Will Different Strains Of Corycats School Together?

[cooledwhip]

I have 4 green corydoras aeneus:
https/imperialtropicals.com/collections/south-american-catfish/products/green-cory-cat-corydoras-aeneus?variant=20828289985
 
and I want to get more. Mine are fairly new and are about 1-2 inches in size right now. Would albino corycats school together with these guys? Any other cool species of corycat you recommend me to get?
 
 

 

[Byron]

There are two related aspects to your question, or to the response.  In their individual habitat, each species generally live on their own; it is rare (it does occur, but not often) to find more than one species in the same area.  They live in groups numbering hundreds, even thousands of one species.  But having said that, all species of Corydoras will get along and interact to varying degrees.
 
A minimum of five of a species is best, but there is no harm in having fewer of each species with more species.  The important thing is to have at least five, but preferably more, corys.  In your case with four C. aeneus, if you add the albino I would have at least three, preferably four or five, of the albino.  There are a few species now available in the albino form, including C. aeneus, and this albino would be the best as whether original green or albino, C. aeneus is the same species.
 
There are well over 150 different species.  Corydoras aeneus, C. paleatus, C. sterbai and C. panda are the most frequently seen in stores because these four are commercially farmed; and there are albino forms of the first three species.  Most other species will be wild caught and thus seen less often.  Most prefer cooler temperatures, in the low to mid 70's F.

 

[cooledwhip]

Ok thank you. I might buy 4 more of a differnt species of corycat then, maybe albino or panda cories. Are they big on the bio load?

 

[nic1]

If anything, corys help with the bio load cleaning up the uneaten food bottom of the tank which other fish may miss, but saying that, they are still waste producers and you should only accommodate the right number of fish for your size of the tank.

 

[Akasha72]

in my four foot tank I have the following:
 
6 peppered cories
6 panda cories
5 melini cories
4 bronze cories
3 smudge-spot cories
 
They all live peacefully and happily together. The only group on that list that tends to live 'alone' - in that they hang around away from the others - is the bronzes. The rest all hang out on the right side of the tank, sat around my wood and plants chilling out together.
The bronzes come out and feed with the rest but once they've had their fill they go back to their spot on the left side. They do get along fine with the others but they just prefer to hang out together away from the other species.
 
I've recently got 2 baby black cories. These are closely related to the bronzes. At present I'm waiting for my lfs to get more in stock so I can have a group of 5 or 6. They are living in my fry tank until they grow out a bit more. I'll be interested to see what group they choose to live with once they enter the main tank

 

[Byron]

Ok thank you. I might buy 4 more of a differnt species of corycat then, maybe albino or panda cories. Are they big on the bio load?

 
Corys are not much different from fish of the same size when it comes to the bioload.  You didn't mention tank size..if this is just a 10g I would leave the four you have, though one or two more shouldn't hurt if the tank is not otherwise crowded.
 
Pandas need more water flow than other species, and definitely on the cooler side.  But by cooler I mean no higher than 76/77F.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Sorry Byron but I disagree on a few remarks in your post : There definitely live more cory- species in the same areas / river systems.
A lot of species don't shoal and won't (socialy) interact with each other. Peppered behave totally behave than Bronze for instance. That said it definitely is best to get more Corys from the the same species.

To the OP : Corys need their own quality food (mainly carnivorious) and not alone leftovers !

25 venezuelans
22 paleatus (albino, xanthist, normal)
6 concolor
90 aeneus (green, bronze, albino)
3 pandas

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[Byron]

Sorry Byron but I disagree on a few remarks in your post : There definitely live more cory- species in the same areas / river systems.
A lot of species don't shoal and won't (socialy) interact with each other. Peppered behave totally behave than Bronze for instance. That said it definitely is best to get more Corys from the the same species.

To the OP : Corys need their own quality food (mainly carnivorious) and not alone leftovers !

25 venezuelans
22 paleatus (albino, xanthist, normal)
6 concolor
90 aeneus (green, bronze, albino)
3 pandas

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G925F met Tapatalk

 
I guess I wasn't clear enough, if you want to pick holes.  I meant "together" as in side by side, mixed species.  This is extremely rare.  There are also many streams where one or sometimes two closely-related species are endemic.  But regardless, I was primarily thinking of the mixed species together.
 
I agree on the food, missed that, sorry.  Corys must have proper sinking foods.  I've never seen them actually feed on left-over flakes when these did manage to reach the bottom, though they might.  But regardless, that is not proper feeding.

 

[cooledwhip]

Yeah I feed them sinking carnivore wafers.
 
The tank is a super tall tank b ut the footprint is 20x18. pretty small, there is LOTS of rocks and driftwood, I have created numerous caves in the tank. The corys I have now are always in the caves

 

[DoubleDutch]

Sorry Byron but I disagree on a few remarks in your post : There definitely live more cory- species in the same areas / river systems.
A lot of species don't shoal and won't (socialy) interact with each other. Peppered behave totally behave than Bronze for instance. That said it definitely is best to get more Corys from the the same species.

To the OP : Corys need their own quality food (mainly carnivorious) and not alone leftovers !

25 venezuelans
22 paleatus (albino, xanthist, normal)
6 concolor
90 aeneus (green, bronze, albino)
3 pandas

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G925F met Tapatalk

 
I guess I wasn't clear enough, if you want to pick holes.  I meant "together" as in side by side, mixed species.  This is extremely rare.  There are also many streams where one or sometimes two closely-related species are endemic.  But regardless, I was primarily thinking of the mixed species together.
 
I agree on the food, missed that, sorry.  Corys must have proper sinking foods.  I've never seen them actually feed on left-over flakes when these did manage to reach the bottom, though they might.  But regardless, that is not proper feeding.

Agree on that Byron ! I misunderstood.


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[Baccus]

Just watch out with tall sided tanks and corydora, they can struggle at times to reach surface and take their customery gulp of air. With the footprint of the tank that is what I would work with for how many corydora you can comfortably keep in the tank, since the vast majority of cory are bottom dwelling and spend most of thier time on the bottom of the tank.

 

[Byron]

I agree,with this type of tank I would leave the one cory species but I would add two more of the same just to give them a better number.  This is not going to be "detrimental" as much as not having enough.  These are very social fish, and less stress from more of them means less impact on the biology of the tank.  There are more factors in a good environment biologically than mere numbers/volume.

 

[cooledwhip]

I completely forgot they run up and grab air. I haven't seen them do that yet. The tank is 30 inches tall. which actually is customary in like 55's right?> isnt a 55 30 inches tall

 

[Byron]

I would worry more about the surface area of the substrate rather than depth.  I had my 50 corys in my former 24-inch deep 115g (a 55g is this depth too I think) with no air issues, and some of them live in watercourses deeper than this.  The dwarf species would concern me more, as they seem more frequent at surfacing.
 
And you don't need to worry if your corys don't surface much, or scarcely at all.  Mine rarely do, if they have sufficient water movement at the surface.  I can always tell if I have forgotten to clean the canister filter, because the flow slows which means less surface disturbance and less gas exchange, and the corys begin surfacing more.  

 

[Akasha72]

my Rio 240 is deeper than that and my cories have no trouble shooting up for air at all. It fact they sometimes shoot up with such force that they hit the lid. If my tank were open topped I'd be picking cories up off the floor every week!