Design of Corydoras hastatus colony?

[Mike_Noren]

I've finally got hold of 10

Corydoras hastatus

. They're tiny (I'd say about 15 mm TL), came with some sort of parasite (possibly Gyrodactylus), all have damaged tail fins, won't eat anything but live artemia nauplii and... well, basically they're not in mint condition. But they are Corydoras hastatus, the species I've been looking for so long.

The idea is to set up a breeding colony. What would be a suitable design? I'm thinking 20 gallon tank, fine sand substrate, lots of plants and javamoss, slow water movement via sponge filter?

[Mod edit: Add clog tags to the species name, to allow easy "checking what it is" for those not familiar --Mats]

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I've got some, I've had them for about 6 months in a tank just with Red Cherry Shrimps/MTS/Red Ramshorn snails, one Odontostilbe(Cheirodon?) kreigi "by catch" (I'm looking for some more, in the UK) and 2 escapee male Endlers. With apologies for the quality of the photo, it is in the back of my lab.. It is a 60cm tank with a sponge filter and an Eheim 2211. I don't see the C. hastatus very often, but when I do they are looking really good. I'm feeding Daphnia, Grindal Worms and Astax red crumb, although the shrimps are getting vegetables and algal wafers as well.


I know that Apistomaster breeds them, and I set up the tank after I'd read this:
<http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=29511>

cheers Darrel (in Bath)

[Mike_Noren]

Ahaaa... Thanks for that link, that was exactly what I needed. I especially liked the idea of a "rubble pile" made out of hollow ceramic filter media as a shelter for the larvae, will definitely copy that!

[Richard B]

Nice lookin tank set-up but i'd like to see an expanse of fine sand somewhere on the bottom

I use a bound bundle of fine beech twigs to achieve the same effect of providing security.

This is a great little species and i'm kicking myself for not getting a group in November when i saw them for the first time in ages and good value too.

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I have put in a pile of ceramic filter media to act as a fry shelter. I'm not sure whether they are working for the fish, but they are very popular with the shrimplets.

but i'd like to see an expanse of fine sand somewhere on the bottom

Yes I probably should have a larger expanse of sand, I've now just got a "race track" of sand about 2" wide all around the edge of the tank, and I've retained a patch about as large as saucer behind the wood, nr. the power head. The cobbles and wood were to hide some slate caves (originally I was going to move some sub-adult L129 into the tank). I started with more open silica sand expanses, less wood and Java Fern and no planted planting (except for the Cabomba), but I just can't help myself and soon various odd plants (An Aponogeton, some Echinodorus plantlets etc) started to find their way in, and I had an Anubias that needed dividing, and I found a few Cryptocorynes I'd forgotten about etc. and it ended like this. Having said that the fish seem very happy and are usually in and around the planting rather than shoaling on the sand. Here is the sand:



cheers Darrel

[Mike_Noren]

I notice Apistomaster has pretty strong current in his colony, do hastatus prefer strong or weak current?

[dw1305]

Hi all,

do hastatus prefer strong or weak current?

I think they don't like really strong currents, my tank has had both strong and "normal" flow whilst the hastatus have been in there. Originally I had a Eheim 2213, a Maxijet 900 (with out-put running a long the bottom of the tank) and a Eheim Aquaball (with venturi). This gave both a lot of surface turbulence and fairly fast flow lower in the tank. One thing I found fairly quickly was that Marbled Hatches and strong surface turbulence is a bad mix.

The Corydoras hastatus were initially very bottom orientated and never left the lower 2" of the tank. I now think this was to do with the "ground effect" of the caves, pebbles etc breaking up the linear flow and creating calmer areas where they were more comfortable. Having said that they grew and didn't seem noticeably stressed.

Since then I've put a much larger sponge onto the Maxijet, swapped the Eheim 2213 for an Eheim 2211 with spraybar, and taken the Aquaball out all together. I've also added a lot more structure. The flow is now such that the Limnobium and Salvinia are not so tightly clustered in a corner, and the submerged plants are gently swaying, rather than being stretched out in the current. The Corydoras are still mainly bottom orientated, but they do occasionally shoal in mid-water, and travel both over and through the bog wood and plants quite comfortably, rather than being entirely bottom orientated.

cheers Darrel