Best Cory catfish?

[Colin_T]

Corydoras barbatus are my favorites but I never had any nervous Cories

 

[biofish]

Cory's need bigger groups than four so you need ten of each and a 2000-gallon tank to house them, with a ton of sand as the substrate.

Guess I’ll just have to renovate my house into a fish tank

 

[biofish]

The best one.

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[biofish]

Corydoras barbatus are my favorites but I never had any nervous Cories

So not only are California people bonkers but the fish are too?!?!?!

I feel robbed! Robbed I tell you!!! Get me outta this crazy state! I want to raise sweet little Julies!!!

 

[Colin_T]

You could try buying the Julii catfish from a different store or at a different time of year. We used to have some fish come into the shop riddled with diseases at certain times of the year, and they were free of them for the rest of the year. You could be getting bad batches of fish and they might be better 6 months later or from a different supplier.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Albino cories aren't a species though - just a colour mutation. In the hobby the most common are albino forms of C.aeneus (bronzes) C.paleatus (peppered) or C.Sterbai (much rarer).

Bronzes, whether in their more normal colour mutation or albino, are known for being pretty mellow, bumbling and used to people, largely because they're super easy to breed and are likely tank bred, and definitely tank bred if you have albino aeneus. If you post photos of your albinos, someone will be able to tell you which species your albinos really are.

 

[davros]

Rosy Opercle Cory c121

Was that Corydoras Barbiturates?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I can't settle on a best cory cat until I've kept them all. Will respond to the thread in 50 years or so.

 

[biofish]

Albino cories aren't a species though - just a colour mutation. In the hobby the most common are albino forms of C.aeneus (bronzes) C.paleatus (peppered) or C.Sterbai (much rarer).

Bronzes, whether in their more normal colour mutation or albino, are known for being pretty mellow, bumbling and used to people, largely because they're super easy to breed and are likely tank bred, and definitely tank bred if you have albino aeneus. If you post photos of your albinos, someone will be able to tell you which species your albinos really are.

Guess while I’m here, how do you tell the genders?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

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Yep, Corydoras aeneus, the albino just being an albino colour mutation of bronze corydoras.

 

[biofish]

Does that mean albinos and their base species will school together?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Does that mean albinos and their base species will school together?

Yep, usually. I house eight "normal" bronzes with two albino aeneus and six sterbai cories. They will all hang out together at times, but the sterbai do tend to stay in their own group when sitting and relaxing, and the two albino (adoptees) do tend to stay closer to each other, while still mixing in with the larger school of typical bronzes. But the albino and bronzes are the same species, so yes, yours count as part of a larger school and will likely hang together most of the time.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Guess while I’m here, how do you tell the genders?

Sorry, just saw your question about the genders - females are much chunkier. Tend to get a bit larger than the males as adults, but certainly rounder in body. Easiest to tell once they're adults, and when looking down on them from above.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Yep, usually. I house eight "normal" bronzes with two albino aeneus and six sterbai cories. They will all hang out together at times, but the sterbai do tend to stay in their own group when sitting and relaxing, and the two albino (adoptees) do tend to stay closer to each other, while still mixing in with the larger school of typical bronzes. But the albino and bronzes are the same species, so yes, yours count as part of a larger school and will likely hang together most of the time.

Funny thing is my albinos (earlier C.aeneus and nowadays C.paleatus and C.sterbai) seem to have a slight different behaviour than their normal colored friends. The C.sterbai albino are always in front of the tank though the normal colored are in hiding and skittish hahahaha.

Don't know why and how but just my observation.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Funny thing is my albinos (earlier C.aeneus and nowadays C.paleatus and C.sterbai) seem to have a slight different behaviour than their normal colored friends. The C.sterbai albino are always in front of the tank though the normal colored are in hiding and skittish hahahaha.

Don't know why and how but just my observation.

Interesting!
My normal sterbai tend towards skittishness too, old cory expert friend suggested they may be wild caught sterbai. I don't know how often sterbai in the trade are wild caught vs tank raised, since they're apparently not that hard to breed either... but albinos will definitely have been captive bred, any chance your normal sterbai might have been wild caught?