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Bronze Corydoras
There are many species of Corydoras in many colours and patterns.
The types I currently keep are Peppered Corydoras - Corydoras paleatus and Bronze Corydoras - Corydoras aeneus.
I also have hi-fin and albino morphs of C.aeneus, this page is based upon these particular Corydoras.
Albino Corydoras
In the wild Corydoras originate from South America and are spread throughout much of this region where they live in rivers and streams.
I keep mine at a temperature of 25C I have some in a community tank and I also have some in a species tank.
I feed them sinking catfish pellets and flake food.
They will scavenge around for any missed fish food in a community tank but you should also feed them the pellets to ensure they are getting food, I also use fish flakes as well as the pellets in the species tank for variety.
They like to live in groups of atleast 6 and they will swim around together and interact amongst their own group, larger groups can ofcourse be kept together, it is not a good idea to keep less than 6 as they will often pine away and die.
For substrate I use fine rounded gravel, Corydoras need either fine rounded gravel or sand substrates, on rough or large gravel they can wear away or damage their barbels, the barbels are important for breeding activity and interaction within the group.
Peppered Corydoras
Peppered Corydoras are available with a small variety of pattern, some having larger darker areas and with smaller spaces between them giving an overall darker appearance, there is also an albino vairety.
Bronze Corydoras are also available in an albino vairety and more often available than with the albino Peppered Corydoras, there are also hi-fin and long fin Bronze varieties, the colour can also vary very widely with many shades available.
These particular Corydoras grow to 2.5"-3" with the Bronze being the larger of the two.
There are also pygmy Corydoras (Corydoras pygmaeus) which grow to 1" in length.
I have never seen my Corydoras be destructive to plants or aggressive to any other fish, they are very peaceful catfish, lots of people keep Corydoras with bettas, they are quite a popular match.
They are cute and very curious of their surroundings and always appear to be very busy foraging around, so if you wanted catfish that will not hide away Corydoras are a good choice.
Bronze or Peppered will breed quite easily and often they breed in community tanks, some of the other types of Corydoras can be difficult to breed.
A large water change with slightly cooler water will trigger spawning activity, females breed with more than one male and the ratio of males to females should be 2 males to 1 female upwards.
The eggs are laid on plants or the aquarium glass, you need to either remove the parents or the eggs otherwise they may eat them.
Unfertilised eggs will have a white dot in the centre and they will then begin to fungus, to prevent this fungus growing onto fertilised eggs and spoiling them you need to add an anti-fungal solution such as Methylene Blue to the tank water or to the container holding the eggs, Methylene Blue will dye your tanks silicon so moving the eggs is a better choice in that respect.
It is always best to add the anti-fungal with Corydoras eggs.
The tank needs to have clean water and a good air flow over the eggs.
You then perform small water changes each day until all the methylene blue has gone, it should all be gone before the eggs hatch.
Females will also lay eggs if no males are present, I have had this occur several times.
A container can be floated in the spawning tank to keep a constant temperature and then you can add an airstone to provide the water flow.
As you can see getting viable eggs and hatching them is more difficult than triggering the initial spawning behaviour but is a nice first project with catfish.
Bronze and Peppered Corydoras are readily available in most areas.
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