KEEPING CORY CAT

The fish from the genus corydoras has always been my favorite catfish. Unfortunately, this little catfish almost never received my full treatment as the ‘prized fish’ because of their small stature or the lack of coloration compare to those of my other fishes. In my mind, they almost always served as ‘crew fish’, you know, the fish you put in the aquarium to clean up other fishes’ leftover. But deep in my heart, they always have a special place. No aquarium will be complete without a cory or two. Nevertheless, since now I have a spare tank, I decided to dedicated this tank to keep my collection of cory cats.

The aquarium measures 100x40x40(cm). I decorated with the artificial background so it won’t look so bare. The tank immediately looks very nice since the background looks very natural. I don’t know if suit the corydoras’ natural habitat, but honestly, I don’t really care. For me, it’s perfect. When choosing aquarium for the bottom swimmer like corydoras, I think the length of the aquarium is more important than the height, because they take only the lower space. Moreover, cory cats known to take air directly to the surface from time to time.

Next step is choosing the substrate. I understand that corydoras has sensitive barbells so sharp substrate is a no-no. I initially want to choose sand as the substrate. But I decided to not to use it because I want other colors in my substrate. Sand looks so ordinary. I use river gravel instead. It measures around 1mm in diameter, the smallest I could find. It looks really nice in my aquarium. The gravel is light brown in color. It blends naturally with the background I install previously. Also, when I put the fish in, it mix nicely with fishes’ color.

The next ornament I put in the aquarium is flat stones. I use two. I use flat stones because I think since the tank is not very tall, it will look even shallower if I use big stone. I want my tank look as spacious as it could be. Then I put driftwood that looks like a twig in the tank. Since the driftwood is submersed yet, I tied it to another flat stones. I like this driftwood a lot. It doesn’t take a lot of space and its color brightens up the aquarium.

For filtration I use internal power filter that has two chambers of filter media. I use filter mat in both chambers. As for lighting, a 30 watt lamp is sufficient since I don’t keep aquatic plants in this aquarium. In fact, I rarely turn the lamp on other that for viewing. I think the ambient room light is enough, and since the fish is thriving, I guess there is no problem.

Now, the last piece of the puzzles is, of course, the fish. I want to put as many corydoras species I could find into this aquarium. So far, I’ve collected:

Corydoras similis

Corydoras trilineatus

Corydoras panda

Corydoras sterbai

Corydoras paleatus ( veiltailed and normal version )

Corydoras septentrionalis

Corydoras rabauti

Corydoras aeneus ( it won’t be complete without this cory )

You will be surprised to see how differently cory cats swimming in group compare to that lonely corydoras. They seem to be happier. Moreover, different species swimming in same space really add nice color and movement to your aquarium. Since corydoras tend to group to their own color pattern (the dots swims with the dots, the lines swim with the lines, etc.). When they do swim, it looks just like synchronized swim.

And in the future I want to add

Corydoras hastatus

Corydoras reticulatus

Corydoras loretoensis

Corydoras leucomelas

Corydoras barbatus

Corydoras aeneus ‘gold line and laser green’

Corydoras adolfoi

Corydoras arcuatus

Corydoras blochi blochi

Corydoras metae

Corydoras habrosus

So far those are the species I could find in my hometown. I’m sure there still more species I’ve never encountered before, but it only the matter of time before it falls into my collection. I found Brochis sp.s to be unattractive because it sizes. In my opinion, it is too large. Moreover, It looks just like oversized C. aeneus.

Also I want to put some suckermouth cats into this tank. I want to put

Sturisoma panamense

Rinelocaria sp.

Rinelocaria sp. ‘Red Lizard’

I understand that since I put 10-20 fishes each species I could find, the tank will be overcrowded in no time. I just couldn’t resist it. I plan to move the fishes to bigger aquarium once the collection is completed.

Now, if only I could find that Corydoras robinae….