Shy cories

On 2005-04-28, MarAzul wrote:
As far as I know, cories aren't usually affected by a lack of top-dwelling
fish around them. Personally, I have at least one "regular" fish in each
cory tank, but I know several very successful cory breeders who keep them in
a species only tank and they're perfectly content.

Well, this is good to know.

Since cories are a shoaling fish, they'll generally be more active if
there's more of them. Six or more are usually recomended for a good shoal to
form, so you should be okay, but, since you have a 20 gallon (and you don't
say whether it's tall or long) you can always add more.

I did leave that out, even though I was trying to include all the
information I could. :-) It's tall.

Another thing to consider is that some species are more 'sociable' than
others. My bronze, panda and metae are out and about all the time, but any
of my spotted species are usually fairly calm and sedate. If do go the route
of adding more, maybe some bronze or pepper cories would be a nice addition.

I'm not sure what the common name is, but they are spotted. There are a
couple pictures of the species (not of mine in particular) at
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/311_f.php. Do
different species of cory all get along well? Should they also be kept
in groups of 4-6 or more by species, or are they okay in smaller species
groups as long as there are at least 6 as a genus?

As for your feeding, are you sure they're eating the shrimp pellets? If they
are, great, but I never got mine to eat them. And cories are scavengers, not
algae eaters so the algae disk you feed them won't do much for them in the
long run. It's better to get a general Bottom Feeder disk instead (it
usually has a pic of a cory on the front). Mine get a few disks once or
twice a week but their main diet consists of frozen bloodworms or brine
shrimp.

I've watched them go after the shrimp pellets (second from the bottom on
http://www.omegasea.net/products2.html) with gusto. Also, I misspoke
-- they're getting "Sinking Wafers"
(http://www.hikari.info/tropical/t_03.html, complete with cory picture
on the packaging), not algae wafers. Thanks for the suggestions for
other foods. Do you think that freeze-dried bloodworms would be okay?
(I already have some for the bettas.)

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