Good Site To Try To Id A Cory?

[mikev]

Sounds good, thank you for the confirmation!

Even if I cannot grab these (bottleneck: only one qtank free atm and another fish already ordered for it), I'm pretty certain that C.Metae will be the 2nd cory here...

 

[OldMan47]

The ones you posted pictures of could also be c cochui. It is what I thought mine were and I'm still not sure.

 

[Coryman]

The ones you posted pictures of could also be c cochui. It is what I thought mine were and I'm still not sure.

I think you are referring the the C. paleatus ("Peppered Cory"), I have seen these listed as C. cochui, C. ehrhartdi and a host of other names. They are certainly not C. cochui, these come from the Rio xingu, are one of the smallest Corys and are extremely rare in the hobby.

Ian

 

[jollysue]

I keep a community tank of pandas, melini, arculatus and bilineatus. The matae and melini are very similar. They get on together very well.

 

[mikev]

I got a couple of them (C.Matae), hopefully can get more later...the two at the store looked very nice and juicy and there was a promise to order more, so i took them.

Very strange fish. I don't understand how they survived at the store, they eat only frozen bloodworms, nothing else. OTOH, they are willing to eat a lot of frozen bloodworms. I have gobies and loaches like this but never expected this from cories..... C.Panda's prefer bloodworms too, but would take pretty much anything edible....

Even stranger. The store tank had a couple of oto's, so I took them along for a qtank ride (otos are always handy). Naturally, otos don't eat prepared food too, I got them into eating cucumber with some efforts, and now for the strange stuff: they try to suck on cories. No kidding....this happened a few times over the last two days: an oto (3/4") lands on a side of a cory (1 3/4"), tries to suck, cory shakes it off..... I have oto's with C.Panda's, never anything like this....

 

[Barracuda518]

I got a couple of them (C.Matae), hopefully can get more later...the two at the store looked very nice and juicy and there was a promise to order more, so i took them.

Very strange fish. I don't understand how they survived at the store, they eat only frozen bloodworms, nothing else. OTOH, they are willing to eat a lot of frozen bloodworms. I have gobies and loaches like this but never expected this from cories..... C.Panda's prefer bloodworms too, but would take pretty much anything edible....

Even stranger. The store tank had a couple of oto's, so I took them along for a qtank ride (otos are always handy). Naturally, otos don't eat prepared food too, I got them into eating cucumber with some efforts, and now for the strange stuff: they try to suck on cories. No kidding....this happened a few times over the last two days: an oto (3/4") lands on a side of a cory (1 3/4"), tries to suck, cory shakes it off..... I have oto's with C.Panda's, never anything like this....

They might be wild caught, which is why they wont eat prepared foods. You might want to get some live blackworms to feed them too. Frozen bloodworms will not be enough IMO. You can try things like earthworm sticks too. I have some wild Brochis that were stubburn at first, but loved live blackworms and earthworm sticks. Now they eat everything.

As for the Ottos, thats not good. I would take the them out of the tank with the cories.

 

[mikev]

Thanks, Barracuda,

I'll experiment with food... it is a bit puzzling since they were in the store for three weeks and if they did not eat anything, I should have seen some weight loss....but they appear in good shape. I'll try soaking wafers in bloodworm "juice", sometimes this works.

As for the oto's, let me give them a little time...setting up another qtank just for them or returning them to the store are not very appealing options and may be they will stop once less hungry.... (not sure I really believe this---I saw another try just now, and the oto's stomach looked full).

 

[mikev]

 

[Barracuda518]

So how are the cories?

Are the Ottos still causing problems?

 

[mikev]

So how are the cories?

Are the Ottos still causing problems?

Everyone is alive and still refusing prepared food. Bloodworms for the cories, cucumber and zucchini for the otos.
And the otos are worse than before: they have fattened a bit, more active, and attack more often....so the cories are mostly hiding in the plants.
Hopefully, otos will stop this eventually, right now I'd be afraid to put them into any tank here...no way of knowing what other types of fish they will attack.

oh, btw off-topic: here is the local achievement. The otos were actually meant to go to the tank with the fry parents to deal with the algae there....not sure I'll ever see another spawn with these two around.

 

[Barracuda518]

So how are the cories?

Are the Ottos still causing problems?

Everyone is alive and still refusing prepared food. Bloodworms for the cories, cucumber and zucchini for the otos.
And the otos are worse than before: they have fattened a bit, more active, and attack more often....so the cories are mostly hiding in the plants.
Hopefully, otos will stop this eventually, right now I'd be afraid to put them into any tank here...no way of knowing what other types of fish they will attack.

oh, btw off-topic: here is the local achievement. The otos were actually meant to go to the tank with the fry parents to deal with the algae there....not sure I'll ever see another spawn with these two around.

Do you have a picture of these 2 Ottos?

The added stress caused by the Ottos is not helping the cories at all. Maybe you can take the Ottos back to the LFS? Sounds like they are not worth all the trouble.

I take it those are Otto fry in that picture?

 

[mikev]

Nothing special about the otos...I think:





They slightly fattened and the coloration is a bit better. In the 2nd photo he is preparing an attack...usually this is how they do it: wait for a cory to get in range.

Yep, I understand about the stress, I don't feel like giving up on them yet (I generally don't return fish to LFS....don't want to make the first out of this).

The fry is R.Wui: small hillstream gobies. father. one of the possible mothers. They are frozen-food-only fish...so their tank is in need of cleaning fishes. The babies on the photo were about 10-day old.

 

[Barracuda518]

I understand not wanting to return the Ottos. I cant remember if you said there are more Ottos in another tank? If not, you might want to get a bigger group. Maybe thats why they are doing all this stuff. I dont know a whole lot about Ottos, but you could always start a thread in the Plecos and other Loricariids section.


I should have known that was some type of Hillstream fish. Those are very nice. Congratulations on the fry.


EDIT: Spelling

 

[mikev]

Yep, I have a few more Oto's...but their tank has a lot of small fish I don't want attacked.... Let me watch this for a few more days, the fish needs a longer quarantine anyway and I hope the Oto's will start eating something else (my established ones eat pretty much everything now, from catfish wafers to bloodworms).

Thanks. Breeding these chaps is a really stupid thing to get into: daily massive W/C's, making sure that they have live BS at all times, and all this for only four fries. Makes them the most expensive fish I ever owned. And it may take another month of BS, while they are large enough for real food now, they would not touch it.....

 

[Cory_Dad]

Weird.

I've read about oto's sucking on discus but Corys? The thought was that were consuming microbes/bacteria in the slime on the discus. But oto's are herbavores so what are they doing eating protein?! I wonder if a dose of erythromycin would help.

Does it appear that the Corys are suffering from the 'cleaning'?

Let us know how this turns out. It's sure one for the books.

Good luck.