six new cory cats - behavior and feeding questions

[ftbetta]

So after getting our tank pre-cycled and everything worked out, we went out and got six corys this afternoon. Unfortunately they didn't have six of all one kind, so I got four of the one kinda (can't remember what it was called, but it was 9.99 a fish instead of all the rest 5.99 or 3.29 a fish... go figure) and then two peppered corys to go with them. Luckly they all seem to shoal together for the most part, the two peppered ones kinda hang out together a bit more, but the two of them stay with the big group, so I'm happy about that.

They are of course very new to the tank, but 4 of the 6 of them (one expensive one and one peppered one left out) seem to all go up and down the side wall of the tank. This doesn't seem like a natural behavior, is anything wrong? or are they just exploring and confused?

Also, where is a reliable resource for how much and what to feed them? The four "expensive ones" are about an inch long not including their tail, and the two peppered ones are maybe 3/4 of an inch? I had a few API shrimp pellets from before, and dropped one in. No one seemed very interested initially, and the two peppered ones kinda pushed it around a bit after a while, but the pellet is WAY bigger than any of them could eat at a time, and the bottle says remove after half an hour, and its been way beyond that and the thing still isn't eaten, doesn't even really look like they've munched much if anything off of the outside.

But, aside from watching how long it takes them to eat things, what is a ballpark range of how much a fish like that would eat? stick with the shrimp pellets? get something else? I saw something about putting in a green bean once a week? for optimal health do they need a variety of things or is just one food all the time just as well as long as its a good one?

I also tried some api flakes that came in a sample pouch that came with... something I bought. They didn't touch those and so I netted them back off the top after about 10min. I have some frog pellets left over, would those be enticing at all? or maybe as a treat? Just looking for ideas, I don't know anything about this, please help, I don't want them to starve Its a brand new, fishless cycled tank, so its not like there is possibly anything in there that they could possibly already be munching on.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Shrimp pellets are a good option for cories. Cories are more scavenger than they are active eaters, they snuff their barbels in the substrate (preferably sand) looking for scraps to eat. New fish to a tank take a litttle time to learn how the food is delivered, but they do figure it out.


As for the swimming up and down the sides of the tank.. it is not a "natural" behavior because rarely is there a vertical surface like that in their natural habitat, but it is a "common" behavior in a tank. The bigger the tank, normally, the less that occurs, but it does occur at times, specifically during breeding. (The female will lay a bunch of egged directly on the glass at times.)


As for things that they could already be munching on... you are right, there's likely not much microfauna for them in there currently... but eventually there will be a good amount. A bit of dried oak leaves would provide a natural micro fauna option for them in short order. It would also provide some tannins (browning the water) which would serve to make the water a bit more "natural" for them. Some people like that look, others do not, but it does offer a bit of benefit for the cories.

 

[Byron]

Just to add to what eaglesaquarium posted...the active swimming up and down the tank glass is probably stress from being moved, but you cannot avoid it and they will settle down on their own. Cories do not like being moved at all; they usually react from stress when moved to a different environment. But as this is an inherent trait, there is nothing you can do, except maintain a calm environment.

Having said that, there is one or two species that do like to do this more regularly. Corydoras panda is one; this species occurs in mountain streams that are cooler and flow more than the watercourses further down where most cories occur, so they (the panda cories) will "play" like this much more than other species. Mine love doing this on the wall below the spray bar from the canister filter, whereas the other species in the same tank never do this. You should identify the species of the four, perhaps a photo?

The cories won't be much interested in eating until they have settled down a bit, which could be several days. Shrimp pellets like eagles said are excellent food; I would put in three or four for a group of six cories. Forget flake food or anything floating, they will not touch it even if it sinks. They also like the algae-based sinking disks; I use Omega One Veggie Rounds, alternating with the shrimp pellets. One or at most two of the veggie rounds at a feeding.

Byron.

 

[ftbetta]

alright, so a quick google search and they "expensive ones" are coryadoras sterbai, and those are the ones we have four of. Here is a general picture of the tank right now, its a 10G. I really want to do live plants, but need to research them more and just wanted to get something in the tank, so... for now, colorful plastic.

One follow up question, you said with the food "per feeding". is that once a day? or twice?

 

[Byron]

Yes, those do appear to be Corydoras sterbai. Nice little cory, I have a small group of this species. It is much less rambunctious than C. panda, so once they all settle, the sterbai will not be charging up and down the tank walls, but the panda might at least some of the time.

On the feeding, yes, I meant one such feeding a day, maximum. It doesn't hurt to miss a day or two days each week. Water change day is one to miss feeding, as fish should never be fed prior to a disruption such as a water change or anything like re-arranging the aquascape. Think of it as similar to people not exercising after a meal.

You do need some cover for them though, or they can be very stressed. Chunks of wood are good for this. If fish have a place to hide, they will be less fearful/stressed and out and about more. Floating plants would also help, as these fish do not appreciate direct overhead lighting. Floating plants are easiest, and fast growing.

Byron.

 

[hobby5]

Some remarks:
Tank to small to keep those fish permanently.
Not nice for the fish either: all open no hiding places and much to bright. (Edit: Already mentioned by @Byron )

 

[ftbetta]

I put two stars ** in front of further questions that I have because I feel like they are hidding in the middle of paragraphs. there are three

as far as lighting, there is not a light in the hood of the tank, and I had just turned on all the lights in the room to get a decent picture and then edited the photo so that you could see more (increased brightness and contrast and such), it is pretty much never this light during the day or otherwise, and I am working on providing cover as it feel naked to me too.

As far as the hiding spaces I wasn't exactly sure what type of hiding places I was looking for for them as far as like dense plants, or rocks, or like ornaments that have actual caves built into them, I did arrange four of the little plants in a circle so there is a darker cave like spot in between them, but adding other objects to the tank is on the short list and I am looking for ideas that will work well for them. I had a nice "complex" shaped rock with lots of layers and ins and outs and stuff that I used to have in my newt tank way back when, so it was half sticking out of the water and I noticed when I pulled it out of my box of fish stuff the other day, that it has, lime? maybe? some white crystal like stuff on the top of it. I was hoping that it would just scrub off under regular water, but it doesn't. Cool aquarium rocks are expensive, so if there is anyway to salvage this one (I don't care that it has white on it, I just don't want to hurt the fish) I would be willing to put in any work/manual labor if there is anything that can be done. I know boiling rocks is very dangerous, but I don't know if there are alternatives. I also have another old aquarium rock, the like sandstone looking ones with orange and white stripes and holes through the middle of them. But, **How do I tell if the rock is clean enough? or how do I clean it? or are aquariums just that sensitive that you have to keep buying new stuff?

You mentioned floating plants are good for corys, **is there a specific floating plant that would work well in a 10G tank thats fairly easy to take care of and doesn't get a lot of natural light (I could get aquarium lighting to put in the hood easily, I just don't have a bulb in there right now) and are easy for a plant beginner to take care of? I love the look and idea of a naturally planted tank, but the options for plants are as overwhelming to me and options for the fish.

Also, Byron, you keep mentioning panda corys, and I might have said the wrong thing in the beginning, but at the store these guys were labeled peppered corys, not panda corys. **Are they just two names for the same thing?

 

[Byron]

But, **How do I tell if the rock is clean enough? or how do I clean it? or are aquariums just that sensitive that you have to keep buying new stuff?

Freshwater fish come from waters with all sorts of "stuff" in it; very , very rarely is it open water. A dark substrate is best, but there are ways of solving this when you have light toned sand as here. Lots of dark decor. Wood is ideal because it is natural; I cannot think of many fish that do not have lots of wood (whether branches, logs, roots, standing tree trunks) in their habitat. It can be real wood (I recommend purchasing this in a reliable fish store, collecting can be risky) or artificial. Rock is another, and while cories would prefer "wood" there is nothing wrong with rock, real or artificial. But be careful of calcareous rock that can leech minerals and raise GH and pH; this is not a concern for fish that are moderately hard water species, but soft water species like cories will not appreciate harder water, to some degree. Decor you particularly like can be used too; fish that expect hiding places won't be stressed if they find what they expect and it looks like a cave and not a chunk of wood. The other way to darken the substrate is plants. And still another is with dried leaves; I collect oak leaves from my back garden in the autumn, after they have fallen so they are completely dead. These can be very natural, and if you have a safe collecting source (avoid areas subject to vehicle traffic, pesticides, chemicals--a forest is OK, or the back yard).

Edit: Forgot to mention previously, that I would suggest you change the background. It looks like aluminium foil, crinkled? This can be stressful for fish. A very inexpensive but thoroughly excellent background is plain black construction paper that you can buy in a stationery or art-type craft store. You can cut it to fit. It will make the space seem larger because the back will "disappear," and fish and plants and decor look very good. The fish will be more relaxed.

As for the rock with white stuff, this could be calcium (calcareous is primarily calcium, like limestone, marble, dolomite, aragonite, coral, shells, etc). You can buy river rock in landscape supply places, and this is usually safe. This is just rock (usually of a granite source) that is tumbled around in rivers and becomes rounded, and it will be in varying sizes; choose the same type (the rock pattern/colour) in different sized pieces and it can look very natural.

You mentioned floating plants are good for corys, **is there a specific floating plant that would work well in a 10G tank thats fairly easy to take care of and doesn't get a lot of natural light (I could get aquarium lighting to put in the hood easily, I just don't have a bulb in there right now) and are easy for a plant beginner to take care of? I love the look and idea of a naturally planted tank, but the options for plants are as overwhelming to me and options for the fish.

You will need a light in the tank hood for plants, ambient room light no matter how bright it may seem is usually insufficient. This is easy to find. If the hood is incandescent (takes normal screw-in bulbs) you can use the spiral CFL (compact fluorescent) energy-saving bulbs. I have these over my 10g and 20g. I use two 9w Daylight 6500K CFL bulbs. If you have one socket, you can get a 13w bulb, or stay with 9w if two sockets. If the fixture takes fluorescent tubes, let me know what type. Tank lighting should be on for the same period each day, usually somewhere between 6 and 10 hours. This is important for fish and plants. Room light should not be too bright, never direct sunlight (this can overheat the tank and cause serious algae problems). A timer is an easy way to set the light duration. It can be primarily on during the time you are usually at home to view the aquarium. My tank lights are on at 10 am and off at 6 pm, but when I worked they were on at noon and off at 9 pm as I was home evenings but not during the day like I am now.

Floating plants are easy to grow. Water Sprite, Water Lettuce, Frogbit are three lovely species. Salvinia is a nice small floater. Duckweed would also work but it is very small and tends to make a mess of itself, but it would be better than nothing. Some stem plants do well floating; pennywort is easy.

You can stay with floating plants, which as I said are easier, and aquascape the tank with lots of wood, river rock, decor, dried leaves. Very authentic.

Also, Byron, you keep mentioning panda corys, and I might have said the wrong thing in the beginning, but at the store these guys were labeled peppered corys, not panda corys. **Are they just two names for the same thing?

I think I got mixed up with another thread that has pandas...they are not the same. Peppered cory is Corydoras paleatus. And your four are C. sterbai as we already determined.

Byron.

 

[ftbetta]

Alright, I picked up some spider wood, a bigger hunk of darker wood and another small rock with some holes and stuff in it. None of the fish and aquarium stores here sell any floating plants that I like. But, I found someone that I'm going to buy some frogbit from as soon I as can arrange pick up and money and stuff.

I need to do a water change this weekend. Earlier in this thread I learned that cories are fairly sensitive to movement, tank changes, etc. and not to feed them before moving stuff around. So, I'm wondering the least stressful way to do this. Like I said, I need to do the water change, I didn't feed them this morning. I also want to add the wood stuff and remove some of the plastic stuff, so what is the best way to do this with the least amount of stress to the fish? Also, I've never had sand before. I know with gravel you use a gravel vac to get some of the guck/waste out of the gravel, do you do anything like that with sand? I've heard poke it with a stick to prevent anaerobic bacteria growth? any education would be helpful here, thank you

 

[Byron]

Alright, I picked up some spider wood, a bigger hunk of darker wood and another small rock with some holes and stuff in it. None of the fish and aquarium stores here sell any floating plants that I like. But, I found someone that I'm going to buy some frogbit from as soon I as can arrange pick up and money and stuff.

I need to do a water change this weekend. Earlier in this thread I learned that cories are fairly sensitive to movement, tank changes, etc. and not to feed them before moving stuff around. So, I'm wondering the least stressful way to do this. Like I said, I need to do the water change, I didn't feed them this morning. I also want to add the wood stuff and remove some of the plastic stuff, so what is the best way to do this with the least amount of stress to the fish? Also, I've never had sand before. I know with gravel you use a gravel vac to get some of the guck/waste out of the gravel, do you do anything like that with sand? I've heard poke it with a stick to prevent anaerobic bacteria growth? any education would be helpful here, thank you

If you can let me know about the tank light (issues I raised in my previous post #8) we can sort that out. Frogbit will need decent light.

I tend to leave my sand alone. You can run the water changer over the top to pick up loose bits, but I wouldn't go digging. The water change itself is not that stressful, though moving the aquascape around is more-so. Do it early in the day when you can, and don't feed prior. I use the water change day for their "treats" of frozen daphnia and bloodworm, a couple hours after the waterchange so they have settled back down.

 

[ftbetta]

so, the hood of my tank looks like this. It has two places to screw bulbs in, but its also the cheap hood that came on top of the aquarium when I bought it. It has a push switch but I could easily put it on a timer where it plugs into the power strip.

My other concern is that from all the warm water it is super wet. I would assume that any sort of hood would be like this, right? but it seems like a terrible idea to run a light and run electricity through such a wet environment. Does that not pose a shock or fire hazard?

 

[Byron]

OK, this is quite workable. The screw-in sockets are in the centre under those protective covers I assume. You use two CFL screw-in bulbs, 9w each (no more), and in Daylight 6500K. The K number is the Kelvin which is the colour temperature that tells us what sort of light colour mix the bulb emits. Daylight 6500K are excellent aquarium bulbs for plants, and they offer a true rendition of fish colours. You should be able to find these in home improvement or hardware stores. I use GE brand, but I believe others make them. Just make sure they are 9 watts, and 6500K. CFL are those spiral bulbs. The 9w equals 40 watts of light (comparing to the incandescent bulbs) so it may say 40w on the package, just make sure they are actually 9w CFL.

Now, there is usually a piece of glass (some use plexiglass now) that fits right under the light bulb areas, but I am assuming those shields/protectors are intended to supply this. (Presumably the light will easily shine through them.) When you screw in the CFL bulbs I would put a bit of vaseline around the base that screws in. This will not have any detriment to electricity, but it does prevent rusting of the base when water is nearby. I do this for the bulbs in my kitchen pot lights, as the steam can cause some rust, making it difficult to get the old bulbs out. The vaseline should deal with water condensation, plus those covers.

As for the switch, you can leave that; plug the cord into a small lamp timer, and set that for your timer. Then leave the fixture switch permanently on. Speaking of these, they can sometimes be affected by water vapour too, so it is better for that reason to leave it on and use the timer where the cord plugs in to the outlet.

Byron.

 

[ftbetta]

OK, this is quite workable. The screw-in sockets are in the centre under those protective covers I assume. You use two CFL screw-in bulbs, 9w each (no more), and in Daylight 6500K. The K number is the Kelvin which is the colour temperature that tells us what sort of light colour mix the bulb emits. Daylight 6500K are excellent aquarium bulbs for plants, and they offer a true rendition of fish colours. You should be able to find these in home improvement or hardware stores. I use GE brand, but I believe others make them. Just make sure they are 9 watts, and 6500K. CFL are those spiral bulbs. The 9w equals 40 watts of light (comparing to the incandescent bulbs) so it may say 40w on the package, just make sure they are actually 9w CFL.

So the store I was at didn't have the appropriate CFLs, but they did have the GE LED light sticks, they are a 40W replacement but only 5.5W, daylight but only 5000K. It also says 450 lumens. I didn't know if these would be close enough or how picky fish and plants are. I can easily return them if need be.

 

[Byron]

So the store I was at didn't have the appropriate CFLs, but they did have the GE LED light sticks, they are a 40W replacement but only 5.5W, daylight but only 5000K. It also says 450 lumens. I didn't know if these would be close enough or how picky fish and plants are. I can easily return them if need be.

If they fit, they should work. I have one 5000K CFL and it is warmer white but seems fine. If these are "40 w replacement" the intensity should be fine, as that is what the 9w CFL bulbs are.

 

[ftbetta]

So, I did the water change and put in the natural wood and rock to make more hiding spaces and that went just fine. I am going to try and pick up another larger piece of spiderwood, but it was pretty expensive, so I'm going to have to space that out a bit.

But then I put the light bulbs in with a bit of Vaseline and a timer, but the fish HATE it. I turned it on and they went from quietly resting in a loose group like they do a lot of the times, and they completely scattered and then all hid in one teeny area almost on top of one another. My source for the plants fell through and I have to find another source/person/store. The pet stores here, petsmart and aquarium adventure, don't have floating plants. Aquarium adventure had some water Sprite, but it was half dead in their tank already. Any ideas where I might be able to find some healthy plants other than Craig's list? And should I have the light on for a few hours a day without the plants yet? The fish seem really stressed by it so I'm leading towards leaving it off.

Second question, I got the Omega one veggie tabs and dropped one in yesterday and didn't check last night to see if they had eaten it, but this morning it looks like it just dissolved and is all over the bottom in a crummy mess. I've been feeding them just the 3 shrimp pellets, not the 4, and only feed 6 days a week not seven. Do they just need to get used to the new food? Or like, idk? Am I still feeding too much for 6 fish?

Third question. So I have the 4 stebari(spelling?) Cats and then 2 peppered cats. Originally they all kinda schooled together with the two peppered ones generally staying closer to each other, but all within some group. Recently I've noticed a lot that one of the peppered fish is with the 4 stebari, and then the other peppered one is just sitting by himself. Is there anything I can do to encourage them allto be together? Or is not schooling with the others a sign of sickness or something? He looks completely fine and healthy otherwise- no missing fins, no weird anything growing on him, nothing seems red or swollen or irritated. Would it help if I picked up one more peppered Cory? Would the ten gallon tank be able to sustain that?

Thanks everyone