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I posted this topic before and some thing went wrong but it is all sorted now so I'm going to try again

I'm planning to buy my first my first school of cories and I'm having trouble deciding which variety I want(there are so many lovely ones). I'd like all your thoughts pleeese.

What is your favorite cory?

Greetings, snail! Sorry you ran into problems before. I have many favorite Corydora species. The problem is, the next one I get becomes my new favorite. If you haven't had Corydora species in your tanks, I'd recommend either C.paleatus or C.aeneus as a great place to start. What other species are in your tanks?
Amanda

So far I just have the tank, 78 gallon. It will be planted and decorated with wood. The other inhabitants will be about 100 cardinal tetras, thats it. It's going to be a couple of months before I can set up the tank so it's just in the planning stage . (I have fish already just not in that tank, so I know about cycling and stuff )

My favorite corys are the ones I don't have yet.lol. Seriously, I like them all. I'll try to collect as many group of species as I can. Currently, I have aeneus, ambiacus, duplicareus, haraldschultzi, leucomelas, paleatus, panda, schwartzi, sodalis, sterbai and trilineatus. Coming soon will be davidsandsis!

I like all healthy short snout cory.

Freshman wrote:I like all healthy short snout cory.

Healty is good

I like the typical short fat and cute cory shape best I think, but there are still loads of them. One that is fairly bold during the day would be ideal. More favorites and why.....keep them coming

. I used to have a group in the past and the males got more and more beautiful. Not so easy to get hold of (at least overhere) and not very cheap either, but what a stunning Cory!

Marc van Arc wrote:

Corydoras geryi

. I used to have a group in the past and the males got more and more beautiful. Not so easy to get hold of (at least overhere) and not very cheap either, but what a stunning Cory!

Very nice, I've never seen one here in Portugal though

Wow that is a cool cat. My favorite is concolor I had loads of these but there are only two left, how long do corys live for? They have been retired to the 'mother in laws' tank, I had them for about 4 years and she has had the two remaining for two more.

Marc van Arc wrote:

Corydoras geryi

. I used to have a group in the past and the males got more and more beautiful. Not so easy to get hold of (at least overhere) and not very cheap either, but what a stunning Cory!

This is another nice pattern cory I like.

snail wrote:So far I just have the tank, 78 gallon. It will be planted and decorated with wood. The other inhabitants will be about 100 cardinal tetras, thats it. It's going to be a couple of months before I can set up the tank so it's just in the planning stage . (I have fish already just not in that tank, so I know about cycling and stuff )

I'm not sure of the dimensions on a 78g tank, but it sounds big enough that you could put a couple of pretty good sized groups in there. I would suggest pygmaeus for one of them, and one of the more "conventional" species for the bottom. I've not seen them in person but I like looks of C sterbai.

I don't think you can go wrong with what you have planned, sounds like a nice tank to me, but I've always liked little fish in a big tank.

snail wrote:

Marc van Arc wrote:

Corydoras geryi

. I used to have a group in the past and the males got more and more beautiful. Not so easy to get hold of (at least overhere) and not very cheap either, but what a stunning Cory!

Very nice, I've never seen one here in Portugal though

If you add your location in your profile (as is a forum rule), then it's more likely that people who know what's available in Portugal will also give advice that APPLIES in Portugal.

Grokefish: Corys can live for a long time under correct care. I'm sure different species live different amount of time, but 10 years with good care should be achievable for all but the dwarf species.

--
Mats

snail wrote:

Marc van Arc wrote:

Corydoras geryi

. I used to have a group in the past and the males got more and more beautiful. Not so easy to get hold of (at least overhere) and not very cheap either, but what a stunning Cory!

Very nice, I've never seen one here in Portugal though

Hi,

I think I've seen them in Portugal, with name 'corydora bolivia'.
Very beautiful. Extremely expensive. More than weitzmani.

Regards,
Gul

[quote="MatsP
If you add your location in your profile (as is a forum rule), then it's more likely that people who know what's available in Portugal will also give advice that APPLIES in Portugal.

Grokefish: Corys can live for a long time under correct care. I'm sure different species live different amount of time, but 10 years with good care should be achievable for all but the dwarf species.

--
Mats[/quote]

Ok I added my location. Actualy I already tried reading the forum rules but it just told me the page didn't exist. probably a temporary blip.

If I come across something I like more than all cories I can probably get ahold of it as i know a couple of fish shops that import and they are quite hhelpful but I think i ought to be able to find somthing great already in stock.

I can't help it, I just think the Pepper Cory is my favorite. If you take good care of them, the iridescent colors come out. Just because they are common and cheap doesn't mean they aren't worth considering. They are so friendly, one of them has even adopted my Anadoras Grypus. Talk about the Odd Couple!

I like peppered cories too. I might go for them if I don't see anyting else I must have

I have albino C Aeneus, Sterba, Pepper/Paleatus and Elegans. But I've had them long enough to say Pepper is my favorite. He's definitely the big personality of the bunch, and like KCMT01's pepper, he chooses odd friends. I first fell in love with him when I spotted him sitting on the head of a small Pleco. He was busily cleaning the Pleco, then resting on the Pleco, and when the Pleco finally moved, he went along for the ride. It was hilarious and I could not pass him up, and got his Elegans tankmate so he would have a familiar fish to travel with.

At tempted as I was, I didn't get the Pleco because I didn't know what kind it was and didn't think I had any business trying to keep a pleco--which is certainly true at this point.

Since Pepper has been in my tank, he has amused me by swimming upside down to suck up any surface-floating food. When I had a UGF, he would ride the bubbles across the tank...upside down!

An added bonus is he is stunning with an intense irridescent blue sheen that hasn't paled even when water readings in my tank were poor.

The Sterba and the albino cories are also beautiful. The sterba have a hint of peachy orange to their pectoral fins that is really beautiful, and the albino aeneus flashes irridescent pearly blue and white. Aeneus has a good personality, too. I really don't notice much personality in my Sterba. They swim, they eat, but they aren't as comical as the others. The Aeneus will find odd places to settle down that just crack me up--like decorating the plants like little Christmas tree balls. One even once took a snooze on a Greco-Roman ruin decoration and it looked like he was a sculpture on a pedestal. Wish I had taken a picture of it.

Sorry to go on and on. I love my cories--what's left of them, anyway. I think your Cardinal Tetra tank will amaze you. I saw one like it at my LFS and it was breathtaking.

Oh...I have only the one elegans and it is shy but gets along well with the others and tends to hang out with and "comfort" the fish I had that got sick. But the looks of it (color and blocky shape) and the overall personality make it kind of fade into the background sometimes. It's still a juvenile, though...already prettier than when I first got him/her.

Does my tiger barb that schools with my corys count?
She's an honorary cory. I just think that's funny.
However, I am getting pandas tonight and a second albino for athos, my current albino. I also have 2 pepperred that are sooooo funny and soooooo active. How can one choose???

An honorary cory?!!! That is too cute! Good luck with your pandas. Please post and tell us what they are like. I have heard they are super playful. I wish I could get a school of them because they are so pretty. But even with getting a new tank, I will only be able to fill out the schools for the 3 species I already have. A pair of Sterba is such a sad sight--they need to be in a respectable school or they don't seem to know what to do with themselves. The pepper has started to hang out with them a lot but I'm planning on getting him his own kind, too. The Elegans will be the only odd cory out, but she schools with the albino bronzes so she's fine.

In a tank that size you can keep some of the larger corydoradinae, such as Brochis splendens, in groups of five or more. All cory-types catfish like company and won't show themselves to advantage unless there are three or four of a species. Single fish of different species will group together but I believe that they're even happier in single-species groups.

C. panda is an excellent little fish for a beginner and may well spawn if your tank is well planted. My particular favourite is the long-nosed species C. narcissus. They tend to be expensive but their colours are subtly beautiful. Another pretty fish, though very shy, is C. robineae. I have six in a group and they are unusual in swimming part of the time off the substrate, often just hovering with their fins gently waving.

I wouldn't go for the dwarf or pygmy varieties unless you put a large number in the tank, say twenty or more. I don't think they'll feel secure otherwise but then you should see real shoaling behaviour.