55 Gallon River Setup

Some baby cory pics. Starting to be able to tell the genders of a few. Dorsal fins showing blunt or sharp on individuals, sharp fins being male, blunt being female. Always been really dramatic differences with this species.
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Well, #1 looks male. #2 pic of a female on R, dorsal looks very nice & tall but round? Hard to tell...Left looks male.

#3 I'm guessing the tubbier larger yellowish 1 is female. #4 rounded dorsal = female? Last pic male?

How did I do on gender guessing?

TY for all the baby pics, I love them!!!
 
Well, #1 looks male. #2 pic of a female on R, dorsal looks very nice & tall but round? Hard to tell...Left looks male.

#3 I'm guessing the tubbier larger yellowish 1 is female. #4 rounded dorsal = female? Last pic male?

How did I do on gender guessing?

TY for all the baby pics, I love them!!!
Spot on, they get easier to tell as they get bigger.
 
I'm probably not going to be on for a little while, unsure how long to be honest.
We lost one of our elderly cats today and I can barely function.

I will come back and update at some point, when I feel up to it.
 
Mostly trying to distract myself best I can, it's been rough.

Not a ton physically changed in the tank, but it's doing well.
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The baby cories are really developing great, one of them has very nice quality markings. Even the stripes in the dorsal fin are all connected to the dorsal spine, not usually something I see in paleatus. She is going to be a stunner when she grows.
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My husband gave me the green light earlier this week if I wanted to add more fish yet to the tank, and they arrived during the chaotic time it's been of course. But I added 2 more paleatus cories that aren't related to this group for better genetic diversity, and a group of 12 red eye tetras.

Theyre in quarantine and being dewormed for at least 1 month because some are a little thinner than I'd like. They'll get nice and large over time, monochrome coloring so the light colored scape won't wash them out as much, and can handle the flow and water temps of this tank.
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Columbians were my #1 choice but were proving near impossible to find without spending over $100 for a group of only 6 for whatever reason in this area, so I went with my #2 choice. With that, stock is finished.
 
Without your help I'm not sure I would have noticed the cory fry markings. But I see them now!

Red eyed tetras are kinda between my high body tetra phobia & your "neon" body shape aversion, lol. I hope they do well for you in this tank.
 
Without your help I'm not sure I would have noticed the cory fry markings. But I see them now!

Red eyed tetras are kinda between my high body tetra phobia & your "neon" body shape aversion, lol. I hope they do well for you in this tank.
I'm not overly fussed if they're a bit nippy, most of what I was considering were more on the nippy side. As long as they keep it to themselves and not turn it on the cories. Given there's 12 tetras, they should keep it to themselves. I don't plan to add anything else, so they'd have the whole upper level to themselves.


Theyre in the quarantine tote though, but they have great appetites.

Some more baby cory pics, they're shaping up so well. Most don't share as dark of markings as two of them do, they have more typical markings. Either way they're growing very well.
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All of my options I was considering for this tank:

1. Columbian tetras

2. Red eye tetras

3. Black phantom tetras

4. Any of the 3 species of "bloodfin" (Prionobrama filigera, Aphyocharax rathbuni, or Aphyocharax anisitsi )

in that order of which I'd prefer based upon availability and cost.

all nippy species, mostly, some more than others, but as long as they keep it among themselves it's all good.

red eyes were just the easiest to obtain, I have no clue why columbians were so hard to locate lol. I'm happy with my choice regardless.
 
I have kept paleatus a few times on and off over the years. They were in my early tanks. Then not again for some time. Now I have the long finned ones. What I discovered with my first batch of paleatus is that how they look depends a lot on the light source. Look at the pics on Planetcatfish for them, Ignoring the albinos they still run a gamut. I think a lot of that is lighting and the rest may be geographic difference?

I do not breed corys ofr the most part. So I have the paleatus, a few sterbai and albino aeneus. The one group I got inorder to spawn them have not been cooperative. These are the black Schultzei. A friend sent me six of her offspring. Then I bought six more for a measly $20 as part of my fish club's grow out contest. Unfortunately. I could not turn in my 3 biggest for the judging as I was a vendor at the Keystone Clash. My club scheduled the turn in date after I had registered for the Clash. At the recent clubs Xmas dinner meeting I grabbed another 3 small black Schultzei so I now have a total of 15. However, I doubt if more than te original 6 ae big/old enough to spawn.

If you have any advice on spawning the the Schultzei, I would appreciate it. They are kept at 78F, in basically neutral pH and with TDS in the 120 ppm range. (4 - 8 dH, 70 - 140 ppm : soft) My water is from out well and over the years it has been about this hardness but at 7,4 ppm. Then it dropped down to more like 80 PPM TDS and dead neutral. Over the past year the TDS has risen from 83 to its current 120 ppm.
 
TTA, that seem a bit warm for "aeneus" "type" corys...although from my searching all of them have some sketchy lineage. Maybe different species or really widespread occuring...Planetcatfish was among the "iffiest". At least they say they don't really know...The "black" 1s are from selective breeding, in Germany I think (too much reading).

I have the "usual" bronze & don't heat their tank. But it's warmer here than where you live. In winter my house is 68-69F but the filters & lights make it a bit warmer, say 70F or so, 72? Mine are in a 75g that doesn't cool much overnight. I've had them breed a few times but only 1 surprise fry. I do nothing to help or rescue eggs or fry. Like you, I have pretty soft water (or had. A new TDS meter is in my Amazon basket).
 
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