PlanetCatfish.com

Hello all,

I've just stumbled across this site and looked through some past posts. I have already found alot of helpful info!!!:)

Right now I have a 55g tank with a sand substrate. I also have a Penguin 330 power filter. The tank has been up-and-running for 4 months now. Can't believe I have never started an aquarium before. It's been fun and interesting so far.

The fish I have in the tank are:

7 Lemon Tetras
3 Dwarf Gouramis
2 Corydoras trilineatus (sold to me as C. julii but I really think they are C. trilineatus)
3 Loaches "Botia rostrata" (I did some searching on the net and I'm pretty sure they are B. rostrata)

I have a couple of questions that I hope some people can answer.

1) What is a good number of C. trilineatus to have? Do they do well in more numbers or are the two I have now going to be fine?

2) What other species would you recommend to go with the ones I already have? I know this is a real general question, but I'm interested in the different answers that people have:) No angelfish though. One of the gouramis has a real appetite for angelfish fins. I have already lost two that I bought.

I really like all the fish I have, but the newest additions (the corys) are my favorite out of all of them. Real interesting species.

3) I also have a question about the cory behavior. I have heard that they are a really active species. And mine are also, except for sometimes they lay really still at the bottom and do not move, even while all the other fish swim near them. Is this normal behavior?

Thanks in advance for any replies:)

Hi! Hooray for the cories! It seems like with cories the more the better! It's good to have groups of the same species, but in my 10 gallon I have six cories total: 2 Schwartziis, 2 Bronze, 1 Paleatus and 1 Albino Bronze. Everyone gets along great and spends time in groups with the others. They are so much fun to watch! In my other 10 gallon I have two C. Ornatus and one C. Leucomelas who seem to do just fine with their little group of three. The two you have would probably be fine, but if you get a few more they will be 10x more fun to watch as they skitter around the gravel and curiously check everything out. (Can you tell I love my cories? )

As for the movement of the cories...mine are usually fairly active but then sometimes, like you, I will see them be still on the bottom for quite some time. From what I can assume, they are sleeping during this time, and since they don't have eyelids it's hard to tell! Sometimes the other fish in the tank will curiously swim by or bonk into the cories and then that usually seems to "wake them up" and they'll either start poking around in the gravel or they'll move to another place and sit still for awhile, which I'm guessing they were sleeping, got bothered where they were at, so they decided to move to a less active place for some good shut-eye! (I guess not really shut-eye, because of the lack of the eyelid, but you know what I mean! )

LOL

As a matter of fact, I'm off to buy some more of those corys. I think about 3 more should be fine for this tank. Then I think I will start another smaller tank soon that I'll only fill up with corys.

Don't overstock...the normal stocking rule is 1" of fish for each gallon.