Tiny Cories

[vannel]

Is there a reason for THAT MUCH water change 3 times a week??? What are you feeding??? Danged... I'd be happy if I could do 10% once every 3 weeks!!

Hmm. I tend to overfeed.. So, my WC regime is abut 10-20%, 3 times a week.

How are you guys cleaning your substrate? I'm a little hesitant on using the gravel cleaner since my tank is sand based (Sudo) and the sand would probably get sucked up as well. Also, what foods are you guys feeding the cories with?

[ahkiatz]

Is there a reason for THAT MUCH water change 3 times a week??? What are you feeding??? Danged... I'd be happy if I could do 10% once every 3 weeks!!

Yup there is. With the amount of food i fed and the amount of cories i had, i believe that my water changes regime is ok.

[Wackytpt]

I normally put a very thin layer of sand. As for water change of 50%, is it direct from the tap or aged water?

[ahkiatz]

Aged water definitely. Direct from tap i dont dare. Hehe.

[Wackytpt]

How long you aged the water and did you put in any conditioner into it?

[ahkiatz]

How long you aged the water and did you put in any conditioner into it?

2 water drums alternate week. Only add seachem prime. Every water change will dose bioearth. Anyway I think I found the reason already. Big ball of dog fur with pellets and bloodworms under one of the driftwood. Water turned murky upon taking that ball of fur and rotting foods. Did a 90% water change just now. Hopefully this solve the sudden death syndrome.

[vannel]

That's awesome to hear. Great work on finding out the cause. Sounds like your dog has to take the stand for murder by proxy.

Got to take note of the dead spots in your tank in future then. Possibly builds up and requires clearing every now and then. Good luck on breeding those C. Habrosus to replenish your stock!

[ahkiatz]

That's awesome to hear. Great work on finding out the cause. Sounds like your dog has to take the stand for murder by proxy.

Got to take note of the dead spots in your tank in future then. Possibly builds up and requires clearing every now and then. Good luck on breeding those C. Habrosus to replenish your stock!

Almost took out every single thing in the tank haha. As for breeding, might be abit hard because I put them in comm tank and I'm only left with 4 female out of the remaining 15. Guess it's my fault for the deaths. Neglected them for the whole of last week due to ICT.

[RonWill]

Guys, the weather has been cold and wet... opportune timing for cory breeding!! If yours have been well conditioned, keep an eye out for little scooters. I'm already raising a brood from young habrosus and it's their first spawning. Fry size ranges between 5 to 8mm and have a gusto appetite. Will try to shoot some baby pics before acclimatizing them to the main tank.

Good luck and have fun!!

[vannel]

Wow! Congrats. I've been hoping for some eggs but my Melini have just been introduced to their tank not too long ago and are probably still abit scaredy.

[vannel]

Is no one intending to showcase their C. Hastatus yet..? I'm quite sure there are a number of people with them now. After such a long hiatus of not seeing them in SG, I'm sure there's demand for the species.

[RonWill]

Not my tank but I wished it was. I'm always mesmerized by a tight-schooling shoal of hastatus. I've gotten my bounty in tanks and will condition them till they're fat fat round round

[vannel]

Woo. I know where that tank is. Haha. I'm sure alot of others do as well. The shopkeeper was showing me the "feeding frenzy" as well while I was there last Thursday. It was totally awesome. But it dawned on me that they will only look nice in a huge school. Looks like I have alot of saving up to do.. Hmm..

[berlinjs]

Mind sharing where they are sighted?

[Wackytpt]

The hastatus are available at Green Chapter at Clementi

[vannel]

The "for sale" tank of C. Hastatus is surprisingly still available! I'm shocked that people here have not cleaned out their stock within the first few days. As I have learnt, many people have ordered them in large numbers and I do hope for the general public to have insane luck in breeding them. I have, myself, just purchased 20 of the said cories today. They are now commed with about 15 C. Melini in my 50 x 29 x 29 tank (overstocked with small cories!!) with 10-20% WC every alternate weekday and a 30-40% WC every weekend (to handle the bioload from an overstocked tank). Initial introduction of the cories to the tank was quite scary. They were going up to the surface for air one by one and at very short intervals, which had me in abit of panic. However, 15 minutes on, they have settled down and are shoaling together in mid-water without having to dart up to the surface for air every other minute. *Phew!*

Ronnie (the shopkeeper at GC) has done a splendid job in acclimatising the cories and they are in excellent condition (good finnage, barbels are nice and long, looks healthy), so, I don't expect to see deaths due to water conditions. I am, however, a little bit worried on the feeding regiment required for the C. Hastatus. I'm currently throwing in Hikari Sinking Wafers and the C. Melini are relishing it as usual but the C. Hastatus are a little more tentative (hopefully they will slowly be weaned onto the same feeding regiment). Hikari Carnivore Pellets are still abit of a no-go for the C. Hastatus as of now though, but, things should change once they taste the meaty content.

Hopefully all goes well then..! Wishing every new C. Hastatus owner the best of luck!

p.s. Please share your tank setup and tips to keeping your cories! I need your expertise!

[RonWill]

Vannel, all my hastatus are split into 3 tanks with most part of it bare-bottomed for ease of husbandry. One group of 20 (of which 10 belongs to a kaki) are in a 1ft sealed partition using air-lift sponge filter. Another group of 100, also in a 1ft partition & sponge filter (might be a nightmare to some but you'd soon see why it is possible to have the numbers and still have good water quality). A third group of 30 is in a 2ft partition with HMF (Hamburger Mattenfilter).

My 4th, 3ft tank, has about 200 assorted Corydoras species; panda, habrosus, pygmaeus, napoensis, sodalis, leopardus, virginae, atropersonatus, with possibly a small group of C. axelrodi joining the harem soon, plus some others that I've forgotten what or which.

Before anyone squirm or balk, thinking of bio-overload (and indeed it is very heavy), please know that besides those sponge filtration mentioned, all tanks employ over-flow with drip flow-through. Simply put, clean water from storage tanks is slow-dripped into tank (to a pre-determined water height) and excess is flow-through to drainage. Water is not recycled nor are these recirculating tanks... not yet anyway. That said, I still do a 40-80% water change weekly due to heavy-handed feeding.

My home's recirculating 4tier 2ft & 4tier 3ft racks (to be chilled by a single 1.5HP Artica) are on the drawing board but I'll post some thoughts when time allows or when those customized tanks are installed, ie. if the whole blinking idea actually materializes.

No pics for now, since my current tanks look pretty crappy anyway!

BTW, Vannel, why is Carnivore pellets still a no-go?? Most of my cories take to it like bees to honey and that helps when I'm short on tubifex or other live foods.

There are about 200 hastatus left. I understand from GC shopmaster that the remaining reserved lots are pending payment from online buyers. This huge lot might be a one-off thing, so... mai tu liao!!!

[vannel]

Waaa.. You sure bought alot of the hastatus home! I can only wish I could have multiple tanks running on a better setup. With my current space constraints, I can only live with having this one tank in my bedroom (hence why the Hastatus are comm'ed with their slightly larger cousins, the Melini). I worry about my water quality alot and am constantly thinking about adding additional filtration to my current tank (I do have an Eheim 2222 running along with an air-driven sponge, possibly adding on a spare GEX S-sized HOF filter as well now that I have the Hastatus in there). You guys think I should consider getting one of those biohomme moving bed filters and perhaps another Eheim unit being run independently? Unfortunately, no chiller. Tried installing a unit in my room after I bought the HS-28A but had to sell it at a loss after just 1 day since the heat was too much for my bedroom (the noise, I could take).

Hmm, the carnivore pellets were somewhat of a hit-and-miss with the Hastatus yesterday. Probably attributed to the travelling and stress from being introduced into a new environment. As I am posting this, the morning feeding of carnivore pellets are slowly getting the attention of my Hastatus and I reckon they will finish up the pellets later on. Should be fine. I'll probably be feeding them Tubifex maybe twice a week and slowly weaning them off it to about once a week. What other live foods do you employ, Ron?

[RonWill]

Mostly tubifex and daphnia. Grindal worms when they're prolific and chopped composting worms (messy and I'd rather they recycle my vege waste).

Like humans, any changes or shift in diet will take time to accustom. Even if they nibble on any of the tabs you provide, it's a good start.

[vannel]

Yes. I guess so. Right now I am trying to polish the water. Seems like the cories have been busy and there is plenty of micro detritus/particles floating around, which really irks me. I should really grab new filter pads for my Eheim and see if that helps. Water params are okay, but the "dusty" water is a blemish I need to rectify. Also, I should probably try to dim the lighting abit (not sure how I am going to do it though). Thoughts?

Another set of pictures from my mobile (as usual, pardon my bb camera):

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C. Hastatus in Transit..

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C. Hastatus Among Plants..

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C. Melini Foraging..

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C. Melini Foraging 2..

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FTS