Want To Add Some Cory To My 30 Gallon Tank

[thezodiac]

hey guys so i have an established 30 gallon tank thats fully cycled. (api master test kit and has been running for over a year now)

have an aquaclear 70 filter on it (baffled)
150 watt heater
and live plants, with sand for substrate

stocked with 9 black skirt tetra (aka. phantom tetra)
1 albino bristlenose pleco (small maybe 3" at the most)
and 1 bollivian ram

tank measures 30" length, 12" deep, 19" height.

(always been a big fan and thought they seem pretty awesome but didnt want to spend $4-6 each for them like they are usually priced)
i want to add in some cory (local petsmart has them on sale this month for $1 each!)

link: http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3955210

i have a few questions:


how many can i add into my tank?

how many should i add at once? (example. put 6 in tomorrow, or 2 groups of 3, etc..)

they are all the same species so i was thinking about getting a mix of albino, peppered and green, will they still school together ? (is there any reason i shouldn't?)


thanks in advance

 

[Akasha72]

sounds like your tank is about the same size as mine. I have 6 cories in my tank (see my sig) both my peppered and bronze interact with each other but I wouldn't call it schooling together. They go and sit together and interact but that's it. Cories like to be in a group so getting (for instance) 5 peppered and one albino would be a bad idea IMO. If you want to mix the different colours I'd get at least a pair of each.

I can speak from experience though that they will be happier in a group of all the same colour. I've had to increase my number of peppered as the pair I had just hid out all the time. I've added two more and last night all four where swimming around together. It was nice to see them for a change!

 

[tribalbrit]

The ones you are looking at are brochis and not re guarded as cories. They are much larger than cories and I have found in the past not as active in the tank.
If I where you I'd be looking for bronze corydoras or three lined ones, much smaller than the brochis. Ideally you should be buying at least six, more is better.
An even better shoal would be achieved with a dozen pygmy cories, these are great little fish and very active when in larger shoals.

 

[thezodiac]

sounds like your tank is about the same size as mine. I have 6 cories in my tank (see my sig) both my peppered and bronze interact with each other but I wouldn't call it schooling together. They go and sit together and interact but that's it. Cories like to be in a group so getting (for instance) 5 peppered and one albino would be a bad idea IMO. If you want to mix the different colours I'd get at least a pair of each.

I can speak from experience though that they will be happier in a group of all the same colour. I've had to increase my number of peppered as the pair I had just hid out all the time. I've added two more and last night all four where swimming around together. It was nice to see them for a change!

sounds good i kind of figured it might be a good idea. ill probably get a group of 6 green or peppered

 

[KrystaK]

I should get to petsmart I was planning on picking up another two cory's for my tank

 

[Inchworm]

I wouldn't recommend putting any corys in a tank with a ram.

 

[thezodiac]

I wouldn't recommend putting any corys in a tank with a ram.

i cold be mistaken but almost everything ive heard has said it should be fine.

only time ive heard of problems is when you have 2 and they are mating.

(only have 1)

 

[thezodiac]

my real issue here is that i should add probabkly about 8 or so total.

but i could cause my tank to mini cycle by adding them all at once?

so should i try 2 groups of 4? or something? or all 8 at once?

 

[Ruskull]

my real issue here is that i should add probabkly about 8 or so total.

but i could cause my tank to mini cycle by adding them all at once?

so should i try 2 groups of 4? or something? or all 8 at once?

Start with at least 3. I'm not sure about Rams with Corys though, since they both occupy the bottom of the tank.

 

[thezodiac]

my real issue here is that i should add probabkly about 8 or so total.

but i could cause my tank to mini cycle by adding them all at once?

so should i try 2 groups of 4? or something? or all 8 at once?

Start with at least 3. I'm not sure about Rams with Corys though, since they both occupy the bottom of the tank.

yeah i think ill try 3 at first , assuming everything is peacefull in the tank, ill wait about a week and add 3 more, then another week and 3 more

 

[FishFanatic04]

No one said anything to me when I was planning to put 2 bolivian rams with my 8 albino corys. It was actually suggested. But I ended up going with apistogrammas...which have some of the same behaviors. I hope it works out for both of us then.

 

[thezodiac]

No one said anything to me when I was planning to put 2 bolivian rams with my 8 albino corys. It was actually suggested. But I ended up going with apistogrammas...which have some of the same behaviors. I hope it works out for both of us then.

how long ago did you do that? and how has it been going ?

 

[RamboFish]

I had a spawning pair of rams with 8 corys and they were fine.

 

[thezodiac]

I had a spawning pair of rams with 8 corys and they were fine.

thanks for the info, and your rams look awesome by the way.

heres a pic of my bollivian

he does look a bit more colorful then in this pic, just can only see it at certain times.

(also gonna try to give him some frozen bloodworms

 

[thezodiac]

alright guys decided to pick up 3 today (to start) and after acclimating them (which my phantom tetras were very curious about i set them free).

they seem to very happy about having sand (petsmart had gravel bottom)
and they have been digging and sifting through it.

lights out to reduce stress for a while.

my phantom tetra and bollivian ram swam over immediately to check them out, no aggression at all so far.

will post pics in a while when lights are back on