More cory fry! Am I over stocked now??

Hi! I have a 55 gallon tank where conditions apparently are just dandy for cories. I had 6 adult peppered cories and 4 adult bronze cories. About 7 months later, I now have at least 10 peppered cories and 15 bronze cories! Most are still small, but they are growing (in size as well as number!) and I need to know if I should be considering rehoming some of them. I hate to do it as I know that moving is traumatic for the little critters.

My questions are:
1. Am I currently overstocked?
2. If not now, about how many more cories can this tank handle?

To answer those questions, here is the info I believe you will need:
The other fish in the tank are: 3 pearl gouramis; 6 glolight tetras (Hemigrammus erythrozonus, not the dyed ones); 2 stiphodon atropurpureus.
55 gallon, heavily planted tank. Ammonia, nitrates, and nitrates are always at zero whenever I check except for that very occasionally, the nitrates get to barely registering, but they go right back to zero after a partial water change. I have always checked every few weeks, but since all the cory fry, I've been checking weekly to make sure there are no ammonia spikes.
Filter is an aqueon QuietFlow 75 HOB with a prefilter sponge on the intake tube. Addition biomedia pellets are in the filter as well as the filter floss.

If I've forgotten anything, please let me know. Thank you.

Here's the tank. You can barely see any fish because of all the plants, but they're in there, believe me!

With all those plants I'd say you are good. You will not hav eenough foot space in the future. they need long tanks and your tank wouldn't be long enough for all of them when they are fully grown.

how did you breed them? I've bred multiple other species of rainbowfish, cichlid, guppy, endler, but I just can't get these darn cories to breed...

cooledwhip said:

With all those plants I'd say you are good. You will not hav eenough foot space in the future. they need long tanks and your tank wouldn't be long enough for all of them when they are fully grown.

how did you breed them? I've bred multiple other species of rainbowfish, cichlid, guppy, endler, but I just can't get these darn cories to breed...

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I don't know how I breed them! How can I NOT breed them!!
The best I can determine is that they like sand substrate, lots of plants, soft water, and water changes.

The floor space is 4 feet in length by 13 inches deep. Both species stay under 3 inches from what I've read, but even so, I believe you're right. Once they're all fully grown, it could get a bit tight down there. They do actually go up into the water sprite a fair amount too though, so it hasn't been an issue so far.

I do know of a tank that I can probably bring a few cories to. Perhaps once they get a bit bigger, I will bring half a dozen or so there. Also, I do plan on getting a larger tank one day, but that may not be a while.

How many can I keep in this tank, do you think?

Check aqadvisor and enter tank dimensions, filter, and how many fish you want.

Add about 5/6 to whatever that number they allow is.

Great looking tank!!!




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I wouldn't worry about overstocking yet. But if the cories continue to multiply significantly, re-homing some might be advisable. Maybe you can sell them to the store, or an aquarist? It is less a problem of water quality and more one of space.

It's not surprising your cories are spawning, in that lovely home. There will be natural micro foods among the wood and plants. I have the same, but there are some very efficient egg eaters in my 70g so I see very few fry.

Byron.

You know, I was just thinking, what if I did try to bring some to a different tank. How in the world am I going to get them out of there with all those plants in the way?

BeckyCats said:

You know, I was just thinking, what if I did try to bring some to a different tank. How in the world am I going to get them out of there with all those plants in the way?

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water bottle with string attached hanging ot of the tank and some wafers in the bottle.

easy

cooledwhip said:

water bottle with string attached hanging ot of the tank and some wafers in the bottle.

easy

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Brilliant!!

Don't leave the bottle in that way.
Corys need to be able to surface now and then. In panic they even can drown.


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DoubleDutch said:

Don't leave the bottle in that way.
Corys need to be able to surface now and then. In panic they even can drown.


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To be sure! I would only do this while watching it. As soon as I got a fish, I would"reel it in" and put it in its transport bucket. You raise an excellent point though, and it is good to make sure people know about safety issues in case they don't know, so thank you!

DoubleDutch said:

Don't leave the bottle in that way.
Corys need to be able to surface now and then. In panic they even can drown.


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Click to expand...

That's why theres a string so you can pull it out...

I've done this about a dozen times for shrimp, snails, corys, ram cichlids, and they never get harmed.

cooledwhip said:

That's why theres a string so you can pull it out...

Click to expand...

ok.

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