All you need to know about Corydoras

CORYDORAS INTRODUCTION AND CARING)

Corydoras are one of the most popular, if not the most popular group of aquarium catfish. Their small size and gentle nature has made them very popular with aquarists today. They can be kept with most fish, except the most aggressive ones, There are between 130 and 140 known species of Corydoras . All of them come from South America. They range from Argentina to Colombia, with most coming from the Amazon.Most come from fairly soft, acidic, virtually salt free waters, but will adapt to harder, more alkaline water. Corydoras are able to absorb atmospheric oxygen through the capillaries in their intestines. Periodically, you will see them make a mad dash to the surface of the tank for a quick gulp of air, which they swallow. Occasionally, you will see them excrete bubbles as the air passes out of their intestines. This ability to utilize atmospheric oxygen allows Corydoras to exist in water conditions that will kill other fish. This doesn't mean you should allow your tank's conditions to deteriorate though! they need good water quality so regula water changes are a must for your corys health .They also need some were to hide wether it be a cave of some sort or plants to hide away in .They should also be keept in groups of 6 if you can ,as they are very social fish and like to be keept with there own kind so the more the better.

(FEEDING YOUR CORYDORAS)

Corydoras do not eat fish waste. They need good quality foods, just like the rest of your fish a good lfs will provide a good range of foods for your corydoras a good sinking pellet or tablet live and frozen foods ie brine shrimp,dafnia,black worm,blood worm,and other larve, live tubifex worms ,
you can allso get a freezed dried tubifex cube wich you can stick to the inside of your tank at the bottom wich will keep your corys entertained for a wile.You can allso give them earth worms wich are very nutritious for them.If you keep them in a comunity tank make sure some food gets to the bottom for them to eat or they will go hungry

(BREEDING)

The most widely available, and easiest to breed are C. aeneus and C. paleatus . Both species are available in an albino form.Either of these species is a good choice for the newby. They are extremely hardy, and they have been tank bred so long, they will adapt to practically any water conditions.They have been kept in soft to very hard water and pH ranging from 6.0 to 8.2. you can determain if you have male and female from a top view the females are wider and plumper and is best to have 2 males to a female,You will need to condition your corys for at least 1-2 weeks to get them in top shape for spawning adding more food than usally(MORE FOOD = A TIME TO REPRODUCE) Now you,ve done this you can simply do more frequant cool water changes to stimulate them to spawn with 5 oc cooler water than the tank water there in,

(EGGS)

(option 1) is to move the corydoras to a tank already set up for them with some amozon sword plants in pots the tank should have no substrate in it.The males will chase the females in a frenzy untill the female obtains the (T-POSITION) were the male will fertilise the eggs.Then the female will rest on the bottom clutching a batch of eggs for about a minite then find a surface to put the eggs on.Its not uncommon for them to eat the eggs so keep an eye on them. when they have finished spawning simply move the adults back to the main tank and leave the eggs in the set up tank to hatch wich should have just a sponge filter.Make sure there is plenty of water movement to stop the eggs fungusing mainly allot of aireation from air stones ,a bit of methlene blue will allso help or any anti fungus treatment.

(option 2)
As they lay the eggs you can just remove them with your finger (it is a bit tricky if you,ve never done this before so take ure time) simply just roll your finger upwards slightly pulling away from the glass untill some of the eggs stick to your finger,then trancefair then to the sides of a container floating in ure tank useing the same method as removeing them this is quite time consuming.You can also use a razor blade or a credit card for this aswell onece all the eggs are in the container make sure you put an air stone dangling into it for water movement. Fertile eggs will turn baige in colour and unfertile ones will simply just turn white wich you can remove them ,they should hatch within 3-5 days.

(FRY CARE)

Now the wriglers have hatched they are born with an egg york sack wich they will feed on for the first 24 hours.After this time you can start feeding them, there are a number of foods avalable, they will eat (newly hatched brine shrimp),micro worms,(liquafry no 1),hikari first bites,(finely chrushed pellet and flake,)They will need feeding 3-4 times a day and you should take uneated food out from the last feed before puting more in. iv found that a turkey baster is great for removeing uneatend food ,You will also need to do regular water changes daily and keep the bottom and sides of either the container or tank clean, if you have chosen the container option they will be ok in this for about 10 days the bigger the tub the better, then after 10 days you will need to trancefair them to a tank for growing on ,they should grow pretty fast after this stage reaching nearly 1 inch in about 12 weeks, with regula cleaning and water changes you wont go far wrong

Fantastic Read John..............

10/10.....well done.......more please...

That should answer most peoples question on cories,
Nice effort 816johnv.
J

cheers john xx great job ..

hope you dont mind added a few bits ive noticed xx

i dont handle the eggs straight away when deposited as they are watery and way too squishy they take a good few mins to get more solid then easily scrapped up with whatevers to hand..

mine spawn regulary ,the cool water or even ice cubes to lower temp tricks them into believing the rainy season is upon them where the cool floods bring with them abundance of food hence the requirements to feed well esp live food. mine love frozen blood worm and froz mix cubes .after that your filter will start to slow down as its taken on a extra work load this replicas the dry and wet seasons ..mine were spawning every 2 weeks at one stage ..

many people i no remove eggs place them in tub of tank water with airstone to raise fry ..changing a certain % of water daily as meth blue will wipe out your filter so only use with caution or if in tub or spare tank ..

my corys love java moss and java ferns always furaging in it and great for fry to hide ..they love sitting on or under bogwood and often see them resting on rocks ..

they really need a established tank thats been running at least 6 months ..

gravel esp sharp bits will damage their barbels leading to bacteria infections,rot , sandy substrates are best esp as they like to dig ..

imo always qt as they can come with a bacterial infection that can wipe out whole tank (talking from experiance here p@h are notourious for poor quality corys ).

a great fish to watch day and night ...supposebly more active at night ..

and love to sit in their shoals lined up like waiting for a bus ..

you gota love em xxx

Great fun fish to have! Mine are active during the day. They "sleep" when the lights are off. Good bit of info there. Thanks!!