Worn down whiskers and catfish tails
Mike Cowsert

Cory cats are among the most widely kept tropical fish. Next to beneficial bacteria and algae eating fishes, they are probably the most useful occupants of the aquarium. Many more aquarists' tanks would have uneaten, spoiling food lying upon the gravel and polluting the aquarium environment if they were not there to pick up the leftovers. I have them in almost every one of my tanks.

Corydoras aeneus is the easiest to find. They come in several colors. I have green, albino, and black C. aeneus. There are even some albino corys that have very blue faces if you can find them.

I started my first 50-gallon tank with 3 cory cats of different species. They seemed to slowly waste away and die. The last one swimming was a green cory cat, C. aeneus. Its whiskers were wearing down and I knew I had to find out what was going wrong. Corydoras are shoaling fish I read in a Burgess book. Shoaling differs from schooling in that schooling fish maintain specific orientations, distances, positions, within a group of fish. Shoaling is like being in a loosely bound school. When schooling or shoaling fish are not among members of there own kind, they experiences stress. Scientists can measure or observe elevated respiratory rate, metabolism, and nervousness. Kept singly or in too small groups these fish behave abnormally, live shortened lives and are susceptible to stress induced disease. Keeping fish like these singly borders on cruelty. We should keep this in mind when purchasing any shoaling or schooling fish.

I decided to buy nine more. The fish with no whiskers began swimming with the new ones immediately. His whiskers grew back and when they all started spawning in a few months he participated enthusiastically.
Sexing mature Cory cats is easy. Males are longer, lean and slender. Females bulge around the pectoral fins, are larger, and more solidly built. Never buy one with a sunken belly. Corydoras rarely get sick and a skinny one is a bad sign. It is either under fed or sick.

Cory catfish are not scavengers that eat anything. Make sure they get enough food. If your other fish are greedy eaters and fast your catfish might not get enough. Try giving them sinking tablets or feed as much as you have to so that it gets past the others and to your catfish.

A mature female can produce hundreds of eggs and if you want to save any you have to remove them. More on that in the second part of the article.

To be continued....

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Revised: September 14, 1999.
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