PlanetCatfish.com

Hey guys, I was hoping to get some personal insight on keeping Scleromystax barbatus. I was doing some research and these guys seem to have the similar requirements as most Corys. Just wondering if anyone had any advice on keeping these guys. Thanks.

There's actually quite a lot of info on the species page. What else were you looking for? They are similar to corys but distinctive in their own right. I keep mine in a cool water tank on soft sand. I feed a varied diet including pellet, flake and live/frozen. They spawn a day or two after every water change. Been doing that for a couple of months now. They exhibit great personality and are not shy at all.

I haven't kept them but I did look into it at one stage. There are a couple of major differences to their Cory cousins:
1) they are a low-temperature fish, more so that Corys.
2) the males are much more aggressive around breeding time, and may kill competing males.
This means that you can't so easily keep them in a community tank, and there is some debate as to how many should be kept together.
Hope that is of some help.


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I have been breeding barbatus for 3 years now. As the post above mentions, a day or so after a cold water change they will breed. I have a terrible time getting a good hatch rate, but every few spawns result in 100% success for some reason. If I get them to hatch, fry are generally easy to raise and grow quickly.

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I've been keeping them for several years as well and have had success with groups of 10-12 in larger tanks such as 55 and 75 gallons. I also have kept reverse trios in tanks as small as 10 gallons. As mentioned they prefer cool water and if your fish room gets warm in the summer time, increased aeration is a must, floating 2 liter bottles of ice is also helpful. Eggs are generally laid in clumps found on the glass or undersides of broadleaf plants.