Not About Sick Fish

[David J. Braunegg]

> Thanks for posting. Refreshing to not have to read about more diseased
> fish and it was actually a neat story :o)

I think I have been a major contributor to the above-mentioned topic, so I
wanted to post in a different vein...

A few months ago, we added three Corydoras leucomelas as tankmates to the
two we originally had. They original two are much happier now--more active.
One sometimes spends time with the others and sometimes is separate--I think
he is something of a loner. They all definitely like being in the company
of others of their same kind.

The hard part was finding the same species. My LFS labels them as C.
punctatus, but (obviously) different fish keep showing up under that name.
We kept going back every few weeks until there was a match. Finally, we
were there and my son said, "Dad! They're the same ones!" I looked. He
was right. We immediately bought the additional three.

It makes for a nicely balanced tank, too, with the school of Corys on the
bottom and the Platies in the rest of the tank. Really neat in the evenings
when the Corys start swimming around off the bottom and you see a mix of
fishes. Much nicer than my original idea of stocking with a couple of this
and a couple of that.

Dave

[NetMax]

"David J. Braunegg" > wrote in message
...
> > Thanks for posting. Refreshing to not have to read about more
diseased
> > fish and it was actually a neat story :o)
>
> I think I have been a major contributor to the above-mentioned topic,
so I
> wanted to post in a different vein...
>
> A few months ago, we added three Corydoras leucomelas as tankmates to
the
> two we originally had. They original two are much happier now--more
active.
> One sometimes spends time with the others and sometimes is separate--I
think
> he is something of a loner. They all definitely like being in the
company
> of others of their same kind.
>
> The hard part was finding the same species. My LFS labels them as C.
> punctatus, but (obviously) different fish keep showing up under that
name.
> We kept going back every few weeks until there was a match. Finally,
we
> were there and my son said, "Dad! They're the same ones!" I looked.
He
> was right. We immediately bought the additional three.
>
> It makes for a nicely balanced tank, too, with the school of Corys on
the
> bottom and the Platies in the rest of the tank. Really neat in the
evenings
> when the Corys start swimming around off the bottom and you see a mix
of
> fishes. Much nicer than my original idea of stocking with a couple of
this
> and a couple of that.
>
> Dave


I can't agree more. Loaches & Corys get a lot of press regarding keeping
them in small groups, however the same is true of almost all
non-predatory shoaling fish. Almost any fish from Characidae (ie:
tetras) and Cyprinidae (ie: barbs) should not be kept as singletons. I
push this at work by discounting fish at volume. Livebearers are priced
by 1, 3 or 5 (so they get an odd number with more females), but tetras
are priced by 1, 5 or 7 (one is a replacement, 5 and 7 are the minimum
typical group sizes) and Corys are priced at 1, 3 or 4 (three being the
smallest shoal I'd recommend). Customers have been a little irritated by
this pricing structure, but only until we explain why, and then it's
better received.

Sometimes I think we pay too much attention to biological fish-load, and
we should thinking more about species-load. Less species (with more of
each) generally makes a more realistic and entertaining setup and (I
think) less stressful for the fish.
--
www.NetMax.tk