get more of each type? 

[KaitieG]

Just to clarify because I think it makes it easier--albinos/bronzes are the same species, Corydoras Aeneus (there are a couple other color variations as well--I have green for example), and you can mix the various colors to form your school, so maybe aim for a combined total of around 6 for those Aeneus varieties.  I'd personally add them about 2 at a time if your tank is just finishing cycling, but I tend to be a slow fish-adder.

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@KaitieGOH... now I am confused... LOL

so should I just add 1 of each then? which would make 3 of one species? Is 3 enough? My priority is to build their population first.. and over time, decide on a center piece fish.. and go from there.. but I really love these corydora's.. I mean LOVE them.. watching them make me smile all day.. I can't even imagine a tank with out them... 

 

[KaitieG]

7 minutes ago, Sandra the fish rookie said:

@KaitieGOH... now I am confused... LOL

so should I just add 1 of each then? which would make 3 of one species? Is 3 enough? My priority is to build their population first.. and over time, decide on a center piece fish.. and go from there.. but I really love these corydora's.. I mean LOVE them.. watching them make me smile all day.. I can't even imagine a tank with out them... 

 

Personally, I would try to get to 6 of a species (said by me who currently has 5 of the 2 species I have!).  So you can do a mix of bronze/albino/any other Aeneus varieties you come across but I'd personally recommend getting to about 6.  The pepper cories are a different species (habrosus or paleatus) so you'd probably want to try to get 6 of those 2 or maybe just go with the aeneus species so you don't have to get so many?

[SWilson]

Thank you @KaitieG this is super helpful!  Just remember not to be too hard on yourself Sandra, it sounds like things are going good now in the tank (you deserve to just enjoy it and take a break from worrying).  And especially if your current cories are doing well, you don't have to rush to get them in the big number just because we internet people are saying so. 🙂  It can be a long term plan, esp since you enjoy this species (I have concerns about anyone who doesn't like cories! lol)

I like Kaitie's suggestion of picking one of the two species you have (and helpful that the albino and bronze are the same species) and then slowly add to that school.  Over time you can observe how the members of the other species are doing - are they hiding all the time? are they bucking convention and schooling with the other species? are they completely unfazed by anything and just living their cute lil cory lives?  Then you can decide whether you want to build up that group as well. 

I think ultimately, a tank with a bunch of cories, a pretty guppy, and one compatable centerpiece fish sounds like an amazing tank!  (btw re your guppies, another option is endlers livebearers if you can find them near you, which have a reputation of being hardier than guppies nowadays, and they can live with and even interbreed with your guppy).

In case it's helpful, I will invite myself 😛 to share a quarantine experience I just had.  Hopefully this doesn't happen to you.  I put a sponge filter that I thought was well cycled from an established (but still only a few months old) tank into my QT, I also used half water from an established tank and half fresh water, and a scoop of gravel from the established tank.  I added 7 new habrosus cories to quarantine.  In a few days, I started reading ammonia in the water, then ammonia and nitrite.  The tank was cycling with my new baby cories in there!  I stopped feeding for several days, added water conditioner to detoxify it, and dosed the tank with fritz zyme 7 (bottled bacteria) - over two days I did a double dose of the bacteria.  And added more gravel from the other tank and did small water changes over the course of 2 days to dilute.  I basically did what I could to make sure that the ammonia or nitrite didn't get over .5, and if they were close to .5, I detoxified with conditioner (which only lasts for 24 hours).    I lost one cory, but I don't know if that was the water or something preexisting.  The tank fortunately cycled and I'm only reading nitrates now (and working my way through the quarantine med trio in case that one loss was illness related).  It sucked not feeding them for 4 days but I think it made a difference. 

Anyway, I apologize for the overly long messages and hope I'm not coming across as pedantic.  I just really relate to the newbie experience of being hit with a bunch of mysterious illnesses, set backs, and water issues when starting out, and being like... ok when does this hobby get relaxing?? lol.   You got this though!  

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@SWilson I am going to follow my gut, and just wait it out. With all the stuff this tank has been through, its just not worth making anything worse. I am not even sure if the guppy will survive. I am restless I suppose. I just want to have a nice full tank to sit and enjoy. I have honestly given the guppy adventure a break for a while, and when its time to add fish, will try something else. Not sure what, but at this time, I am not going to even think about it. 

I was thinking about the QT tank.. I was going to get it up and running, but now that  I am not getting any fish, I will put it away. BUT. Your scenario is VERY helpful, because I bet I would have gone through the same exact thing. Geeze.. there is just so much to fish keeping I never knew about or anticipated. I still like it though.. but it has its ups and downs no doubt. Sorry to hear you lost a corydora 😞. I hope that the rest continue to flourish and do well.   That is my fear.. Its hard to know when your going to be ready for fish.. and how do you get a QT tank up and ready fast enough? 

I have ordered a 40 gallon breeder that I am waiting for from my LFS. I want to really go to town scaping it.. its actually my favorite part of the hobby. I am gathering all my wood, rocks, lights, etc.. I will order plants the last second when I am ready to plant them.. so they are not sitting around too long. 

See my tank pictures below, look at how big my plants got between Feb 4th through Feb 25th !! I only fertilize with water changes, maybe 1 a week or every 2 weeks.. a tiny cap full.. my Anubis is on its 3rd new leaf.. and the rest.. well growing like crazy..

At least it has that going for it..LOL

[Brandy]

I have pea puffers. They can be a little hard to feed--picky. I would wait a little until your tank isn't just cycled but really established. Maybe do a nano with plants, let it hang out and grow a lot of plants and some algae, put in some snails (mini ramshorns and pond/bladder snails are puffer favorites) and shrimp, let those get really booming. Then add a puffer or 3 and they will find SOMETHING to eat in there. If there is lots of cover and lots of plants it becomes pretty self sustaining.

[SWilson]

Looks amazing!  That plant in the back middle has grown so much!  

I'm glad you're following you gut and doing what's best for you (and your sanity! lol).  

Enjoy your 40 gallon!  I think that's the next size I want to try.  I almost went for it during the last $1 per gallon sale ("Oh, I'll just get it now while it's cheap and I won't set it up until later" - yeah right lol).  I'm trying to take a step back too because I started out with the intention of just one small aquascape tank with just plants...then it was just shrimp...then it was okay some fish and shrimp...then it was, I want a separate puffer tank...then it was, the LFS said I could add corydoras to my puffer tank but later I realized that's a terrible idea so now I need another home for the cories.... Then my partner got into the hobby and got some tanks as well.  We have self-imposed a moratorium on our household. lol.  I really enjoy when Cory talks about just enjoying and spending time with a tank, so I'm trying to into that without thinking of, what's next?