Cories

[dobbygolem]

Right, first of all, im new to this forum but not exactly new to tropical fish keeping. I have a small 17 gallon tank with a little bit of an overstocking problem but im handling it with frequent water changes till some of the fish (hopefully) die of old age. In that tank I have 4 adult swordtails, 2 guppies, 3 "adultish" swordtails which i raised from two of my aduly ones, 1 siamese fighting fish which is very non-agressive, 2 african dwarf frogs, 2 amano shrimp and 4 neon tetras (1 died whilst i was on holiday)

Here is a picture of that tank. Not the most recent but gives you an idea.

Now, as an early christmas present, i got a 5 foot by 1 foot 6 by 1 foot 3 tank. It is absolutely massive compared to my first one! It currently has the following fish:

5 zebra danios (Used to cycle both of my tanks and not one death apart from the first cycle when i had been told by a bad source on the web not to do water changes during the cycle. This fish died from columnaris)

2 bristlenose catfish - Very cute little things, which come out all day, nibble on basically any type of veg i put in there, havent taken a liking to the plants... - yet Got a male and a female

1 apple snail - When i first put him in i was scared he was dead... he didnt move for 6 hours but after that night, he started coming out more and more until now, when i rarely see him in his shell There are odd times when he may go into his shell for an hour or so because a fish scared him or something, but this is not often!

6 cories!!! - This is the newest addition to my tank, i have 2 bronze cories, 2 albino cories, and 2 julii cories. They are all quite small and probably babies but the julii are definitely the smallest.

The big tank - The things hanging are beads, christmas is coming! Fish need to know it too!

The Julii's are quite shy currently, and tend to stick together. Their favourite place is either under the bogwood or trying to dig a tunnel underneath the planting rock! It may just be that some frozen bloodworms got under there or something, but they really do tend to nuzzle the sand around the sides of the planting rock, as if trying to get underneath it.

The Bronzes I think have paired off, already! they definitely stay together, and seem to take turns chasing one another. I have seem the male chase the female, and then seem to either try to land ontop of her, or slow down with the female and then land on the sand. If he slows down and lands on the sand and the female doesnt come to him, he catches up with the female and carries on. Just wondering, at what age do bronze cories become sexually mature? here are a few pics, taken with my dads bad camera because my sister needs the good one for school...

The albinos seem to be really hyperactive! Last night, i was watching them when an albino went from one side of the tank, along the glass, to the other. Its tail was hitting the glass so hard that i could hear clicks, really quite loudly!

Questions are the following -

What size do cories become sexually mature roughly?
The julii do manage to eat the bloodworm, but need to sit there for a few minutes sucking at it before they eventually get it in their mouth! Will they be getting enough food?

 

[Teelie]

The Bronze and Albinos: same species (aeneus), just one is albino. The julii are in fact most likely trilineatus but that's a common mistake going all the way to the supplier. My "julii" are tri's too. No real difference besides the color pattern. In most of the species, they're sexually mature around 1.5" I think and you can tell male from female as females are bigger, rounder looking and males are more slender. They don't pair off as mates so much as just stick together. There is usually two to three males following the female as she readies for breeding. Also, it is normal for them to dig, and dig, and dig some more looking for food. They need algae wafers and other non-meaty foods to complete their diet and you have sand which is good for their barbels. As you noticed, they love to dig.

More info on the aeneus ones and the trilineatus.

 

[dobbygolem]

I knew that i would want catfish in this tank, which is why i chose sand (aswell as i wanted to keep it as natural as possible.)

I still think that i have julii cories, the guy in my LFS doesnt get something that easily wrong. Nicest guy i've ever met! He doesnt sell sell sell, he advises, advises, advises. For example i asked him could i get the bristlenoses because two weeks ago the tank was ammonia 0 nitrite 0.1 and nitrate 10. He said no because it could still be cycling, because of a problem unseen by me. He also said that i hadnt taken a recent enough water test to buy new fish. I now test once a week .

Oh, and this is a repeat post, please lock it. I somehow accidentally posted it twice, i think once i thought it didnt work... lol... Cant remember now... stupid amnesia!!!