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Hi Folks,

I have a melini catfish, a peppered catfish, an albino catfish, an emerald catfish, rubber lipped pleco and a betta. I fast the betta one day a week. How long do I fast the corys and the pleco for? Thanks!

I never fasted any of my corys, not for a day unless I forgot to feed them. I think they've been doing fine for years.

Why fast them?

P.S. The corys are better off in a school of their own kind, not one of each They are social fish, like the company of their own kind and different species of corys may not necessarily click as they don't see each other as similar.

I give all my fish at least one day off a week, usually two. But I don't have any scientific basis for it.

I agree with @corycory.
Feed my Corys every day and keep them in shoals if their own species. You'll be amazed about social behaviour in that case.

Thanks folks. I just ended up feeding them last night after reading corycorys post. I couldn't see them starve. But I also fed my betta too. Also gave the corys and the pleco a nice piece of blanched squash for them to eat overnight.

I never fast the fish unless away on vacation or plan on shipping them in the next few days.

Exceptions would be experimenting trying to trigger a spawn.

I often skip a day feeding the fish, more to allow the biological filtering to catch up.

Good biological filtration don't need to catch up. If you need, you must enlarge the bacterial surface.

We all tend to overfeed our fish. In nature there are times of the year when the food supply is very limited if not nonexistent and in some regions this can be for several weeks. Decreasing water levels and dwindling food supplies is a process that takes place annually, in these areas the fish numbers are reduced dramatically and only the strongest survive. To prepare many of the species from these areas into spawning a simulation of the natural conditions is required and that will include a prolonged fasting period, for anything up to three months. It is a risky process, and you need to be certain that the species you are working with are from flood plane lakes and areas that go through the drying out process. Many of the species we keep are from rivers and streams and as such are not subjected to the aforementioned extremes, but will experience a reduction in water levels and food supply. So to answer the question, fasting Corys can be a good thing, but not feeding for a day is not actually fasting. Reducing the amount and quality of the food you give for a couple of months once a year, would be more beneficial than a constant supply of high quality food all year round. In fact more Corys are killed by being fed too higher protein foods, than ever are by feeding poorer low protein foods.

Boy, do I agree with this. I've had some of my best spawning activity after a prolonged period without much food. Also, I've not seen any adverse effects from not feeding my fish for a week or two when I'm out of town. (In fact, I take a certain pleasure in being forced not to feed for a week or so, because I think it actually helps the fish.)

With my corydoras C123, they first spawned for me after a prolonged period of little food. We were on vacation for about 12 days, during which they were not fed. When we returned, I fed them for 3 days, and then a major storm (a derecho) knocked out our electricity for 5 days. I lowered the water levels, added battery powered air pumps, and changed the water daily until the power came back. After it came back, I moved the C123 to a tank of their own, did frequent water changes (because I was concerned about the status of the biological filter after the outage), and they spawned about a week later.

I am not an expert. I've kept cory's for over 5 years. My first bunch is still alive and has always spawned without any intervention and is still spawning. The others are just 2-3 years old. They've never been been fasted and they've always had as good quality food as I can afford. The food I feed all my tanks has no more than 34-38% protein as mine are all grown fish, except for the frozen foods. I've no access to live food here at all, small town.

After it came back, I moved the C123 to a tank of their own, did frequent water changes (because I was concerned about the status of the biological filter after the outage), and they spawned about a week later.

My guess is they would have spawned after a series of water changes without being subjected to the prior ordeal. If they hadn't spawned for a while, they hadn't got enough water changes. Try 50% weekly or twice weekly and you'll have corys spawning all year round.

Corycory wrote:I am not an expert. I've kept cory's for over 5 years. My first bunch is still alive and has always spawned without any intervention and is still spawning. The others are just 2-3 years old. They've never been been fasted and they've always had as good quality food as I can afford. The food I feed all my tanks has no more than 34-38% protein as mine are all grown fish, except for the frozen foods. I've no access to live food here at all, small town.

After it came back, I moved the C123 to a tank of their own, did frequent water changes (because I was concerned about the status of the biological filter after the outage), and they spawned about a week later.

My guess is they would have spawned after a series of water changes without being subjected to the prior ordeal. If they hadn't spawned for a while, they hadn't got enough water changes. Try 50% weekly or twice weekly and you'll have corys spawning all year round.

No, your guess is completely wrong. They had had frequent water changes, at least 50% weekly for the preceding year.

I've had corydoras for more than 5 years and generally do one or two 50% or greater water changes weekly in all of my tanks.

OK. Fair enough. I understand.
I am glad you found a method that works for you. I've done a similar thing before, that's why I don't really like this sort of method
I left mine once for a few months without water changes(heavily planted low tech tank). They didn't spawn for the entire low quality water period. When I did the first water change, they spawned within days afterwards. So I can say I triggered a spawn but I actually stopped them from spawning with the bad water quality prior to that as they normally spawn regularly if I do water changes regularly.
So I am coming from a different experience with the same result.

The trouble is most people treat all Cory species as coming from the same water type and conditions, but I am afraid they "Don't". Far from it, so before deciding what you think they require, a little research into where they came from. I am talking wild imported, not farm raise fish here. Different areas have different climates, and spawning triggers can be a whole range of things, and as I have said some of these things can be considered as extreme, especially when tried in an aquarium. I have recorded breeding activity of over 140 species of Cory and they certainly do not all follow the same spawning procedures, or indeed require the same spawning triggers.