Schwartz's Cory

[Space Doubt]

I'm currently doing a fishless cycle on a 90 litre tank (24x15x15 approx.). It's an Aqua One tank, so the filter is their wet/dry trickle job. The substrate is sand on top of a layer of gravel/pond soil (I intend to put live plants in it).

I'd like to keep a shoal of Schwartz's corydoras in it, as they're probably my favourite cory looks-wise. As far as I can tell, I should be good to go soon, but I have a couple of things I'd just like to run by you guys for peace of mind:

1) they should be OK in a newly-established, fully-cycled aquarium
2) they should be OK with the local water supply, which has a pH of around 7.8 and is hard, although I don't know the exact GH/KH values
3) they'd be happy in a shoal of 6-8 and this should be OK for a tank this size (they might end up sharing with a male betta if they get along and if the current isn't too strong for him, otherwise they'd probably have the place to themselves).

I've read about them shoaling mid-water - can anyone confirm/deny this? It's not a show-stopper in itself, but if they are purely bottom-dwellers, I may go with a slightly smaller group, dump the betta and think about adding something for the top/middle levels.

My only other question is about furniture - would they be OK with just plants, or would they do better with some bogwood/caves/etc?

Thanks in advance

 

[corydoras]

i have schwartz corys, as far as i can say they do shoal low mid water and mine rest on plant leaves and they love there terracotta pot..so yes i think they need a refuge for when they arnt hunting for food...thats why i have named one of mine "hoover" since he never stops searching for a morsel of food!! and some come with a completey black head and some come with just the stripe over the eye and a white head! + they only grow 2inches which is small saying bronzes grow 3inch and others 2.5inch..overall 10/10 fish highlight of the tank!

 

[Space Doubt]

Cool, good to hear - thanks for that!