70g h2o - 7 discus = ?? sterbai

[dragonlover]

Please help. I have a 18" x 48" tank w/ 70g h2o (after substrate and driftwood/plants are subtracted) with a silica substrate. I have 7 subadult discus. I would love to see a shoal of sterbai at the bottom of my tank.

Since my discus are subs in a planted tank I am doing a 30-50% w/c ALMOST every day, trying to not stunt them. If I figure them attaining a 7" SL I am looking at approx. 50" of fish. Figuring sterbai can reach 2.5", my math tells me I would be safe with 8. I would like to have more than eight.

"take care of the water and the fish will take care of themselves" If I am doing these routine and thorough w/c, and limiting my species to two, can I go with a shoal of 12 or so? What do you think?

[billeagan]

Laura,

I'm sorry I forgot to answer you PM...

Minimum you want to keep of any Cory is 6 IMO. With your WC routine and the size of your tank you could easily go to 12 and some tetras too =)

I would make sure you have adequate filtration to be safe. A canister and a bio wheel or some such thing.

[dragonlover]

Thank you, no big deal at all, patience just isn't a virtue....

I have a fluvall 404 w/ceramic, sponges, floss, and peat, and a 10" bubble bar. These are things I should have mentioned in the prior post!

BTW, don't ignore the next PM b/c it will be me wanting to buy sterbai!!!!

[FishLover888]

I have 6 sterbais in my tank and they are great!

Fluval 404 can go up to 100g so you should be ok. I like to go over a bit for my filtration. That's just IMO.

[Ed13]

While I'm usually advocating the benefits of less fish per tank, I can't resist corys. A shoal of less than 6 is not even worth it for me. I usually like a ratio of 2 females per male so 12 sound really good. I had 15 C. elegans in my last show tank and I found myself often ignoring the school of 35 Rummy noses to see what the Cory were up to
Discus+pleco+cory are all I need to keep me interested!

[dragonlover]

While I'm usually advocating the benefits of less fish per tank, I can't resist corys. A shoal of less than 6 is not even worth it for me. I usually like a ratio of 2 females per male so 12 sound really good. I had 15 C. elegans in my last show tank and I found myself often ignoring the school of 35 Rummy noses to see what the Cory were up to
Discus+pleco+cory are all I need to keep me interested!

Okay, Ed, I give....how do you sex sterbai?

[billeagan]

Laura,

Personally, I would put a biowheel on the tank or another canister.
On my personal 75 I run an eheim and a biowheel 350.

You can never have too much filtration =)

[dragonlover]

Laura,

Personally, I would put a biowheel on the tank or another canister.
On my personal 75 I run an eheim and a biowheel 350.

You can never have too much filtration =)

Good advice. Do you just run floss in your biowheel?

[Ed13]

Okay, Ed, I give....how do you sex sterbai?

For corydoras and members of this subfamily in general(Aspidoras and Brochis), males are smaller while females grow larger and are much wider and look more robust and plump than males when viewed from above. Also the fins in males can be pointy while the females are rounder. Viewing them from above should be enough in most cases to tell them apart.

In the case Corydora elegans the males are a different colour pattern than the females. Pretty big difference if you are paying attention

BTW, I like more females to males because the females grow considerably larger, but the ideal breeding group for many of the species would consist of two females and four males.

HTH

[billeagan]

I don't run anything in the biowheels except the biowheels themselves.

[dragonlover]

but the ideal breeding group for many of the species would consist of two females and four males.
HTH

Sounds like a good ratio to me! Thanks for the informative post! I had read that in a lot of the cory strains that females were larger and broader (it's the hips ), I wish there were a way to sex juvies, as this is most likely what I see in LFS, etc. Of course, I have not seen sterbai in the LFS, either.

I don't run anything in the biowheels except the biowheels themselves.

Thanks! Do you think it would be okay to stuff the chamber w/floss? I had a biowheel until '95 but always seemed to have probs w/ the biowheel not turning right and never could figure out why . But, of course, I was a lot newer to the hobby than I am now. The design of the biowheel now could be completely different now than then, also. I'll have to look at that...thanks! The Fluvall does move the water around really well in my 75g, though, but if I am considering adding the to bioload more filtration tends to go a really long way in the health/growth/beauty of a fish, I agree with you there. Unfortunately, I am not sure I can justify the cost of another cannister (will have to research some pricing) right now.

[JeffreyRichard]

Please help. I have a 18" x 48" tank w/ 70g h2o (after substrate and driftwood/plants are subtracted) with a silica substrate. I have 7 subadult discus. I would love to see a shoal of sterbai at the bottom of my tank.

Since my discus are subs in a planted tank I am doing a 30-50% w/c ALMOST every day, trying to not stunt them. If I figure them attaining a 7" SL I am looking at approx. 50" of fish. Figuring sterbai can reach 2.5", my math tells me I would be safe with 8. I would like to have more than eight.

"take care of the water and the fish will take care of themselves" If I am doing these routine and thorough w/c, and limiting my species to two, can I go with a shoal of 12 or so? What do you think?

I've kept and bred both Discus and C. Sterbai ... you shouldn't have any problems with a school of 12 Sterbai in this tank. Stay up with the water changes, and don't overfeed. I currently have about 24 Serbai with 10 small discus and a mix of gouramis in a 70 gallon tank ... tank has 6 potted swords and floating hygro. I only feed 2x daily.

Jeff

[Bainbridge Mike]

Hi Laura:

I think you could add the corries--12 would probably be fine--but I might go with 8. You really should add a second filter as a backup to your canister. I have a 75 with discus and I use a canister and a couple of Hydro V sponge filters. That way if I have a power outage I can just hook up a few battery-powered pumps to the sponges and I can keep a filter running through the outage.

If you don't like the sponge filter look, I think the biowheels are really good Bio-filtration. You may be able to get a plain old bio-wheel and add it to your system by feeding the biowheel with the output from your canister filter. If you go with a Hang on Back-type biowheel, add course sponges to pick out larger particles and get extra biofiltration!

Good luck,
Mike

[dragonlover]

Okay, I am sorry, I am ranting. My lovely, wonderful husband was only trying to HELP, yet I am extremely irate. After all, I don't mess w/ his hobbies!!

He was so proud to show me the 13 (13??Where he got this I don't know) sterbaii he bought me. Oh, and the 13 common hatchetfish he thought would look "pretty" in there. Of course, the corydoras are NOT sterbaii, they are most definitely schwartzii!!!! And, I have never kept hatchetfish, nor was I planning on keeping them. I thought the discus and corys would be sufficient, though I was really tempted by cardinals also.

I called the LFS he bought from (apparently they told him they were sterbai--so he says---I am suprised he even remembered the name "sterbai" to ask for them) and they will not compensate me for his/their?? ignorance. They did say I'm welcome to bring them back for no credit. So, I called the LFS that I am friendly with, and unfortunately they are overrun with bronze corys and cannot help me out w/ credit right now either. They said they would take the hatchets at a 3/1 ratio in their favor. (EDIT: The "Petstupid" he bought from said "Is the pattern really that important to you?" ARGHHH)

The type of HOB filter I am familiar w/ is an Aquaclear. I am definitely going to be adding one. Thank you, Mike, I will stuff the back w/coarse sponge.

Most embarrassing to me out of this whole thing, though, is that I placed an order for sterbai from a Simply sponsor that I am having to cancel right now.

QUESTION (finally) 1. Are the schwartzii going to melt? I run temp at 84.

2. Would you take the loss on the hatchets? Should I, could I, even try this bioload with an almost daily w/c schedule? i am fearing this is pushing too hard.

[JeffreyRichard]

QUESTION (finally) 1. Are the schwartzii going to melt? I run temp at 84.

Well, while I've not had an experience with Schwartzii, here is the bad news ... per Planet Catfish Cat-e-log, this species does best at 71 - 76 degrees ... big difference between the 84 - 86 discus temp.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...species_id=293