Corys With Plants & Smaller Corys

[coldcazzie]

Well, after my disaster last week I'm considering which direction to go with stocking and have decided to drop the temp in my tank a bit and get some corys. I want smaller ones, simply because I want more of them!

I know there's about 3 different kinds of cory which only get to 1-1.5 inches in length... pygmy and 2 others? Can someone enlighten me?

Also, my tank is quite planted, and will become more planted in time, how bad are cory with plants? Most of my plants are fairly robust; stems, crypts, swords, but I'm hoping in the future to get a carpet like glosso or hc, plus some other squat foreground plants, so should I leave getting the corys until the plants are well established to try to prevent them being dug up? I want corys but don't want to have to give up my planting plans to have them, iyswim?

 

[BigTom]

Nice choice! pygmaeus, hastatus and habrosus are the three smaller varieties that you're most likely to find and they're all lovely (I think hastatus is my favourite though!). They're all small enough that your plants should be alright, although very small foreground plants might be tricky if they aren't rooted well at the start. All three tend to swim in mid-water more than the larger cory species. Make sure the rest of the tank mates are peacefu as they can be quite timid otherwise. A large group in a planted tank will look absolutely lovely thgouh!

 

[coldcazzie]

other tankmates will be silvertip tetras, shrimp, possibly some dwarf cichlids, although that might be too much at the bottom, maybe another shoal of something. All small fish

habrosus were the ones I couldn't remember the name of! Will look into all of them though, and give the lfs a call, see if they can get them for me

If I plant the carpet using Tropica method them they might be quite fragile at the start... maybe I should hang fire until I've got the carpet bedded in...

 

[Tizer]

Corys dont really uproot anything, they just nuzzle around, very rare to find them trying to tunnel down or dig "pits". should be fine really.

 

[Harlequins]

My corys dont tend to dig out plants,although if food lands near a plant,they will dig around it eating,so make sure its well rooted

Habrosus (also known has salt & pepper corys)get bigger than pygmys,mine use to shoal around,but now they're older & bigger they tend to hunt around the sand more than swim mid level

Just a work of caution of keeping cichlids/corys in the same tank,certain cichlids dependant on nature can become quite territory and may harm or kill corys if they get in their way...

 

[eaglesaquarium]

My favorite of the ones you mentioned are C. habrosus (aka Venezuelan or salt and pepper). These are the most "cory-like" of the smaller varieties. The others go into the mid water more often. The C. habrosus grows to about 1.5".

 

[Tizer]

I think you will find Venezuelan are a whole different species, i hope so, as i have 8 young ones in my tank and have very rich bronze/black colouring and can grow up to 2 inches.

 

[StandbySetting]

You shouldn't have any problems with plants such as Hemianthus callitrichoides as long as you plant a few stems in groups around the tank, if you plant individual stems they'll uproot them.

 

[Harlequins]

I think you will find Venezuelan are a whole different species, i hope so, as i have 8 young ones in my tank and have very rich bronze/black colouring and can grow up to 2 inches.

I agree with Venezuelan are different species to the salt & pepper(habrosus cory)...

Edited to add - although the venezuelan pygmy cory is also known has habrosus,due to the region it comes from.

 

[coldcazzie]

Just a work of caution of keeping cichlids/corys in the same tank,certain cichlids dependant on nature can become quite territory and may harm or kill corys if they get in their way...

well I was aiming for apistos...

My favorite of the ones you mentioned are C. habrosus (aka Venezuelan or salt and pepper). These are the most "cory-like" of the smaller varieties. The others go into the mid water more often. The C. habrosus grows to about 1.5".

Habrosus are my faves too. 1.5" I could deal with, I could probably have about 10-12?

You shouldn't have any problems with plants such as Hemianthus callitrichoides as long as you plant a few stems in groups around the tank, if you plant individual stems they'll uproot them.

Cool

 

[coldcazzie]

Well, I went to QSS today and spoke to one of the guys there, he said they don't usually order habrosus in but there's a local fella who breeds them and brings stock in occasionally. He said he'll get a hold of him and see if he can get me about a dozen (usually the guys brings about 300+ at a time). So, I've to ring him in a couple of weeks and see

 

[Harlequins]

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