How many cories?

[johndoe222]

I'm gonna get a used 10g sometime in the near future and I was wondering how many bronze cories I could put in there if I had a mail crowntail betta. Any help welcome!

[Rue]

I wouldn't put any cories in a 10g. They're a schooling fish...so a group of 6 is recommended....and they're quite active...needing a fair amount of room.

[smaug]

Don't go with the larger corys. Peppered corys or even smaller such as dwarf cory could do just fine in a 10 gal. If you go as small as dwarf cory then you could get 10 of them. With leopard {julii} corys you could go with up to 6. With this amount of small cory you can easily keep a beta with them.

[johndoe222]

Ok thanks Smaug. How many should I get at a time?

[smaug]

You could get the whole group if your tank has an established filter,half at a time if it is freshlt cycled.

[johndoe222]

Well I'm going with a AC20 and I'm gonna put it in my dads already established 55g for acouple of weeks and then put it on the 10g. If I did that would it still cycle the tank or would it bypass it? And I don't plan on really putting any substrate in the tank.

[smaug]

No substrate? That's not a cory friendly tank . They are natural rooters and should be provided with suitably natural habitat. As for the hob,yes it will attain a bb load with a few weeks in an established tank,a month would be better. Please don't get corys without a suitably set up tank for cory. They need structure such as gravel and raised surface to forage over and seek cover behind.

[johndoe222]

Ok so after a little research I think i'm gonna go with some kind of sand and plant the back of the tank and maybe a big rock on one side. Any idea what kind of sand would be good for plants and cories?

[admael]

I use tahitian moon sand for my planted tank with fert tabs & weights. There are many of the smaller cory species to choose from.

I had 12 of the habrosus (http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=482) in a 10 gallon.

gladysae (http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=2474) • cochui (http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=469) • hastatus (http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=324) • habrosus (http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=482)

[Rue]

Sorry...I still wouldn't do it. They're just too active.

...I'll just add...it's like keeping a betta in a bowl. Can you? Yes. Should you? No.

[johndoe222]

Well Rue that's the whole point right there. I have a betta in a boel and I want to put it in a 10g. I didn't want just him in there though I wanted something else that he wouldn't attack. Almost all the places I have been to say 1 form of cories or the other. I think dwarf cories would be good since they don't get larger than bettas and I don't want anything larger than him.

[Rue]

I'm glad you're planning on more space for the betta...but then why put the cories in a position of having too little space?

However. if you're going to go ahead...and I've had pygmy cories in the past...maybe start with 4. Not ideal, but better than overcrowding them...

[smaug]

Corys are surface oriented fish. They like having structure directly under them. The way to cheat mor room for corys is to simply have more verticle structure for them. This can be a nice holey pc of wood or plants {real or fake} in this way you multiply the room they like.