Feeding Corys

[fUbAr]

I bought some sinking pellets for my Corys, but they seem to be sellting in between the gravel at the bottom of my tank. The cory's are just babies, so cant eat the pellets in one go, and seem to be struggling to get them out the gravel.

any ideas?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi fUbAr

How big is the gravel in your tank? How big are the corys?

As a general rule, if food can get down between the pieces, the gravel is not suitable for corys. They do best on fine gravel or sand. Uneaten food will spoil quickly and can lead to your corys getting bacterial infections.

 

[chibi]

Since you have small corys, I suggest Hikari Micro Wafers.

http/www.hikariusa.com/micro_wafers.htm

They sink and are mini wafers. My corys love them. I don't suggest them if you have big gravel. They fit well inbetween them, can rot and pollute the tank.

 

[LiveLifeGoJump]

Hi

I had gravel in my main tank & although the corys feed from the bottom a lot of food would drop to far into it to be eaten and I was forever having to clean the gravel. Now that can be a real pain in the butt.

I have since changed the tank to sand & ALL the fish love it, not just the corys & clown loaches. I have only hovered the sand one in 4-5 weeks as it is amazing how it is keep clean.

Feeding bloodworm, algea tablets, cucumber & flake seems to give the corys a good variety but I do think that they also eat the daphnia, brine shrimp etc. that falls to the bottom. My corys love live bloodworm.

I would advise a sand substrate rather than a gravel (I took me 4 weeks of reading posts & thinking about it before I changed but in hindsight I wish I had gone for sand from the outset), it's less work, looks nicer & (last & by no means least) it is better for all of my fish.

 

[samyboy]

i thourghly reccomned sand in some cases cheaper than gravel, loks nicer IMO and your corys will love you for it

 

[chibi]

Oh! Forgot to mention!! Changing from big gravel to sand is hard. I suggest getting very fine gravel and putting a thin layer of it over your old gravel. It's not good to put sand over gravel, but thin gravel over bigger gravel can work. Even an inch would make your corys very happy.

 

[Inchworm]

Oh! Forgot to mention!! Changing from big gravel to sand is hard. I suggest getting very fine gravel and putting a thin layer of it over your old gravel. It's not good to put sand over gravel, but thin gravel over bigger gravel can work. Even an inch would make your corys very happy.

I'm not sure this would work, chibi. When you clean the gravel with a siphon, it's necessary to push it into the gravel to get the dirt out. This would cause the finer gravel to sink toward the bottom and the bigger pieces to end up on the top.

If the corys mentioned in the first post are bigger than fry, it would probably be better in the long run to change the gravel to sand. You are right about it being a big job though.

 

[fUbAr]

hmm... well ive only just finished cycling the tank without fish, so changing to sand will be a step back in the cycling process.

how would i go about changing the gravel to sand anyway, seeing as there's 8 fish in my tank?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi fUbAr

It might be best to leave things be for awhile before changing your substrate. Just be sure to keep the bottom clean by vacuuming it well at every water change. If you suspect that uneaten food is accumulating, do more frequent water changes and bottom cleanings. This will keep the environment safe for your little corys and won't hurt your beneficial bacteria at all.

 

[jollysue]

Sand sinks to the bottom and gravel comes to the top. The gravel could be raked to one side or gathered into a sock and left in the tank to keep the bacteria. Then the sand added carefully. Actually the gravel could be scraped to one side and into a sock and the bottom left bare. The cories won't mind.

 

[geo7x]

Oh! Forgot to mention!! Changing from big gravel to sand is hard. I suggest getting very fine gravel and putting a thin layer of it over your old gravel. It's not good to put sand over gravel, but thin gravel over bigger gravel can work. Even an inch would make your corys very happy.

over time the sand would fall into the gaps of the gravel and then eventually the gravel would be onn the sand kind of thing, but even more importantly if you put sand on top the air gaps between the gravel would create horrible anaerobic pockets

 

[ey2006]

Hi, I always thought sand would be harder to maintain as it can get dirty quite easily compared to gravel? Sand would also be hard to clean/gravel vac compared to gravel.

I once thought about changing from gravel to sand too, but the cories and loaches seem to be fine with the gravel so I thought I'd best leave it as it is.

 

[mitmop]

hello i have just changed to sand from gravel and just did this over a month..i took a net full of gravel out and put in a couple of nets of sand . I dont gravel vac the sand i use a net with slightly larger holes and scoop up the sand and just shake it in the water and the sand falls to the bottom instantly and the rubish and bits of gravel stays in the net. I also put a bag of gravel in the corner of the tank in a pair of stockings for extra bacteria until the sand was ok...it all worked fine just doing a little bit with each water change. takes ages but my cories love it and my plecs and horse loaches.

dawn

 

[Namelessthedogboy]

I too have recently changed from a medium gravel substrate to aquarium sand , the job itself was a complete PITA but it looks 100% better IMO. I also love the way my corys leave little circles in it where they have sifted through it , I and they definately appear to prefer it .