Last night, me and my girlfriend went to another of the same store to buy her some crickets for her lizard, and I stumbled upon three more of the Sterbai corys, I had only gotten the two I had mentioned because that's all that was left of them. I felt kind of bad that it was just those two, so I nabbed the only three that were left at the other store. So now I have five Sterbai corys under quarantine at the moment, all of them look healthy, but kind of skinny... I can fix that.
I'll probably get a few more of these corys and possibly more of the albinos, I've... really grown attached to these guys. I love observing their behavior and their interaction with each other.
Munroco said:
Sterbai are my favourite cory
They are beautiful! Their patterns are interesting, I always see these guys at my job, but I was never really interested in them until I decided to look for another type of cory or bottom dweller. I was never too big of a fan of corys at first, but now I'm tarting to become familiar with the wide assortment of corys out on the market and now I'm hooked on them. I already love my albinos, but I think these Sterbais really take the cake.
Byron said:
I agree that you are not approaching stocking maximum. With upper fish, just be careful of possible fin-nippers with the gourami. But groups of peaceful shoaling species are possible, several.
Re the cories, you can mix species with no issues. I have over 40 cories representing 12 or so species in my 70g. The only real risk in this is possible cross-breeding, and then only if you were to dispose of the fry.
Cross-breeding is not well documented, but it is believed (and I believe there is actual evidence) that some species will. The genus Corydoras is a polyphyletic assemblage, meaning that the species assigned to Corydoras have evolved from different ancestors; a monophyletic genus is one in which the species all evolved from the same common ancestor, so they are closely related. Such a grouping is also termed a clade or lineage; there are nine distinct lineages that have been diagnosed in the present Corydoras genus by more than one group of ichthyologists, but there needs to be considerably more phylogenetic analysis to pin this down. The point here is that species more closely related, i.e., those within the same lineage, are far more likely to cross-breed, since they all share the DNA from the parent ancestor, and what diverges can just as easily converge.
Well, I already have a lot of activity on the mid and upper levels of the tank, the floor is what really needs some more activity. But I'm just worried about over working the bio-load and over stocking. Sure, I have a jungle of plants, but I don't want any of my fish becoming aggravated from all the activity. The lemon tetra have been chasing each other alot, not fighting, but I believe they're just establishing a pecking order. They've seemed to calm down recently, the neon tetra did the same so I'm not concerned. Not concerned about the gourami either, The tetra don't bother him at all. Except for the lemon tera occasionally, they're interested in his feces, but they don't nip his fins or anything.
I've already had the albinos lay their eggs, and I think soon again as two of them are looking very pregnant. The eggs eventually went away, I assume someone ate them, so if they do tend to cross breed, I'm almost certain the eggs will made into a snack.
eaglesaquarium said:
Last night, I had introduced three more albino corydoras to my 55 ggallon, making them a school of seven now. As I was watching the new and old corys meet and eat with each other. Made me want to see some more activity on the floor. The top of the aquariun is inhabited by the Pearl Gourami and the neon and lemon tetras, and right now the only bottom dwellers are the seven albino corys, a few amano shrimp and three nitrites, if they can even be classified as bottom dwellers.
So I'm curious, what other bottom dwellers should I consider? Should I just get more albino corys?
Absolutely - YES! If you can get a larger shoal of them, the display will be quite a bit more attractive than two separate shoals, honestly!
I'll probably end up upping both schools to seven or eight of corys for each school. It's interesting to watch these guys in hoards scurry along the floor of the tank.
Baccus said:
Corydoras really are "the more the merrier" sort of fish, and while at times it is impossible to get all of the same type of corydoras and some lonely corydoras may have to make do with some related species of corydoras, they really do so much better with a group all of their own kind. Its not like you are going to see turf wars or all hell breaking out in your tank from mixing corydoras, but you may see the smaller group are more subdued, a bit shyer and just generally not seeming to fit in.
Something else to keep in mind, because there are albino strains in Bronze Corydora, Peppered Corydora and Strebia Corydora there is no real way of knowing exactly which breed of albino your fish are from or even if they are all the one species of corydoras, therefore mixing the wild type back with the albino you more than likely will see breeding occur.
I'm aware, that's why I'm upping their shoals to a good number, I want these guys to thrive.
When I had just two albinos in the 15 gallon, I had placed one pepper cory in with them, they did fine for the longest time, but the pepper eventually died to unknown causes. I wondered if it had to do with him being the only pepper in the tank with the two albinos. I'm almost certain that Sterbai and albinos will school together, and that's perfectly fine, they can do as they please. I just wanted more activity on the floor and have been debating to add a different bottom dweller or just keep adding on to the albinos, which is why I made this thread. When it comes to decision making, especially for stocking, I like to have suggestions given to me to give me a broader range of variety to look over.
Thank you all, I appreciate your comments and enthusiasm!
