Corydoras Sterbai

[Dopehand]

I just ordered some Corydoras Sterbai from my LFS, and was curious whether a gravel/ flourite mix is acceptable. With how much I'm spending, I'd like to ensure optimal conditions for my fish. It is a 29 gallon tank with around 10 zebra danio's in it. I'm going to add 6 cory's, and have begun to plant the tank as well with cuttings from my 20 gallon planted tank.

 

[jackiomy]

The corys I had in a tank with flourite lost their barbells. I now have flourite as a bottom layer and have 2 inches of sand on top of it. My corys are doing well and my plants are also.

 

[Dopehand]

Hell, now I have to go buy a bunch of sand. It'll be worth it once I have it all together, though, I suppose. They die when they lose their barbels, right? I have a shoal of Julii's in a smooth bottom tank, so I've not had that problem yet.

 

[jackiomy]

I did lose one but the others are doing well. I feed them in a terra-cotta dish and they always know where the food is. They still root around the sand though and seem content. Of course they love my plants, especially the onions and I pick out leaves every day. LOL But that is okay as long as they are happy!
I bought play sand at Home Depot. It is really cheap and very low dust. I like the way I can vacuum it. It will get sucked partially up my gravel vac, swirl around, and fall back to the bottom, getting very little sucked into the bucket. I don't think the MTS like being pulled out of their nice bed though. LOL

 

[pinkertd]

I have a group of 19 in a planted tank with smooth gravel without issues. All my cories are on smooth gravel just fine.

Just to add a couple of thoughts here......cories can loose their barbels in a barebottom tank. While rough substrate can erode the barbels, so can insufficient cleaning of the substrate. If you're not keeping the substrate clean enough, with them rooting around all the time, that is a big reason for barbel weardown as well.

 

[Cerianthus]

I've yet to experienced any problems with cory with fluorite (finer than most gravel)substrate.
With sand on top of bigger substrate, I think sand will eventually be on the bottom and bigger substrate on top, especially when one vacuums substrate when performing pwc.
Another worry of deep sand bed on the bottom is possibility of developing Dead Zone (anaerobic conditions) somewhere on the bottom. Thus no need to add sand, imo.