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I have recently purchased a 9G/34L tank, with a trickle(wet-dry) filter. The tank will be planted. I would like to stock it with only corydoras, and I was wondering how many I could stock? I was thinking of stocking it with five of one of the following corydora breeds: Corydoras trilineatus, Corydoras julii, Corydoras leopardus or Corydoras panda. Is this overstocking?


Thankyou in advance

You can have a school of 6 Corydoras in the tank & you can choose which species you want. They are all lovely & hope you'll have lots of successful breeding.



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5 corydoradidinae are perfectly fine for a nine gallon tank, as many breeders keep three full grown adults (2M, 1F) in five gallon tanks. Personally, of the species you've listed the easiest to breed and the most lively of the bunch would probably be corydoras panda.

What are the dimensions of your tank, please? Longer and lower fish tanks are capable of housing more bottom dwellers like Corydoras than tall aquariums are.

As a general recommendation without knowing tank specs, I would say that C. leopardus will probably be a little too large. I would not feel comfortable housing a cory of that size (over six cm) in a small nine gallon unless the tank is at least two feet long. You will have an extremely tough time getting your hands on any actual C. julii, so you will likely need to scratch them from the list too. C. panda is the smallest of the species mentioned, and should do well provided that high water quality is maintained. There are a number of other Corydoras species which remain smaller than five cm in length, but I don't know how many of them would be available in your area.

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

If Fuller can spawn paleatus in an 11 gallon tank, then a nine should be no problem for 3 of any of the species listed, and even five for panda and trillineatus. .

Sure, it can be done. But there are a couple of reasons why I wouldn't try it myself. Firstly, Ian Fuller is an expert. He knows what he's doing and has gone through the whole process before many times.

Breeding is different than long-term housing. Usually a breeding tank for Corydoras recieves at least a thirty percent water change at least weekly. Sometimes breeders do resort to the dry season/wet season transition method and slow down the water exchanges, but it isn't often necessary if a concerted and well-coordinated effort is made at breeding the fish. Additionally, many times the parents are removed from the setup to facilitate less-complicated fry rearing. The adult fish may not be in the tank forever, and often they haven't even grow to full size.
Flopsy didn't indicate that they wanted to try breeding Corydoras, so I had to assume that normal housing of the fish was the objective here.

Note that these are only my feelings here. In the past I would not have raised objections about any species of cory in a tank of near ten gallons in size, but my opinions on this have changed. I did say in my previous post that "I would not feel comfortable housing a cory of that size..." in the tank. It can be done, but it will not be done by me.

I have no problem with C. panda or trilineatus in a nine gallon so long as the tank doesn't have a tiny footprint.

Last edited by sirbooks at 07-Jan-2006 11:52

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

"Breeding is different than long-term housing. "

That is true.

the dimensions of the tank are 38(l)x25(w)x46cm(h)
So I am able to have 5 trilineatus?

Last edited by flopsy at 07-Jan-2006 22:40

You could. The tank is taller than it is long or wide however, so the fish won't have a ton of room. They would probably appreciate some plants with broad leaves for them to rest on, and other decorations which serve the same purpose. These would basically extend the substrate for the catfish by allowing them extra places to be without having to swim to maintain position. Rock shelfs would be nifty, but I don't know if you will have the space for them.

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