FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Hi,
My LFS has got a fresh stock of Corydoras Sterbai. They are beautiful and active. I have never kept any corys. Please give some suggestions and advice, especially regarding their feeding requirements. Can I keep them in 50g planted that already has two small (3 inches)clown loaches and four even smaller blue botia?
Thanks

I haven't kept the Sterbai, but I would assume they are similiar with other corys. Corys are pretty easy to care for, and would do fine with anything in a 50g as long as nothing picks on them. I haven't kept blue botia but they will get along fine with clown loaches(which will get rather large). I use shrimp pellets, but just about any food that makes it to the bottom and they get to will work. They prefer to be in groups, which would be very actice together. The sterbai seem to be one of the more expensive corys I've seen but they are really pretty.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

In a 50 gallon, you could get away with it. However, Sterbais like to be in a decent sized group, and given that they're an expensive species here in the UK (because they're so sky high desirable with those orange pectoral fins!) buying a shoal of 6 or 8 individuals to form the nucleus of a breeding colony could prove to be very expensive indeed. Not as expensive as one of my favourite species, Corydoras weitzmani (which here in the UK costs a whopping £20 each) but still enough to give my bank manager a heart attack at £12 each ...

The book on Corydoras catfishes by Derek Lambourne has copious notes on this species. If you can't lay your hands on a copy of the book, well, I just happen to have the relevant notes to hand


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks for all the info. The notes you mentioned would be great [] Well, the prices are not as outrageous in my country. The LFS owner is a good friend of mine, and he offered me those for around US$ 3/piece.

Ive read in the profile of blue loaches that they can be aggressive towards slow moving fish and other bottomm feeders. That specifically mentioned corys as well.
Moreover, now i've been able to train the loaches to come to surface and accept pellets. Im not feeding them any sicking foods and the are doing pretty well without them. Wonder if same can be done with the corys as well.

Thanks again.

Though a few captive cories may go to the surface and eat up whatever floating food they find, the majority just search a substrate (gravel, plants, or decorations) with their mouths and barbels. They aren't too bright, either. They don't figure out that the keeper is the one who feeds them, and that the food they find on the substrate comes from above.

The only thing I would be worried about is how the loaches would react to the catfish. If your blue loaches are these, they might well be aggressive towards the cories. I would expect them to at least act aggressively during feedings. Cories are peaceful fish by nature, and will not fight back.

---

And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Yes sirbooks, its the same species I have.
These loaches are a lot different from clowns. They dont like staying to their own. Now that they have settled down nicely in the tank, they are all over it One of them really got after the 5" giant gourami and scared him away. Poor guy, could think of a loach being so overly active
So now, im gonna think twice before getting my hand on any other bottom dwellers, as long as I have these blues

I've kept Orange-Finned Loaches with corys before. There weren't any problems really, except if one of the corys ventured inside the loaches' cave. At feeding time, as long as the loach got something to eat, he had no reason to bother the corys.

Just make sure to put in enough food for both species, and it should work. Also, it might help if you feed the loaches in one area of the tank and the corys in another.

---

I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Ah, my bottom feeder trick will come in handy here.

As everyone now knows all too well, I have Panda Corys (the infamous Panda Fun Palace's premier occupants ) and Otocinclus catfishes living together. To make sure that my Otocinclus stand a chance of getting a look-in when the Panda Corys are out foraging in squadron formation, i break up my algae tablets into pieces, and distribute them around the aquarium, so that there's a chance the Otocinclus will get their hands on some without having to wrestle the Pandas for their meal too much. To distribute the pieces about the aquarium, I use a piece of spare undergravel filter uplift tube. It's nice and wide (wide enough for me to hold the food item with a finger inside the tube while I position the 'business end'), and long enough for me to select a destination for the algae tablet with good accuracy. I can therefore select places that the Otocinclus are likely to find first for some pieces, and places that the Pandas will head for first for others. Thus, once the Pandas spread the word amongst each other that food is in one spot, they'll flock to that spot and give the Otocinclus a chance to munch on some food without having to nudge the Corys out of the way.

A similar trick could be used to ensure your Loaches get their munchies, then you can deposit some food where the Sterbai Corys will get to it, and everyone will be happy. Do this frequently and eventually you'll train your bottom feeders to expect their meals in specific locations, and keeping the peace at feeding time should pose no major problems from that point on.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks Calilasseia and Natalie for the valuable suggestions. Im sure the aggression at feeding can be handled effectively by these menthod. My plan was something like this. As the loaches are now readily accepting the floating pellets, let them do that and while they are busy wrestling the clowns and the gouramis for pellets, drop down some wafers for the corys in the other corner.
My concern is general aggression. Today I saw another thing that has started troubling me a bit about these blue loaches. One of them is chasing the other three like mad Looks like its trying to become the dominant loach (i assure u these are loaches, not the malawis
I'll have to make another cave before I can get some corys, because the earlier two are occupied by the clowns and the blues.

I've got 3 of these lovely corys and plan on getting more, when some of my other fish move to a bigger tank. They are very active, very cute and, in my opinion, well worth the price tag they carry

I normally recommend 6 as a minimum group size for Corys (and 8 for Pandas which are particularly dependent for their well being on numbers of their own species, along with other smaller species such as pygmaeus, hastatus, habrosus and cochui) but with sterbai, given the price tag they command, obtaining them piecemeal is usually the only way it can be done - where I live they're £12 each (ouch). At the moment, I'd have to get them one at a time over a 6 month period if I wanted them ...

If you have sterbai, congratulations - they are a wonderful species, and likely to be nice and profitable if you persuade them to breed!

Same trick should work with sterbai as works with my Pandas - regular frequent water changes and gravel vacs, a varied diet (including live food on at least an intermittent, and preferably a regular, basis) and a good number in the aquarium to keep each other happy. I have 14 Pandas in my now-infamous Panda Fun Palace, and having just fed them, I can tell you that when you have a big group of Pandas, they are completely nuts ... a non stop supplier of slapstick comedy moments that make them just SO endearing, for all the world like a big gaggle of Labrador puppies with fins!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

LOL.
My tank, I fear, is stocked to it's capacity (maybe beyond) or there would be more already. I have been looking at the pandas everytime I go to the LFS. They are cute for sure. I go to the LFS at least once a week, to buy live food for both my cold water and tropical tanks. Saturday afternoon feedings are the highlight of my week They all go nuts for live brine shrimp and bloodworms!

Oh, if you're feeding live Brine Shrimp and Bloodworms, then you'll have NO problem getting your sterbai to spawn.

If you see them chasing each other round like a Keystone kops sequence played at double speed, spawning is imminent. Once the other fishes you're planning on rehousing are moved, and you have more sterbai in there, chances are they'll spawn readily.

If you can, get hold of Java Moss as a spawning medium - it's not a South American native, and purists setting up a biotope aquarium would blanch at the thought, but as a spawning medium for Corys it's second to none. You want to see my Pandas feverishly burying eggs in it!

Sometimes, they'll use other media (spawning mops if you can't get Java Moss) and sometimes, they'll use other plants, preferably fine leaved ones (however, I've known my Pandas lay eggs on the underside of an Amazon Swordplant close to the root crown, just to be awkward!), but if you can get Java Moss, it'll make life a LOT easier. Be advised though, when it's in an aquariu it likes, it grows like stink. Mine is currently staging a campaign for world domination, beginning with the Panda Fun Palace!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Will have to check out some info on spawning. My guppies have had loads of fry and it was great to watch them grow, but I'm sure the corys won't be that easy

I never even tried spawning sterbai, yet I ended up with fry.

Sounds like it will be easier than I thought then