Feeding Guide for Corydoras

Thoth

I do flakes (no particular favorite) for surface and mid water fish and Hikari Micro Pellets daily (my favorite) and frozen blood worms occasionally for bottom feeders. Blood worms do a great job prepping some fish (Corys included) to breed.

It does sound like you are over feeding. When I use the skinny pellets (sticks) in my 30" long Cory tank with 9 Cory, I only feed them 2 pellets (around 0.8"x 0.2" size). Normal behavior for the Corys is to search for food in the tank. You can look and see that their belly is sunken in when they are underfeed. I as well skip a day of feeding every week or so.

Jakiebabie

Ohhhhh!! That's a new statement I have not seen before...!! Byron can you elaborate as to why?

Byron

Certainly. One should never feed fish prior to any planned disruption of their environment. The physical aspect of digestion requires energy, and the fish should be in a fairly relaxed atmosphere so the physiology can properly function. Much the same as humans being advised not to exercise on a full stomach, but wait a bit after a meal.

Water changes should preferably be done early rather than later in the day. This allows the fish to cope with the disruption when it is "freshest" as all animals are in the early morning, and it provides the rest of the day for them to settle down.

You could feed them later in the day, but as missing a day is in all respects good for fish, it is just as well to miss the water change day feeding altogether.

Byron.

pop

Salutations Bryon;
I would never have considered this particular aspect of feeding fish in terms of relaxed atmosphere nor have I ever thought about the possible advantages of changing water in the morning as verses in the evening or afternoon. I must be committing some sins due to it takes me two days to complete a water change. Your way is a nice. I think I will try it if I can manage it.
pop

Byron

I don't remember who told me, but I have always performed water changes in the morning. I generally start about an hour after the tank lights come on. One should never do anything for the first half hour [as it explains in my article on light] and I like to give them a good hour.

I do this when feeding on other days too, never earlier than an hour after tank lights are on.

Byron.

Leopardfire

Thanks for all the feeding and water change advice. Do you think that for now I should feed 2 pellets per cory everyday?

Byron

I have 30 corys in my 115g, and I put in 4 Nutrafin tabs when that food is fed (day one). When I feed shrimp pellets, which are pretty small, maybe 3/16 of an inch, I put in perhaps 9-10 (day 2). When I feed the veggie disks (day 3) which are about 3/8 inch across, maybe 4. And so forth. You have to consider the number of fish aside from the corys that might (and usually will) also eat these, and just ensure at least 1 gets to the bottom.

Leopardfire

I've watched my fish and once the food lands, they don't try to eat it so it all goes to the cories. From the feeding ratios, I think that for small things like shrimp pellets you should feed a little less than 1 per cory per day. So if I have 6 cories I should feed 4-5 shrimp pellets per day and if they were bigger, then maybe only 3. Is this correct?

Byron

If the pellets are around 1/8 to 2/8 inches in length, then 4 at one feeding for 6 corys is sufficient, unless other fish manage to get the pellets.