The Importance Of Cory Companionship

[GuppyDude]

iv had a pair of corys for a year now and for much of that time they were together and got along great. recently i seperated them into 2 differant tanks so that they wouldn't starve and both tanks would get a good cleaning, but i noticed after a while that the health of both fish declined dramatically, they were always sick, and their fins were in tatters. i ahd nvr had this problem when they were together and after i reunited them last week they have recovered seemingly over night. this is what has pocessed me to starte a cory only community, its amazeing the differance haveing a buddie in the tank makes in teh fishes health

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Corys need their diet substituted with catfish pelets and/or algae wafers, they cannot scavenge off the tank bottom for ever and stay healthy and they will not eat old or rotting food. If you plan to keep a cory community tank you must substitute their diet with at least the above mentioned foods or they won't last long- you should do gravel vacs/sand cleaning sessions to clean your gravel/sand as sand will get compacted and rock hard if not stirred up regualy and will start to trap nitrite bubbles, gravel will often trap waste and rotting food in it and get ammonia concentrated towards the bottom increasing the risk of your corys getting eroded barbels and/or bacterial infections. You shouldn't rely on your corys alone to keep substrate clean as they can't.

 

[GuppyDude]

yes i read that in the pinned article that until yesterday i had not read, since iv been throghing in wafers. i intend on feeding them wafers in the community as well as some other food pellets.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

yes i read that in the pinned article that until yesterday i had not read, since iv been throghing in wafers. i intend on feeding them wafers in the community as well as some other food pellets.

How often do you clean your gravel/sand and how do you go about it? How often do you do water changes in your tank and how much?

 

[Teelie]

You should look into getting at least one more cory. Two or three if possible. A pack of cories does better than a duo or even trio alone.

Cleaning the sand is definitely important since they literally stick their faces in it. I'm lucky my sand is a heavy grain and I can plunge my siphon into it (as opposed to just over it) and most of the grains fall straight back to the bottom with few actually going into the bucket (what little does is easy to return to the tank afterwards).

I don't clean it that deep as often as I am going to be now though I always used/use the tried and true hover over the sand method with every water change. I'm going to start doing that deep cleaning more often. Probably twice a month and just hope none of the trumpet snails get sucked up.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Put your hand into your sand- if its rock hard or going hard it needs stirring up with your hands or a fork or somthing similar, i stir up my sand in my tanks once a week as its quite deep .

 

[Teelie]

I have burrowing snails that do it for me plus I don't have very deep sand. It's at most 2 inches or so on the dunes but the average is around 1.5 or less. It's not really a danger with sand less than 2" deep IME.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi GuppyDude

Corys also need some meaty food in their diet. I suggest live blackworms or tubifex or frozen bloodworms. Your other fish will enjoy them too.