Venezuelan Black Corys

[xamy_valox]

Hi there,
 
Yesterday I made my first fish purchase in a looong time! Many of my shoaling fish have died due to old age, and the tank was looking very bare. I came away with 12 Penguin Tetras and 3 teeny tiny Venezuelan Black Corys.
 
These have to be the smallest Corys I have ever bought so they must be very juvenile. 
 
I have kept cory's for a while now, and know that some are more active that other but what concerns me is that out of the 3, one (which is the largest of them) has quite large barbells and is very active, swimming all around the tank, up and down the glass, snuffling around for food. Where as the other two, have very small barbells, more like stumps if anything and are much more sedentary. They tend to hang out with my older cory's underneath the filter where the flow is lightest.
 
I have adjusted my output and turned it right down incase the current was bothering them, but still not seen much action.
 
I know they are probably still settling in but I am just wary with them being so small and more or less barbell-less whether they are ill or may they not survive?
 
I know the barbells have the potential to grow back (or grow at all, could it be possible they are too small to have them yet?) but will it massively affect them at this point?
 

 
Here is a pic of the largest one, and one of the less active ones next to it.
 
Thanks.

 

[Lillefishy]

The barbels should grow back ok, keep the water pristine & keep an eye out for infection.
Corys like current as long as it's not blowing them about & quieter places to rest .
Btw their proper name is C.schultzei, they're a man made colour from aenus stock, Lfs just wrongy label them black venezuelans

 

[Seal36]

A reason that the barbels could be missing is if they were on gravel at the lfs they could have worn done and my Cory's were very shy when they were first introduced to my tank from Tom

 

[CoryFever]

I have these cories!!! My largest one is my profile pic. The barbels should grow back pretty quick. Like Lilliefishy said, just keep the water clean.

 

[xamy_valox]

They are beautiful fish. I had never seen them before! I had gone with the intent to buy some Adolfi Cory's if I'm honest but they were just SO expensive! £18 for one cory?! Madness!

So I saw these little guys and fell in love with them. I have Sterbais with them, which are pretty big now. Will these guys get to about the same size then?

I have been watching them tonight and they have started to come out of their shell a little. Still think one is a little slower than I would like but I'll keep an eye. I do hope they survive and become big!!

 

[Lillefishy]

Mine are very laid back & only really get active if there's food around or they're thinking about spawning.
They'll get a little bigger than sterbai, I have seen some near the 3 inch mark

 

[tropicalgirl2007]

I purchased 3 of these yesterday. Mine are very small too. But they are all over the place . I love Cory's went for pandas and came home with these . I hope yours are ok. Never seen them before .

 

[DoubleDutch]

I noticed when I raised my first Aeneus-fry that a shortage of high-quality food in a specific period (vitamins/minerals/protein) can cause barbelloss and a growthproblem in general. In fact they have to be overfed in that period of time. Some fry is sold too early I think (in this period) and will so have a lack of the right food. Variation and high quality food might do the job.

 

[xamy_valox]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Unfortunately I lost one of the little ones a couple of nights ago he was the smallest of the 3 and seemed to develop ragged fins in the past few days. He has a hole in his top fun and his tail had been slightly shredded. I don't know if he may have got in the way of one of my other fish - possibly my male Bolivian who can be a bit if a brute at times.

I don't think I ever saw him eat to be honest. The other two are doing well, the bigger one especially. Constantly rummaging in the sand and eating well. Fingers crossed it will only be the one casualty.

 

[pheo]

The one you lostz. Same thing happend to me when i added 9 cory sterbai to my existing 3. Npt sure if was stress related or being nipped to death because it was ill. He literaly had no fins left and was the runt of the litter if u like lpl but he did survive when i thought he wouldnt. Nice clean water and placing food infront him to make sure he was well fed worked for me.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Awwww sorry to hear !!!

 

[Tartan-Guppy]

Lovely fish, shame you lost one.
 
I had a group of them a while back and they are really nice looking corys

 

[xamy_valox]

They are lovely, I am going to see how these little 2 carry on and then I may add another to replace the one I lost.
 
I would really love some Adolfi's but just cannot justify the price.

 

[Lillefishy]

Shame you lost him
If you don't want to pay Adolfoi prices try looking out for Duplicareus, they're very similar & cheaper