A short clip of Corydoras habitat.

[Fishfinder1973]

Why are some people so perversely resistant to basic facts?
Basic as in a filter feeder actually has a specific structure, designed to filter food.
Many fish actually do have such a grill-like structure and Corydoras do not.
It has naff all to do with semantics...
If I was to prattle on about saltwater fish, in the Tropical freshwater part of the Forum, my post would quite properly be moved to the Saltwater section. Is that semantics? No, but the post would still be moved.
The collection of bones holding our brains in is called a skull. If someone insisted on calling it a cabbage, they'd be wrong and that's got nothing to do with semantics.

Meanwhile, fish are being

It will always be a cranium to me ,sorry “the” cranium.See,there you’ve got me doing it.

 

[Byron]

That's probably it. I might overfeed and don't hide insects in the substrate hahaha.

But I crumble pellets so they should filterfeed to find those. Will closely watch them @Byron .

Most (if not all) of my cories are wild caught, or fry that have appeared in my tanks over the past 12+ years. That might make them more normal in filter feeding than the common commercially-raised fish that are probably fed in abundance to raise them quickly and thus are used to food readily available on the surface, or more likely in bare bottom tanks which is probably more likely for hatcheries. Just a surmise on that. But I do feed only once a day, with two fast days a week, and in between feedings when they may be chowing down on shrimp pellets or Bug Bites on the surface, they definitely go around browsing plant leaves and upending themselves into the sand. I do know that this tank's substrate is very clean compared to my two other tanks, and I am fairly certain this is due to the cories (there are 40) constantly filter feeding and keeping the substrate clean. In the 2.5 years this tank has been running (set it up after I moved) I have never once cleaned the sand on the surface or into it. Before the move, the cories were in the 70g and that tank ran for 6 years without any disturbance of the sand.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Bumped into this vid about CW111
Not wild but great to see the first tankbred offspring doing well.

 

[Fishfinder1973]

Very nice corydoras there.

 

[itiwhetu]

I have been thinking about the video at the beginning of this thread. There is no way these fish should be removed from their natural habitat. There are enough cory species in tanks as it is. CW111 deserves to stay in its natural environment. This is just an exploitation of a species that maybe endangered. Leave it where it is

 

[Fishfinder1973]

I have been thinking about the video at the beginning of this thread. There is no way these fish should be removed from their natural habitat. There are enough cory species in tanks as it is. CW111 deserves to stay in its natural environment. This is just an exploitation of a species that maybe endangered. Leave it where it is

But there’s money to be made (sarcasm)

 

[Byron]

It is the destruction of the natural habitat that threatens most all Corydoras species, not collecting the fish which, given the methods/laws in place, is frankly impossible (endangering the species I mean). And if the species is to become extinct, as many undoubtedly are going to unless human activity changes, it would be wise to have an aquarium population of the species.

 

[itiwhetu]

I love it how there is a group of people who can justify taking animals out of the wild and putting them in zoos for the benefit of the animal. I wish we could just ask the animal if it would rather be in a cage or the wild.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Of course we can't ask the animals, but if they could understand issues like habitat destruction, some might indeed rather be removed from the wild (residents of the rapidly disappearing blackwater forest streams in Southeast Asia come to mind). Generally, I think it is better to leave wild animals in the wild. But I don't see a huge problem with keeping them in captivity as long as their needs are met and the wild population is not threatened by collecting.

 

[itiwhetu]

That is the thing, we don't know how big the wild population is. Darwin famously traveled the wild making populations of animals extinct for the purpose of science. We now travel the world making populations extinct for money. You would have thought the humans would be smarter now than then.

 

[NannaLou]

There are several species of birds, animals and plants that have been saved from extinction by carefully planned captive breeding programs (peregrine falcons a sea otters) spring to mind…

Collecting animals to attach to a piece of card with a bead topped pin is another matter altogether…

 

[WhistlingBadger]

That is the thing, we don't know how big the wild population is. Darwin famously traveled the wild making populations of animals extinct for the purpose of science. We now travel the world making populations extinct for money. You would have thought the humans would be smarter now than then.

Well, I agree with the idea--we shouldn't collect fish until we're sure they're secure in the wild. But I think saying "we travel the world making populations extinct for money," referring to the aquarium trade, is quite an exaggeration. very few if any fish populations have actually become extinct because of collections for the aquarium trade. Most species that become extinct do so because of industrial fishing and/or habitat loss.

 

[itiwhetu]

This fish CW111. the most important point in the video is that it is one of the most expensive fish. What frustrates me is these guys have no idea how big the natural population is, they remove them and transport them to the other side of the world, no mention how many fish died to get the few in their aquariums. They also don't even have the decency to give them a name, just a number. I suppose that is easier to put in their catalogue. These are commercial fish traders who really only care about the dollar.
There are enough species of Corydoras in the aquarium world without adding anymore.

 

[NannaLou]

This fish CW111. the most important point in the video is that it is one of the most expensive fish. What frustrates me is these guys have no idea how big the natural population is, they remove them and transport them to the other side of the world, no mention how many fish died to get the few in their aquariums. They also don't even have the decency to give them a name, just a number. I suppose that is easier to put in their catalogue. These are commercial fish traders who really only care about the dollar.
There are enough species of Corydoras in the aquarium world without adding anymore.

I’m not looking for an argument, but I’m interested in how and where you got you original stock for the different types of fish you either have bred, or are still breeding? You report a long breeding history, so is there a chance that your original fish would have been wild caught..?

 

[itiwhetu]

I’m not looking for an argument, but I’m interested in how and where you got you original stock for the different types of fish you either have bred, or are still breeding? You report a long breeding history, so is there a chance that your original fish would have been wild caught..?

Yes, no doubt they were wild caught, but there are now species that are established aquarium fish which have been breed for the aquarium trade for decades. They are the fish I try to keep. I don't believe that we need to be going to the rainforests and catching new fish for the aquarium trade. There are enough species in the trade already. In fact, I would go as far as to say, if the fish isn't tank raised, we shouldn't be purchasing it.