Feeding question

One more question, I would appreciate a feedback on my feeding schedule.
Mostly because my corydoras hang around the surface and more have started doing this. They do it after water change as well, I doubt it is oxygen related, because they do it after I feed with dry food. Given they have mild tankmates, they just hang there, at an angle, mouth outside the surface. Not all do that, just one or three, the 10 other are happily sifting through the substrate at the bottom. Even my otocinclus hang from the surface after feeding dry food. But it makes me wonder if they are underfed.

Once every 10 or so days I feed half a cube of frozen bloodworms specifically for the corydoras (though I started this like 2 weeks ago). Once a week I feed half a cube of frozen daphnia and cyclops, usually space at least a day between the frozen food. At the days I dont feed the frozen cube, I will drop 2 wafers, either protein content, or spirulina content, I switch them. At these days I also at a different interval either use hikari micro pellets or sera vipan baby or lyophilized artemia. Once a week in the summer I fed live mosquito larva, but they are not available at this moment. Also once every 4 days or so I drop in a blanched vegetable. I dont feed at all on at least a day or will do a morning feeding and the next day an evening feeding, since fasting makes fish live longer ( I have read ).
I have never had corydoras before so I am not sure how to tell if they are healthy and I also expected them to grow a bit faster, I have had them for 10 months now and they are 3 cm roughly. Not sure how large were they when purchased

A few things to sort out here. First, you can expect many if not most species of Corydoras to explore all over the tank, up to and including the surface and any floating plants or rooted plant leaves. In my experience, Corydoras sterbai which is the species pictured are especially fond of doing this.

Second, all cories need sinking foods suited to their digestive systems. They do not digest plant matter, so they need carnivorous or omnivorous foods. In their habitats they primarily eat insects and insect larvae, then crustaceans, but rarely worms. Frozen bloodworms once a week (or even better, 10 days apart) is fine, but don't overfeed them, this is not a good source of nutrition. Frozen daphnia is superb, as a treat once a week, or every few days, no problem. Frozen shrimp is also good, but I would not overdo this. The prepared sinking foods like Fluval Bug Bites (this is without question the #1 cory food), and Omega One shrimp pellets, are basic good nutrition. Live foods like mosquito larvae is excellent, but it is always best to make sure your fish are eating the prepared foods which are full when it comes to nutrition, ensuring the fish are getting what they need on that score. Fasting one day, two days, even three alternate days each week is fine. We do tend to overfeed, and with captive fish this is a real problem.

Third, how many cories do you have? If it is just these two, that's a real problem, as this is a highly social shoaling fish and there should be 10-12 of them. This really does make an incredible difference in their health.

I have 13 of them, but seeing one hang for an hour mouth outside the surface is just weird
The protein wafer is sera vipachip but i will look into the fluvial bug bites if they are sold here. I thought feeding frozen insect is better for them than commercial food but from your description it should be seen as a dessert, not the main course?

Beastije said:

I have 13 of them, but seeing one hang for an hour mouth outside the surface is just weird
The protein wafer is sera vipachip but i will look into the fluvial bug bites if they are sold here. I thought feeding frozen insect is better for them than commercial food but from your description it should be seen as a dessert, not the main course?

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Frozen is more a treat than a staple. It has less nutritive value than quality prepared (dried) foods, but fish do like the frozen as it is close to "live" as far as texture. Number is fine, good for that.

So i should switch to feeding 5 times a week with the sinking sera vipachip or the fluval bug bites and then add the frozen as an extra on some days, yes? ( Talking just about the corries. I am afraid my ember tetras are going to burst, since they eat all the surface food, the falling food and all the pellets too and everything frozen)

Beastije said:

So i should switch to feeding 5 times a week with the sinking sera vipachip or the fluval bug bites and then add the frozen as an extra on some days, yes? ( Talking just about the corries. I am afraid my ember tetras are going to burst, since they eat all the surface food, the falling food and all the pellets too and everything frozen)

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The prepared dried foods, provided they are quality ones, can be the staple, fed every day or 6 times or 5 times or 4 times a week. For the past few years I have tended to feed five or six times a week. I always fast them on water change days, though a few years ago I used to feed the frozen daphnia a couple hours after the water change, they really learned about that! I personally would not feed twice in one day, except fry.

For general information, I found Sera Vipachips on a German website and the ingredients translate as

Fish meal, wheat flour, corn starch, wheat germ, Hermetia (4%), brewer's yeast, whole egg powder, fish oil (of which 49% omega fatty acids), milk powder, mannan-oligosaccharides, herbs, lucerne, nettle, green-lipped mussel, parsley, seaweed, paprika, spirulina, Spinach, carrots, haematococcus seaweed, garlic.

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Essjay said:

For general information, I found Sera Vipachips on a German website and the ingredients translate as

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Well, I would not feed this to my fish.

Essjay said:

For general information, I found Sera Vipachips on a German website and the ingredients translate as

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When I checked last year, this was highest protein content sinking wafer i found. I guess i will have to shop on amazon for something better quality

Fish meal, wheat flour, corn starch, wheat germ, Hermetia (4%), brewer's yeast, whole egg powder, fish oil (of which 49% omega fatty acids), milk powder, mannan-oligosaccharides, herbs, lucerne, nettle, green-lipped mussel, parsley, seaweed, paprika, spirulina, Spinach, carrots, haematococcus seaweed, garlic.

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The ingredients in bold are not good as fish cannot digest cereals. Fish meal (unless specified that it is whole fish meal) is made from skin, bones etc which is left over when the good bits have been removed.

Compare this to Fluval Bug Bites tropical fish formula

Ingredients: Dried black soldier fly larvae, salmon, fish protein concentrate, green peas, potato, wheat, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, DL-methionine, lecithin, choline chloride, L-lysine, vitamin E supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium-L-ascorbyl-2-monophosphate, calendula, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, d-calcium panthothenate, vitamin B12 supplement, beta-carotene, rosemary extract, riboflavin, copper sulphate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, inositol, folic acid, vitamin A supplement, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, vitamin D3 supplement.

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I second @Essjay above. In addition there is the issue of protein, since you mention this. "High protein" is the last thing you want for Corydoras. Bug Bites have 32% which is good. The Omega One shrimp pellets I also use and recommend have 36% protein, also good. Excess protein in the cory diet can cause issues; the white "bumps" sometimes encountered are often due to high protein. I don't know what this eventually does to the fish, but Ian Fuller says don't feed high protein foods, and he endorses Bug Bites, so that settles it.

Worms are not good because of the fat content. And not surprisingly perhaps, analysis of the stomach contents of wild cories has never found much in the way of worms, but primarily insects and insect larvae and some crustaceans.

When I meant highest content protein, I meant 35%, other wafers were mostly spirulina and didnt exceed 10%. But I realize the what in the protein is important now and will check out other options, neither of the brand is sold here but I can check the content better. Thanks

Beastije said:

I guess i will have to shop on amazon for something better quality

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Since you said that you were going to shop on Amazon, consider UltraFresh. I haven't been able to truly test them, but their ingredient lists looked like good quality. Don't know if they do sinking food though.

I am ordering new food today, but a side note observation.
I put in half a cube of bloodworms and half a spirulina wafer (meant for otocinclus and snails), and 7 corydoras are sitting on the bloodworms, and 3 corydoras are 5cm away munching on the spirulina tablet, not interested in blood worms.
Strange, aint it?

One thing to bear in mind is that bloodworms are not worms. They are midge larvae with a wormlike shape and a bad English name.

I can't feed them to my fish because of an allergy to a protein in them, but I found they worked well with Corys. They are insect larvae. White and grindal worms are the fatty ones if they are overfed. I use bug bites as well - the sinking pellets don't impress me except for Corys.