Are "fracted " clay substrates OK for Corydoras?

[Deb]

Hi. This is my first posting in this forum.

I've never seen anything written about this in any plant column in any magazine, or in any book. And I read a lot! Maybe some of you have had experience with the fairly new stable porous clay gravel substrates.

The small pieces are kind of sharp, and after rinsing (and you have to rinse it forever!), your hands feel really wierd and dry.

So I have to wonder, what does that feel like to a cory's barbels?

Does anyone know for a fact that it's OK as a top layer with Corydoras?

Thanks.
deb

[MatsP]

Deb,

Thanks for teaching me something new: I didn't know what fracted clay was (or even that such a thing existed), so I had to look it up on the web. That's the second new thing I learnt today (the other had to do with work...).

I don't think it's a suitable material to keep cories on. It sounds to me like the bits of broken clay is quite sharp, and cories want to have rounded substrate to avoid destroying their barbels.

--
Mats

[Marc van Arc]

Hi Deb,
I fully agree with Mats. Just take ordinary sand and your Corys will love it. Beside the fact that the clay-whatevers are too sharp, I think there's another disadvantage: the food particles will disappear into the relatively large gaps and will start rotting there. Then see what happens.
So no clay. Nor marbles please -).