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Hi everyone,

So I have a planted 10g tank right now with only snails and rcs, and I am thinking of a dwarf corydoras. I was thinking about 9 to 12 of them, as I hear a few might die when you first get them. Are the Hastatus easy to keep? Do they school even after a few weeks when you first get them, or will they constantly hide? How do they compare vs pygmy or habrosus in terms of strength and fun to have? What can I feed them? Will they go to the bottom of the tank to find the food that sunk? Do they suddenly all die for unknown reason after a year or something?

Anyways, help me decide if I should get this fish, or not. Thanks

Edit: PS: I currently have 12 Pepered Cory in my 75g, and 9 Aspidoras Albater (looks like cory hybrosus) in another 10g tank, and they are both hardy and nice to have.

my experience is that hastatus are more sensitive than the other dwarves but they should all be fine in a well maintained aquarium

JS

Hi all,

Are the Hastatus easy to keep? Do they school even after a few weeks when you first get them, or will they constantly hide? How do they compare vs pygmy or habrosus in terms of strength and fun to have? What can I feed them? Will they go to the bottom of the tank to find the food that sunk?

Usually the difficulty is getting hold of them in the UK, the label says "C. hastatus", but the fish is always "C. pygmaeus". I think if you are good at water management and have a planted tank they are reasonably easy to keep.

Mine produce a trickle of fry without any intervention. Here are a couple of fry (towards top centre), tank is a 2' with 100% rain-water, very heavy planting and some dead leaves.


There is a thread about breeding/fry raising here: <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=35069>

I've found that C. hastatus is a lot more reclusive than either C. habrosus or C. pygmaeus.

Both C. pygmaeus and C. hastatus spend most of their time in the plants, C. habrosus is usually on the sand, much like a bigger Cory, but they do all school and will feed together. I've kept C. pygmaeus and C. hastatus in the same tank without any hybridization, although I only initially added the C. pygmaeus because I hadn't seen any C. hastatus for some time, and I'd assumed I didn't have any left. When the C. pygmaeus came out to feed the C. hastatus re-appeared.

I give all of mine a small amount of a mixture of spirulina and earthworm flake and live Daphnia, but the food they really like are grindal and particularly micro/banana-worms.

Tubifex, Black-worms and small earth-worms are also eaten and I'd like to try "Derofex" if any-one in the UK has a spare culture?

cheers Darrel

Hello Darrel, nice to read about the hastatus. They are very rare here (Holland) as well.
I've got habrosus. To my opinion that's the one that more difficult to keep in a tank. Coming from cooler / flowing / oxygen-ed riversystems. They often operate alone or are with 2 / 3 on a stone. It's my favo Cory, but surely not the easiest one.

Are hastatus as Pygmaeus sometimes swimming as "normal"fish as well ?

Greetz,
Aad

Hi all,

Are hastatus as Pygmaeus sometimes swimming as "normal"fish as well ?

Yes, they often swim around the tank like a Tetra would, and they some-times rest up in the plant leaves as well.

When I bought them I got a lone Odontostilbe kriegi* by-catch as well and it shoaled with them, and was virtually indistinguishable. I tried to get some more O. kriegi, but was un-successful <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=35069>.

* Should now be Serrapinnus kriegi.

cheers Darrel

thanks for the responses. Basically, I was wandering if they were a fun fish to have, or would they be hiding most of the time, never being able to see them, in a 10g planted tank. My Aspidoras Albater (similar to Habrossus) hide a lot, but do come out a lot too, and I have a few babies in the same tank (not sure if they will make it though, but very active). I was wandering if the Hastatus loses their tights formation after a few weeks, and become only hiding?

Guess what I get as I type in this name on a German site:
http://www.amtra.de/cmi/cms/front_content.php?idart=470
Woehahahaha together with C.hastatus. You're not the first one !!!

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies. Just to ask, my water ph would be in the 7.8 range, as that is what are tap water is like. Would this still work out?