Raising Corys

[stiffler69]

ok just a quick question are the frequent water changes necessary on the tank the young are been raised in, when i only had the 16 i didnt do any water changes and they done really well, im just concerned when vacumming with the amount of young i have as it seems the bottom gets pretty filthy, or do you think ill get away with just taking so much water out and replacing it with fresh as appose to vacumming the bottom.

thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

its preferable to gravel clean and water change. Keeping the substrate clean will reduce bad bacteria from growing on the rotting matter. The water changes dilute the nutrients and hormones and encourage good growth.

 

[drewry]

yeah as Colin_T says stiffler water changes and hygean is important for keeping batctaria to a low and for growth. i know myself how hard it is to clean the botom of a tank with loads of corydora fry in it as i ended up hovering them up when i was doing vacs ,thats why i now keep mine in floating containers untill there at least 2 weeks old and use a turky baster to hover up the uneated foods its a lot easyer than keeping them in a tank .then when i do put them in the tank to grow them on at least you can see them when u vac

 

[Cory_Dad]

Drewry's right about it being easier to clean when they're older, however I've found that if I keep some of their older siblings (less than 1 inch in size) in the same tank, they keep the tank quite clean. That and the fact that I have an Aqua Clear 20 (with a sponge on the inlet pipe) set on low on the 10 gallon baby tank. The water flow tends to move the waste together so I don't have to vacuum (hover for our English friends) the whole tank.

Of course, I sometimes still have an oops. But I siphon into a white pail and the fry show up quite well against the white background. I just siphon them back out and they don't seem to be any worse for wear.

I just think that my way places less stress on them. But that's just my opinion and I have been known to be wrong at least once in my life. But that was an mis-understanding on the part of the other party.

Cheers and good luck.