Should I Restock My Corydoras?

[Katty]

So, within the past few months I had all 3 of my 3ish year old albino corydoras (my first fishes) die off in some pretty funky ways. If you want you can look up all the gory details at the topics I made here and here. I don't really know why they died, the only thing I can think of is "old age", even though they weren't that old. I know people will ask, so I just tested the water and it is 0 ppm ammonia and 0 ppm nitrite. My nitrAte test doesn't work, so no clue on that. The tank is a 20 gallon tall and has been up in some form or another for the past 3ish years, is cycled, heated, filtered with a Hagen AQ 20 and moderatly planted (pic in profile).

Anyways, the point is, a earlier this year before this whole mess I bought a couple of bronze corydoras because I wanted to build the school up to 5. One of the bronzes was kinda dumpy as soon as I got it home, I should have returned it, but I didn't and it died a couple weeks after being taken out of QT and put in the main tank. The other one was perfectly fine and is still living; He's named Al. So after all three of my albinos died, I'm left with just little Al. I feel bad for him because he's all alone, and I don't know whether I should add more corydoras or not. I have a few concerns I'll list out in bullets so it's not just a big huge annoying paragraph.

• - Will Al be lonely just by himself?

• - I have no clue how the previous cories died, I'm afraid whatever they had could be contagious and just kill off any new cories, or that there is some other hidden issue, like water quality, toxins, etc.

• - Alternately, it may not be contagious or was just bad luck, old age, inbreeding

• - I'd of course love to have more fish

• - Corydoras are adorable

• - I think my tank load is a little bit high at the moment because of all the otocinclus poop all over (fish in tank are 1 keyhole cichlid, 8 green neons, 2 otocinclus, 1 olive nerite, and the 1 bronze cory. I gravel vac but they are little poop machines.

• - I don't know if more fish would impair my water quality

• - Do I have enough filtration for more corydoras?

• - I don't want more albinos, because I think the ones I had were partially blind; they would NEVER respond to moving your hand past the glass, and hardly schooled with each other

• - Al seems to be much less visually impaired than the albinos, he will move if you put your hand near the glass, and often tried to follow or lay by the albino corys. But, the bronze color matches PERFECTLY with my substrate so I can hardly see him even if he's right in front of me

• - I really love the look of the leopard corys (trilineatus, julii) but I don't know if Al, as a bronze, would enjoy their presence at all, or if they would be worthless to him as for companionship.

So what do you think? Yes? No? If yes, must they be the same species for Al to be more secure or does it not matter?

 

[This Old Spouse]

As far as mixing corys, I have one green, 3 peppers and 6 longfin pepper corys. They all get along wonderfully. I just got the 6 peppers because of all the talk on here about not having fewer than 6, and I'm glad I did. They all get along great.

However, I'm planning to get several more green corys and put them in my 20g with the longfin black-skirted tetras. Then another group for my 15g with all the male guppies.

They're such great little fish, and hard workers, too.

 

[Katty]

It's good that they get along. I wonder if they realize they are different?

 

[Baccus]

Sorry to hear that you lost your cory's, such peaceful unassuming fish.

I think the cory's do realise that they are different but at the same time are happy to have company in the form of similar fish. I have a pretty good sized school of both normal and high/ long fined peppereds and with them I also have 2 many spot cory's. The two little many spots I have been trying to get more off but none of my local shops have been able to get any. Before I was able to get some more dwarf cory's the two I had also spent a lot of time with the much bigger guys and even now with an extra 3 they are usually hanging out with the peppereds. Any way the two little many spots (which are almost dwarfed by my biggest peppered females) seem happy enough to hide themselves in the thick of any cory srums and even when the whole lot are at rest they will often be found right in the middle of the loose group. I also regularly put both Strebi and peppered fry in the same grow out tanks together and they all just cruise around together as if they couldn't care aless about the colour/ marking differences. So I would suggest get your lone bronze at least one more bronze as company and if all goes well from there try adding either more bronze if you really like them or get some other types of cory. Just to be fair on your tank how ever I would only add extra cory's gradually as 1 or 2 at a time rather than getting say another 5or 6 and adding them all in one big hit. That way hopefully the microbs in your filteration will be able to build up and get used to the extra bioload from new fish numbers.

 

[Katty]

Sorry to hear that you lost your cory's, such peaceful unassuming fish.

I think the cory's do realise that they are different but at the same time are happy to have company in the form of similar fish. I have a pretty good sized school of both normal and high/ long fined peppereds and with them I also have 2 many spot cory's. The two little many spots I have been trying to get more off but none of my local shops have been able to get any. Before I was able to get some more dwarf cory's the two I had also spent a lot of time with the much bigger guys and even now with an extra 3 they are usually hanging out with the peppereds. Any way the two little many spots (which are almost dwarfed by my biggest peppered females) seem happy enough to hide themselves in the thick of any cory srums and even when the whole lot are at rest they will often be found right in the middle of the loose group. I also regularly put both Strebi and peppered fry in the same grow out tanks together and they all just cruise around together as if they couldn't care aless about the colour/ marking differences. So I would suggest get your lone bronze at least one more bronze as company and if all goes well from there try adding either more bronze if you really like them or get some other types of cory. Just to be fair on your tank how ever I would only add extra cory's gradually as 1 or 2 at a time rather than getting say another 5or 6 and adding them all in one big hit. That way hopefully the microbs in your filteration will be able to build up and get used to the extra bioload from new fish numbers.

So you're saying get at least one other bronze before trying other types? I wasn't sure if I understood your last part there, I think that's what you were saying?

 

[Baccus]

Yes I would definantly get at least another 1 or 2 of the bronze cory's and all going well look at either some more bronze or try adding a few of another type that strikes your fancy, all depending on how large your tank is and other stocking numbers of course. Cory's truly are the most peaceful fish and I have never seen any of mine exclude another type of cory from the school just because it wasn't the same as the majority. Its just my opnion but I alsways think at least a min of three in a mixed school of cory's just so that they do have a couple of friends the same type as them.

 

[Katty]

Yeah its a good idea. Hopefully I can find some lighter-colored bronzes, because the color of Al perfectly matches the gravel so he's really hard to see.

Does anyone have an estimate of a max number of corys my tank could handle?