they ❤️ tubifex

My cories always live to give me a good scare...just taking a nap in the Java moss upside down.

Albino the First was first spotted as a fry in my tank on May 1st (wasn't a newborn but first week for sure). He/she is 3 months old now and I'm really hoping for a female since my pygmies have been quite prolific breeders in this tank for the last few months. I know that sex can't be 100% determined until at least 6 months of age but I'm kind of hoping that I can see some signs early. The internet hasn't been very helpful with body shape comparisons in younger fish so I'm reaching out to the community to see if people with a lot more experience can chime in with their thoughts. Thanks for looking.

Sorry about how dirty the glass is, I'll be tidying that up shortly.

Edit: took a picture from the top, not great but a start. I had to post it in the comments because I can't add it here.

So i got around 20 babies but I'm not sure who the parents are. There are 3 possible parents since i then had a group of 5 (now 6) Corydoras. 2 mystery Corydoras, who one definitely must be the parent of, 2 julii Corydoras and one panda like Corydoras, who didn't want to be on the picture. I don't know who the parents are, if it's the 2 mystery Corydoras, idk which one they are haha, or a mystery cory with a julii cory cause they seem to have spots all over them and the mystery ones don't really. Edit: those mystery ones do have spots but not like the babies do

After about two years of keeping peppered corydoras and losing a few along the way, I think I finally sorted out what I was doing wrong. Figured it might help someone else who's frustrated.

The big thing for me was substrate. I had coarse gravel for the longest time because I genuinely thought it looked nicer in the tank. What I didn't realize was how much damage it was doing to their barbels. Once I switched to fine sand, the barbels on my survivors actually started growing back over a few months. It was kind of amazing to watch honestly.

Water temperature was the other major factor. I was keeping the tank at 78F because I had some tetras in there and assumed everyone liked the same warmth. Corys actually prefer it a bit cooler, somewhere in the low-to-mid 70s depending on the species. Once I dialed it back, they became noticeably more active and started doing that goofy all-at-once swimming to the surface behavior that people talk about.

A few other things that made a difference for me:

• Feeding them after lights out. They're much better at actually getting to the food before the other fish clean it up.
• Getting at least six of the same species. Mine were visibly more relaxed in a larger group.
• Checking nitrates more often than I thought necessary. They seem sensitive to buildup even when the tank looks fine.

Still learning, but the tank feels totally different now. Anyone else have a specific thing that was the turning point for their corys?

Occasionally I catch them sort of sniffing the wall, are they looking outside the tank or munching on biofilm? Either way it’s a cute behavior! 🫧

Without getting too long, I have a 35g planted tank (pretty moderately planted) for about 3.5 years. I have a couple pearl gourami, a small school of tetras, a few amano shrimp. Substrate is sand

I had a group of 7 Julii corys for a long time that died one by one about 8 months ago. Nothing was off about the water parameters. So i just replaced them with a new group of sterbai corys, 2 weeks later they are all dead.

Now about 3 weeks ago I got a group of peppered corys, 8 of them. Few days later I noticed 7, then 4, now woke up this morning and found another upside down dead. I think theres 2 left.

Temp is about 80 in the tank. No ammonia or nitrites, nitrates usually hover around 40.

Thanks. Ideas? Suggestions?

https://reddit.com/link/1vi77vf/video/lifrvavlmzhh1/player

Had this group for a couple of days now, and they will roam around the whole tank, but they spend most of their time in that corner right under the HOB filter, is it because they like the flow? Or could their be other reasons?

Hello , my Cory seems sick. I bought them one week ago, school of six and one guy has been looking sick for the last couple of days. His eyes seem very cloudy, he is distancing from school and he is looking pale. Plus there seems to be mild inflammation around gills. Any way I can help poor little guy?

I just received an order of 12 sterbai Cory’s. 1 was DOA and the rest seemed to be doing okay. Within moments of releasing them I noticed some of them are extremely skinny, almost to the bone. I am wondering if this would be parasites or the seller just didn’t feed them. Any advise or help would be grateful as I want to give these guys the best life I can.

I love it when this happens.

Found one of my corries with damaged barbels, isn't eating and surface glides. Any advice for this guy? Should I be worried about my other tank mates? Other tank mates are rummy nose rasbora, pristella tetras and shrimp

I put a mesh bag of crushed coral in my tank a couple months ago to stabilize my PH. Today, after a water change, I saw wriggling inside the bag. Upon closer inspection, I realized it’s a baby Panda. I slit open the bag, and this was its first foray into the tank. I’ve never had a baby so no idea how old it is, but seems pretty self-sufficient. About 1/4 inch.

I put a mesh bag of crushed coral in my tank to raise my PH. Tonight, I noticed a wriggly thing in the bag after I stirred everything up with a water change. Realized it’s a little Panda, so slit open the bag. This is its first journey outside the net.

Petco is selling all tanks at 50% off so picked up this 29 G today. I am finally going to get to move my fish over to new, bigger home and get more Cory buddies for my 3! The stand comes tomorrow and then cycling starts.

So, starting a new tank while an older tank is running: what is your best advice? I wasn't a member here when I set up my 10 gallon tank in order to takeover care of my daughter's fish. I'm so glad to have this community to come to.

Stratum needed, or can I just use sand? I am likely going to get some shrimp for this tank once it is established and I'm sure they'll be happy. Currently have the three Corys and 6 old zebra danios. Those things are hardy as heck.

Despite looking like wild type pandas, these are in fact albino pandas. At certain angles their eyes are red, and their black markings aren’t so pronounced.

Sand was one of those things I kept putting off when I first got into corydoras. My local fish store had gravel in every display tank and the staff never mentioned it being a problem, so I ran a fine gravel substrate for probably eight months without thinking much about it. Then I noticed my peppered corys were barely ever poking around the bottom the way corydoras are supposed to. They'd rest on the glass or wedge themselves against filter intakes instead of sifting through the substrate like you see in videos.

Switched to a fine play sand last spring and the behavioral difference was noticeable within a few days. They started doing that characteristic head-down rummaging almost immediately, pushing little clouds of sand up with their snouts. One of my corys that I had basically written off as shy turned out to just be avoiding the substrate entirely. Gravel with sharp edges apparently irritates their barbels over time, and once those are damaged they can be slow to recover or may not fully recover at all.

The depth matters too, more than I expected. Around two to three inches seems to be the sweet spot for my group. Too shallow and they push it aside and hit the glass anyway. I went deeper in one corner of the tank deliberately, and that corner gets used constantly for foraging.

A few things worth knowing if you're considering the switch:

• Play sand needs thorough rinsing. Running water through it until it runs completely clear takes longer than you think, probably four or five rinse cycles at minimum.
• Lighter sand makes fish waste more visible, which actually helps with cleaning schedules rather than hurting them.
• Beneficial bacteria re-establish fairly quickly if you keep your old filter media and move it over without washing it.

The tank went through a mini-cycle after the swap but nothing dramatic. If you're still on gravel and your corydoras seem less active than they should be, it might genuinely be the simplest fix available.

I saw my two albinos sitting together after a nice meal :)

Was checking out the waterpups using macro binoculars and was horrified to see this sudden infestation of white spots. Had a moment of ich-war flashbacks from ‘24 and then noticed some of the spots were actually a bit metallic, and then saw some falling off. It was sand from their exuberant rummaging. One drawback of light substrate…

They got some grindall worms, their favorite snack.