cory in guppy fry tank

[FiSHY925]

hello. i am cycling a tank to put my future guppy fry in, i bought a cory to keep the tank clean. but he is a little big. will he harm the guppy fry?

 

[Da_Oz]

I have never had a cory mess with my fry. They are IMO good for traning the fry to move and not get ate. But he needs a friend of his own kind. Cory's are very sad alone and some even die from being alone. So do him a fav and get him a friend.

 

[FiSHY925]

2 corys?
isnt that too much?
what do the pros on here think?

also new comments on my first question are welcomed

 

[Da_Oz]

Ok seeing how your tank is small I would suggest snail or shrimp for food clean up. I know you hear a lot of horror stories about snails but snails only reproduce to the point the tank can support so if you get 1,000s of them that is cause there is that much food in there. My fry tanks are 10g and all have about 100 pond snails in them each, Pond snails are very small only getting about the size of small grape. Most don’t even get that big. And ghost shrimp are cheap and do a half way good job cleaning up left over food. Cory’s really like being with there own kind and do so much better in groups.

 

[FiSHY925]

thanks

it is 5 1/2 gallons

 

[snowyangel]

Cories will be fine with fry and another good companion is ghost shrimp(even had my ghost shrimp breed in the same tank!). Since some cories only grow to 1" and some grow to 4", it's important to know what kind of cory you have to determine if you have room for more, but definitely 2 would be better. I would personally go for the shrimp idea since they don't require as much swimming room and don't NEED to be in groups for security. Most grow to only 2".

 

[FiSHY925]

ohh i already bought a corey, o well i will just get another one for my fry tank

 

[chkltcow]

If you're gonna get more cories for a tank like that, find some albino cories. They're about the smallest cories that you can easily find.

I've heard that shrimp will eat fry, but they won't chase them down. If there's a dying or dead fry, they'll dispose of it.... which is really doing you a favor. I just got 5 amano shrimp and 4 cories today, and I've watched them swim right by my guppy fry without even giving the fry a glance.

 

[bugsy66]

Personally I would not add cory cats to your tank. For starters it is to small and I enountered cory cats eating my guppy fry when I used to breed them on a large scale 3 years ago.

Your fry will not last long in a 5 gal tank if you have alot of them. They need room to grow and will quickly outgrow that tank. I would just use it to grow them for a short time and don't worry about bottom feeders.

I used to have rows of 5 gal tanks that I would set my females in when they were about to drop fry. I never used breeding traps at all, each female would have their own 5 gal tank to drop fry in. When they finished the females were placed in a holding tank for 4 days then returned in the main tank. My fry would remain in those 5 gal tanks for 3 months then they were moved into large grow out tanks. If you keep them in a 5 gal tank for a long period of time you not only have the huge waste problems but they also don't grow that well either.

good luck.....

 

[FiSHY925]

yea i know. 3 months, is that the proper time to keep fry in a seperate tank until?

 

[bugsy66]

I always moved mine at 3 months of age. You will always have runts though that will be a bit smaller and take more time to catch up to the others. But once I moved them to a bigger tank where they could forge in the live plants, pick at alge on the bog wood etc they seemed to grow faster for me.

Another thing is, if you are using a filter with an intake stem like the Aqua Clear filters take a sponge made for the mini aqua clearn filters cut a hole in the middle of it on its end and slip it over the intake stem. This will prevent any fry from being sucked into the filter system and it still keeps a good flow of water going through the system. All you would have to do is wash that sponge out when it becomes a bit on the dirty side.

I would often use this sponge when adding some very small neon tetras to my community tank till they were bigger and new to stay away from the stem. Works like a charm