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how do i feed my dwarf cories?

i currently have a 5 gallon tank with a pink/purple male betta and a small school of 3 dwarf cories.

i had one of the cories for a while and just added the 2 new ones. i plan on adding 2 or 3 more dwarf corries when my lfs gets them in.

i have a gravel substrate so the betta pellets will fall through the cracks of the gravel.

i read somewhere that some cories and plecos like real food like fruit or something. is that an option? if so how do i do that.

also i have tubifex worms but they do not stick to the side of the tank like they are supposed to.

any ideas on how to make sure my dwarfs are fed.

most pet stores should sell bottomfeeder food... theyre like little wafers that sink to the bottom and expand for easy feeding

i would be just afraid that they would contaminate my little tank. If I leave the wafer in there it could throw off the water parameters in my little 5 gallon tank. could i use like half a wafer or even a quarter?

violentray wrote:i would be just afraid that they would contaminate my little tank. If I leave the wafer in there it could throw off the water parameters in my little 5 gallon tank. could i use like half a wafer or even a quarter?

Ofcourse you can. Feed them what ever you think is suficient. Or you can just drop a whole wafer in and fish it back out 6 hrs later and dump it in the garbage can. This will allow then the chance to eat and not give the water enought time to start to decay.

Firstly gravel is not the ideal substrate for any Cory, least of all dwarfs, A fine smooth grained sand to a depth of no more than 8 mm (5/16") would be best. Secondly Corys are not Vegetarian and the best commercial food I have found is either Aquarian catfish tablets or Tetra Tabimin. Either of these can be crushed between thumb and forefinger to create smaller particles. Live foods such as grindle worm, cyclops and Baby brine shrimp would bring them into top condition very quickly.

Ian

the stuff i was talking about is made by hikari and is in a bag like plastic thingy... most of my other fish steal them away from the cories, so i guess all fish like them

i understand that gravel is bad for corries but that is how i ahve my 5 gallon set up. i wasnt really into fish when i set it up so i just went with what i knew from when my dad had tanks when i was a kid. and changing gravel to sand is almost impossible so i am stuck with it the way it is unless i break the tank down completely.

when i went to a different lfs today looking for a piece of driftwood i asked the girl there and she sold me a can of Omega One Veggie Rounds to feed the corries.

I am hoping they eat those, or i can always resort to throwing in some flake food and let it get blown to the bottom for the corries. apparently that is how the original cory has survived for about a month.

Actually changing from gravel to sand is not that hard. All four of my tanks started out with gravel; the hardest part was catching the kuhli loaches from the gravel and removing them from the tank!

Basically just don't change your filter beforehand, and keep some gravel in a stocking for reseeding as needed. Pull the fish out, remove all the water and decorations, and then remove the gravel. Sand in first, well washed prior, then new water, let it settle VERY good before adding any filter with an impellor/magnet to spare yourself needing a new one! Toss back in the decorations, let the sand totally settle, and then add the fish. Toss in the stocking afterward to reseed partially (your filter should take care of the rest), and feed very very lightly the next few days. Keep up on your water changes, and water tests too.

That said, I don't think the food you were sold is very good for cories. Corydoras are not strict vegans. I am a huge fan of New Life Spectrum foods, but in the case you can't order any, stick with a more protein-based pellet, such as a shrimp pellet.

when i went to a different lfs today looking for a piece of driftwood i asked the girl there and she sold me a can of Omega One Veggie Rounds to feed the corries.

I am sorry but yet again the lfs staff do not know what they are doing, which seems to happen all too often. having said that there are many that educate their satff and do give good and correct advise. Please forget about vegi foods for Corys, to make sure your Corys are adequately fed, take a little pinch of flake and hold it in the water for a second or to and then release it. It will sink straight away. Do this last thing at night when the lights go off.

Ian

What kind of sand is good? Any sand or does it need to be something like the Onyx sand? I'm thinking of changing over a 10 gallon tank at some point and trying Pygmies again. If I went with the Onyx, I'm afraid I'd lose them in the black color.

Before I went all sand in all my tanks, I had a single 10 gallon set up with Tahitian Black Moon Sand (PetsMart had it, but at 20$ per 20 pounds, that was too expensive for 4 tanks total!). In the end, I went with a playsand at my local Home Depot. No problems in the two years since I switched over to it. Though the damn kuhlis loaches refuse to take advantage of a new substrate, and instead sleep in the driftwood!....and dart into the mops of hornwort when scared.

I have been thinking of changing to sand for quite some time but was wondering about what to place under the sand for the plants to bed in. Anyone want to respond?

I've never done it myself, but I've heard of people using peat for plant rooting under the sand.

You should make sure that the peat isn't fertilized, as some of the stuff they sell at the garden center may well have added components to make it better for plants. You don't want that in your fish-tank.

From what I can gather, you could either lay a layer of peat, or make some small mounds of peat where you want to have your plants.

I also imagine that something like ladies stockings might work well to make some "packages" of peat to grow plants in... Not that I really know much about ladies stockings...

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Mats