Cory Cat Suitability

DarkDH

DarkDH

Famished in the form of Money
Dec 29, 2007
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Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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After my previous tank failing, I decided to do a bare essentials low light tank. I am planning to have Cories, however I am worried that they would not do well in the average gravel + Java moss. Will they still be able to find food?

The tank I have is a cycled 20 gallon long, 20 watt fluorescent bulb with the average LFS gravel (River gravel or something, bout 1mm brown and white mix). I havent bought any plants yet, but I do have a stone in there that won't leach (Its pretty big).

I am also running an external filter + dinky canister as filtration/current. Tank is at 75-76 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thank you

~Nathan
 
They will do fine with gravel (as long as it's smooth) and java moss, but they would really appreciate some driftwood, caves, plants, etc for hiding places. Java fern and Anubias are easy low light plants.

As for finding food- were you thinking the grain size of gravel vs. sand is the problem? You'll have to feed them, as in any tank. They'll eat flakes that sink, wafers, bloodworms, pretty much anything. Finding the food in the gravel shouldn't be a problem as long as the gravel isn't sharp (it will erode their barbels if it's rough or sharp). 1mm is pretty fine gravel, and should be great.

I've had my pandas on 3-5mm gravel for several years, and they're thriving.
 
soobie said:
They will do fine with gravel (as long as it's smooth) and java moss, but they would really appreciate some driftwood, caves, plants, etc for hiding places. Java fern and Anubias are easy low light plants.

As for finding food- were you thinking the grain size of gravel vs. sand is the problem? You'll have to feed them, as in any tank. They'll eat flakes that sink, wafers, bloodworms, pretty much anything. Finding the food in the gravel shouldn't be a problem as long as the gravel isn't sharp (it will erode their barbels if it's rough or sharp). 1mm is pretty fine gravel, and should be great.

I've had my pandas on 3-5mm gravel for several years, and they're thriving.
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I was planning on getting a new lighting system that comes with a ballast (Full spectrum blah blah) that would bring my watts per gallon to about um.. 2. something.

By the way, I remeasured that gravel, its 3-4mm, my bad. I was thinking that the java moss would just make finding food too hard for the corries,
 
I wouldn't put the moss over the entire tank bottom, but other than that, it should be fine. They'll probably nose around in it. Maybe put some of the moss on driftwood to give interest and height to the tank.

I think with 2 wpg, you have quite a few options for plants.
 
I have ~3-7mm gravel in my 40 with 14 corys, works well. Sometimes I find them 'sleeping' laying in the big wad of Java moss.

I stick a frozen cube of bloodworms, a tubifex cube, or some live blackworms in there and watch 'em come runnin'!
 
I actually don't know what kind of Cories. Not albino ones though, not really fans of those.

As for the lighting, I seem not to be able to find a 24'' long fluorescent tube anywhere thats 40 watts. I was thinking of shelling out cash for a 65 watt, but then I would need ferts and Co2..


Also, I have sinking catfish pellets, Hikari Discs, and I might pick up freeze dryies blood worms. (Old catfish stuff was from my old Pictus back in the day I was stupid)
 
DarkDH said:
I was thinking of shelling out cash for a 65 watt, but then I would need ferts and Co2..
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Ferts yes but CO2 no.

Please note that I have "shelled out for liquid ferts also" but I now have dry ferts in the garage which I ordered and intend to use when the liquid ferts are usurped.

These dry ferts are very literally "pennies on the dollar" compared to liquid ferts.

TR
 
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