Replacing Milo the Krib...Corydoras Hastatus?!

[trashion]

The fish in my avatar is Milo. He's a cute guy, very photogenic, very active

But see, there have been some problems in our relationship.

My quintet of amano shrimp is down to 2, one tiny speedy little guy and this HUGE, fat shrimp that must have been spending all its time eating in some hidden cranny in the tank.
I got a cute little endler. Milo was eyeing him, and the endler disappeared overnight.
He digs around and uproots my plants.
He terrorizes the Harlequin Rasboras.
And he poops A LOT.
What a little brat.

So I was thinking to myself, HMM, what to do?

And then I happened upon this photo:

!!!

I'm going to trade Milo to a LFS, where hopefully he will find a new happy home. And then I'll get a small shoal of hastatus cories. Who could resist their cuteness?
How many should I get?

Oh yeah, and some more shrimp to replace Milo's snacks...ha.

[JustOneMore20]

Get the Cories! You'll love them. They are like the cutest things.

Your dimensions for the 15g are good....I don't like the tall 10g size....anyways....you have room for 8-10 of them for sure. They like big groups so don't get any less than 8. They like to hang out in the plants and in mid-water too, so don't be surprised by that. They do chill on the bottom quite a bit though, but aren't strictly bottom fish like most cories.

[Scuba Kid]

Good luck finding them, by the way. Not an average cory and not many LFS carry them. Best bet would be to find them online. AZGarden carries them but I've heard their shipping is really high (hard to avoid that, though). Something else about AZGarden once made me stray away from them, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was...

[JustOneMore20]

I've heard bad things about their shipping practices and such, so I don't recommend trying them.

I forgot how hard they are to find .......ask your LFS first if they can order them. If not, you may have better luck finding Pygmaeus (also a cool cory).

[fishbguy]

pygmaeus and habrosus(both pygmy cories) are tons of fun....either of those 2 would work if you can't find hastatus.

[trashion]

Thanks, guys! I just love the cute little markings on the hastatus cories. Aw, but habrosus and pygmaeus are so cute. Darn it, not being able to drive makes this hobby so annoying! I have to now pester my boyfriend to drive me to fish stores

[trashion]

Update: Would it be okay to put 10 Pygmaeus Cories in my 15 gallon with 6 Harlequin Rasboras and maybe like, 5 Amano shrimp? Or would that be too much? I ask because there's a lot of 10 of them on aquabid, and I'm eyeing them.

[JustOneMore20]

It would be just fine! Go for it!

[trashion]

Good news, guys! I found a great LFS! I knew about it, but they weren't very well stocked last time I was there. They had SO many great fish in stock. Apistogramma Cacatuoides Double Reds, Celestial Pearl Danios, Discus, Checkerboard Cichlids, etc. Amazing freshwater, and saltwater too! The store is House of Fins in Greenwich, Connecticut.

There's just one thing. I ordered corydoras pygmaeus, and I'm pickin' them up on Thursday. But the problem is that I could only order 12, no less. Is this too many? That will make my stocking as follows:
5 harlequin rasboras
12 corydoras pygmaeus
6 amano shrimp

The amanos get BIG, as I've found. Should I get rid of the harlies?

[Blue Cray]

Amanos don't get that big less than 2 inches I've always had mine they're over 3yrs old now!

[trashion]

Well, big by my standards in this little tank. And kudos on keeping them alive so long! I lost a few to that jerk Kribensis.

[CaysE]

I don't want to dissuade you, but I think that's too much for a 15 gallon. Cories are great to have in schools but they're very active. I decided against them even for my 20 gallon because I feel they just wouldn't have enough room to swim around. I wouldn't want to put them in a tank that didn't have sand, too.

On the plus side, Amanos do get big but you can shovel like 50 of them in a 10 gallon tank and they'll be fine as long as the water stays in spec.

[trashion]

Well, I have eco-complete, which is pretty sandy. I do want to get some, it's the 12 that make me a little iffy. I guess I'll have to try and resell some of them.

[JustOneMore20]

You could probably sell some of them....or maybe the lfs would order 12 and only make you pay for 6-8 you want? Seems like they don't want to keep any to sell though.

12 would be OK in a 15g. Yes, more room would be better....but I think your 15g is pretty long and not as tall, right? I forget the dimensions of yours. I just don't like having them in a 10g or smaller, which ALOT of people recommend them for (and I have been guilty of in the past, but after having them myself, I know they need more room than a 10g).

Pygmaeus are small....only growing to an inch at most, so they should be ok size wise.

Heck, I might be willing to buy some after you get them....I am looking at getting some Pygmaeus for my 40g soonish and having 2-4 more than the 10 I'm looking at, would be excellent.

[trashion]

Yeah, the LFS doesn't want to keep any. In fact, they're not even going into their system. He offered me a cut rate ($3/apiece instead of $5/piece) if I pick them up the day they get the order in--as in, off the truck and into my loving arms, so to speak

Yes, the 15 is 2ft x 1ft x 1ft. I gotta rescape it, I'm not happy with how it looks, but I got some HM...I heard the little cories like to dig around in it I'm so excited to pick them up at 4:30 tomorrow!!

I'll pop 'em in my tank, and perhaps we can figure out if that's going to work at all. If the tank seems too small (*has mental image of little cories duking it out with amano shrimp*, haha) maybe I can sell you 4 or so of them.

[Scuba Kid]

I've heard of House of Fins. The commentary on that store wasn't the best though.

I wouldn't suggest buying fish as soon as they come in. You'd be better off watching them in the store at least for a few days to make sure you're actually getting healthy fish.

[trashion]

I dunno, I mean, they had a few sick/dead fish in their tanks, but the staff was extremely knowledgeable and their fish options were great.

He said if I buy them right off the truck he'd discount them. I didn't think about QTing them in the store. Rats!

They offer an unconditional guarantee on all livestock for I think 2 weeks...so we'll see.

[Scuba Kid]

If you did buy them "off the truck" you might want to quarantine them for a couple weeks before putting them in the display just to make sure they look healthy.

[Good Wolf]

I too fell in love with Cories. Today I was calling around to try and find some Pandas or Hastat Cories. I do know of a store that has them but they don't look very good. The Pandas are cloudy looking and the Hastats are lathargic.

Someone told me today that the Pandas are all harvested from the wild. I guess that would explain why it is so hard to find the really cool ones.

I wish I could offer to take six of them off your hands. I think I might end up settling for pepper cory in the 29g. I'm a bit nervous about ordering fish through the mail. I've heard quite a few horror stories.

Make sure to take some pics for us when you bring them home.

[JustOneMore20]

Pandas breed well in tanks, so you might have better luck buying online. Just look for "tank raised" ones. Bad thing about online, besides shipping costs, is that you can't see what you're buying (usually). I try to buy from individuals though....they normally ship good (depends on seller, but overall I've had good experiences with individuals).

Good luck finding Hastatus Cories. I'm surprised the LFS had them. They are kind of rare IME.