Corydorus catfish
Contents:
-
photo of two
C. trilineatus by
Jim Hurley
-
photo of C. anaeus by
Harjono Harjadi
-
photo of C. puntatus by
Harjono Harjadi
-
photo of C. julii by
Harjono Harjadi
- Dead Corys (and what live ones like)
by quinones-at-orchid.UCSC.EDU (Cathy Quinones) (3 Jun 1994)
- corys
by bae/cs.toronto.edu (Beverly Erlebacher) (26 Nov 97)
- Profile/Fluourite and Cories or Khuli loaches
by "Peter G. Aitken" <peter/pgacon.com> (Mon, 27 Sep 1999)
by quinones-at-orchid.UCSC.EDU (Cathy Quinones)
Date: 3 Jun 1994
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
I just replied to the original poster, but I figured I'd comment here as
well. About a year ago I was partially responsible for the death of a
couple corys and a synodontis (upside-down catfish), my guess is water quality
was horrendous and the fish just couldn't recover. In any case, after that
I got my hands on a few catfish books and "discovered" stuff that I
(obviously!) didn't know. The main thing is that catfish, although hardy,
do have rather specific needs, and the conditions in which they are kept
are often not outright lethal but definitely stressful in the long run (in
particular due to the prevailing attitude that catfish are simply "bottom
cleaners"). Happy corys need:
* lower temperatures --> low 70s (F) are best. When things heat
up, catfish slow down, when the temp. drops all the other fish often get
sluggish and the cats go play :)
* pH --> they don't tolerate fluctuations from a neutral pH too
well
* salt --> is not at all well tolerated. Yet how many corys live
in tanks with salt added for the benefit of other fish (livebearers for
instance)?
* a good diet --> everyone's garbage isn't enough. Live foods should
be provided regularly. In my readings, barbel loss was attributed to
substrate type [sharp substrate leads to tissue damage] and a defficient diet
[i.e. lacking live foods]. All I know is my julii lost his barbels for a
while and got them back when he started getting tubifex worms regularly.
And, while I am spewing cory facts, they prever shallower tanks, since
they are abdominal breathers (gulp air, extract oxygen from the air bubble
trapped in their intestinal tract), and prefer to be in the company of
other cory cats (need not be same species).
Hope this helps...
by bae/cs.toronto.edu (Beverly Erlebacher)
Date: 26 Nov 97
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria.freshwater.misc
In article <01bcfa2b$cc476520$264c4781-at-mom>,
Wilma Duncan <omb00726-at-mail.wvnet.edu> wrote:
>I have two corys and in the next two weeks plan on buying four more. I
>would like info on how difficult they are to breed. Thanks.
>Wilma
Some species are so easy to breed that they will do so without any
special effort on your part other than taking reasonably good care
of them, while others have not yet been spawned in captivity despite
considerable effort by experienced and dedicated breeders. There are
at least 130 species of Corydoras described, and there may be many more.
Corydoras aeneus and C.paleatus are usually captive bred, while most
others are wild-caught. I've been able to breed C.pygmaeus and C.panda
by just feeding them well and waiting until they were mature. These
two species are the only ones I have experience with.
Paul Schumann has an excellent web page on Corydoras. You can get to
it via his column on www.aqualink.com.
by "Peter G. Aitken" <peter/pgacon.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999
Heide asked in Cory cats could be kept in a tank with fluorite substrate.
I have 4 panda cories in a tank with a 60% fluorite/40% small uncoated
gravel substrate and they are fine, rooting around happily with no sign of
injury or distress. My feeling is that this worry about sharp gravel hurting
fish is largely if not totally fictitious. In fact the fellow at one of the
LFS says he has actually collected cories in the wild off gravel beds as
sharp as any gravel you'll find in a fish tank.
Peter G. Aitken
The Krib
Fish/Animals
The Krib
