Cories And Gravel?

[joyboy]

I just read that you should have any gravel if you want cories. I have cories that i bought 2 days ago and my tank has a mix of very fine black gravel and some big multicolour gravel. Mostly black but on some areas there is more big multicolour gravel. Is there any serious side effects??

 

[HAMBONE]

I just read that you should have any gravel if you want cories. I have cories that i bought 2 days ago and my tank has a mix of very fine black gravel and some big multicolour gravel. Mostly black but on some areas there is more big multicolour gravel. Is there any serious side effects??

one of my tanks has a more gravel type of plant substrate.. loaded with corys, they're doing fine.. but this may not work for you, because I'm constantly axed what my stats are..

 

[Gilli]

Give it a rest Hambone - its becoming boring!

You can use gravel with corys but make sure its the smooth kind - pea gravel is best. Gravel can wear down their barbels if its sharp and they use these to find their food. The barbels will grow back if damaged . Ive kept corys ever since I started fish keeping with pea gravel although they do prefer sand as they love to sift through it.

 

[Akasha72]

thank gods it's not just me that finding HAMBONE irritating

Gilli is correct joyboy. They're fine on gravel provided it's not got any sharp edges. Mine are on a smooth pebble and still have their barbels intact

 

[Andythufishman]

As has allready been said gravel is ok as long as its smooth, I have bronze cory with 3-4mm smooth river rock gravel and there just fine

 

[joyboy]

Thanks a lot for your replies guys. My gravel dont have sharp edges, theyre like rounded so my cories should be ok.

 

[fluttermoth]

Make sure you keep it really clean though. More problems with cories are caused by dirty substrate than what kind it is, although they do 'like' sand better, IMO.

 

[Bignose]

water quality and keeping them healthy is far, far more important than 'sharpness of the substrate material' when talking about cory's barbels. If the water quality is poor, and hence the fish aren't super healthy, the fish can be prone to bacterial attacks that 'wear' down the barbels. Conversely, if you keep the water perfect, and hence the fish healthy, far less worry. There was an experiment done several years back where a fishkeeper did their water changes religiously and kept cory catfish on a crushed glass substrate with no barbel erosion at all. Like a lot of issues in fishkeeping, water quality tends to be among the most important variables.

 

[sadguppy]

water quality and keeping them healthy is far, far more important than 'sharpness of the substrate material' when talking about cory's barbels. If the water quality is poor, and hence the fish aren't super healthy, the fish can be prone to bacterial attacks that 'wear' down the barbels. Conversely, if you keep the water perfect, and hence the fish healthy, far less worry. There was an experiment done several years back where a fishkeeper did their water changes religiously and kept cory catfish on a crushed glass substrate with no barbel erosion at all. Like a lot of issues in fishkeeping, water quality tends to be among the most important variables.

The things people do in the name of science!