# Planted tank for Corydoras



## cpc1007 (Sep 21, 2004)

Hi all,
I used to be active on APC, however work had consumed the past 5 yrs of my life and I didn't get to do much planting or social with friends on APC, I hope all my old friends here are doing well.

I want to share a few photos of my Corydoras tank, this is the only tank I have kept going in the past few years, it's fish focused with some Anubias...clearly a less time consuming setup compared to stem plants and high lit environment. I thought this would be an interesting setup to people who love both Corydoras and plants:


----------



## Soup12 (Nov 1, 2013)

simple yet beautiful tank. What light you running to grow the anubiuas?


----------



## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Cool! I'm sending a link to a friend who loves catfish and who is thinking about starting a planted tank.


----------



## cpc1007 (Sep 21, 2004)

Soup12 said:


> simple yet beautiful tank. What light you running to grow the anubiuas?


thank you!

I am running 3X20W T8 for this 28G tank, 8 hrs a day. Haven't updated to LED since Corys look better under T8 or PC lighting (my own opinion of course). I think 2X20W would be already sufficient though, I like to run it a bit brighter for the photographing needs.


----------



## cpc1007 (Sep 21, 2004)

Michael said:


> Cool! I'm sending a link to a friend who loves catfish and who is thinking about starting a planted tank.


Also a few of my own opinions/concepts when setting up a planted tank for Corys or catfish in general:

(1) they need ground space, so aquascape shouldn't take away too much of grounds.

(2) use plants that don't attract/hide waste (ex. moss does this). The Aquascape should make it easy to extract bio waste, especially since some plecos really poop a lot...I mean...A LOT!

(3) use plants that can serve as a platform for fish to rest on it...I use Anubias as big-enough dining table so mini Corys can eat on leaves, away from having to compete with big boys.

(4) aquascape should provide certain amount of shade in order to give bottom dwellers a sense of comfort & safety. But the contrast of shade and lit areas shouldn't be too strong, otherwise fish would tend to hide rather than coming out and swim around.

just my 2 cents.


----------



## Aquaticz (May 22, 2009)

They love caves, mate in hair grass. I agree they need some space but they like the security of a heavily planted bottom. I have had good luck with hair grass,Blyxa japonica & Sagittaria subulata. They like to be under stuff and have their own pathway/ freeway. They also appreciate aeration at night and enjoy running in & out of the stream of water from a power head. The originate in shallow running water * Best substrate I found so far for them is pool filter sand


----------



## Yo-han (Oct 15, 2010)

All these Anubias look very healthy. It looks really good. If I ever run out of time, I'll probably setup something like this! 

What species is it on the 4th, 5th and 9th photo? The striped tail panda...


----------



## tonnakpil (Jul 29, 2013)

Looks like a flag tailed panda to me, Yo-han.


----------



## cpc1007 (Sep 21, 2004)

Yo-han said:


> All these Anubias look very healthy. It looks really good. If I ever run out of time, I'll probably setup something like this!
> 
> What species is it on the 4th, 5th and 9th photo? The striped tail panda...


They are Corydoras oiapoquensis, a rather samller species like C. Panda.
There is also a long snout version, called Corydoras condiscipulus.


----------



## iziko (Mar 27, 2013)

Nice tank you have and great fish!

for the cory nutrition I recommended using Tetra TabiMin and Algea Wafers - check them on ebay.

I was breeding my corys and cat fish using thous types of food.

Good luck!


----------



## cpc1007 (Sep 21, 2004)

iziko said:


> Nice tank you have and great fish!
> 
> for the cory nutrition I recommended using Tetra TabiMin and Algea Wafers - check them on ebay.
> 
> ...


Thank you.
I do use various tablets designed for Corys...Tetra, Hikari...etc. However their staple foods are frozen bloodworm, live blackworm & Repashy Gel.


----------



## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

very nice! love the idea..i am going to redo my tank soon and will try something similar! i keep aspidoras and some smaller corydoras. thanks for sharing!


----------

