Cory's and substrate cleaning

anfield said:

Reading up on Sterbai corys and saw that they are sensitive to "dirty substrates" and the substrates need to be kept "scrupulously clean". Is this really true? I have a heavily planted 40B and aside from spot cleaning with a turkey baster, I do not vacuum the gravel (Eco-complete with a small area of carib sea sand).

Also is this true for all corys in general?

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Hi anfield,

+1 for Razorworm's comment.

I have kept Cory's for decades and although they do not do well if tanks are overfed and have high ammonia and/or bacteria levels the tanks do not need to be "scrupulously clean".

This 20 gallon with C. sterbai and albino C. sterbai is not exceptionally clean but I do weekly 33% water changes and don't overfeed.


My Cory's love to eat the cubed freezed dried worms but keeping them attached to the glass was a pain. So I make feeding cones for feeding them.
http://vimeo.com/87226071