Ok i have a new little 1 1/4 inch lionhead (Bob) in a 14-15 gallon tank. I also have three 1inch albino cory catfish in a smaller tank. I was wondering if i should put the corys in with Bob.

Pros- the tank is bigger so more room for corys, and shouldnt have much impact on Bobs necessary 10gals. It will mean i can take down the smaller tank, saving on space and plug usage. Bob's mouth is very tiny (about the size of one small pellet such as hikari lionhead) and he wont be able to fit a cory in his mouth, they are nearly the same size as him! Also, presumably they will clean up the bits of food that Bob misses.

Cons- will the corys be scared in a bigger tank and need more of them to school happily?? i dont want to buy any more. they have been together for quite a long time and they have their own little hidey cave which i will put in the tank. Will they disturb/hurt Bob? Do they need gravel? they have it at the moment but Bob's tank is barebottom.

The tanks are the same temp, and i figure the params will be more stable in the big tank than the smaller one due to the larger volume of water, despite the extra waste of the corys.

What do you think??????
thanks

Dont see any reason why not. But you know Cories prefer to be bunches of 6 or more?

yeah but i heard that people have them in smaller groups, and my three have been together for quite a while now. They are ok together in the small tank but i was worried that in the bigger tank they will not be so happy in a small group because of the extra space.

I have only 2 cories who seem happy, but the tank is heavily decorated/planted so they get a lot of cover. Maybe you could add some driftwood, etc to give your cories a place to hide. I do have one concern though, cory's require warmer temperatures than goldfish. I figure that's why you don't generally see them mixed in the same tanks

Chrissy

i dont heat my cory tank at the moment. it doesnt get too cold. i've read that they are ok in cold temps. they are always active and eat well. never shown any sign of illness. the temp of both tanks is about 64-68F

well i didnt do it in the end, i put them in and it just didnt look right. It made me a bit uneasy. plus i'd like Bob to have as much room as possible so he can grow very big.

Although alot of people choose to keep Cories with their Goldfish with no problem,it's probably for the best that you didn't.I had an experience where my Goldie fry "Won Ton" got a baby cory stuck in his mouth twice,and that was scarey!.I do have to admit that I have a shoal of Bronze Cories in a big tank that are housed with goldfish that I had from fry size,and I've not had any probs in that tank.I think though that if it came to a new set-up,I'd pass on Cories sharing it with Goldies.Better safe than sorry.

I keep two cory cats in my 180 gallon tank, and they do just fine. It's fun to watch them zoom around and get on the plants They are housed with about 15 goldfish (Including Vito, who is about 6 1/2-7 inches) dojo and kuhli loaches, and two small flamingo sharks. I don't see a problem with it and haven't had one myself.

I bought 2 corys, one albino and one black sail, that I put in with my one goldfish. I was afraid to leave them altogether so I put a divider in with the gf getting the bigger half of the tank. So far he shows a lot of interest in the cories, swimming up and down looking through the divider. I did have them together for awhile when I cleaned the tank last weekend and they all zipped around and the little albino cory actually chased my goldie at one point!!

I've had the cories about 3 weeks now and they are doing great in the same tank/temp. as the gf. I feed them Hikari's sinking pellets for omnivorous catfish but I crush the pellets first to make smaller pieces easier for the cories tiny mouths. They eat the gf flake food, too. I do have gravel on the bottom.

Like I said, I only got 2 cories of different varieties but they get along super with each other and are very active and cute. I don't think you need a whole shoal of them to be happy, at least not in a smaller tank. I do have a cave in there for them and they go in it to look for food but don't hide. Maybe if the gf was loose with them they would hide more, don't know. Someday I will prob take out the divider, but now I think it's a good safety precaution.

Having owned them both with goldies and without I would say its better to keep them separate.

They definitely do add a bit of diversity to the tank and they are such cuties but at the same time I found them very difficult to feed. The goldfish would eat everything before they got a chance. Even algae wafers dropped in would be demolished by Francis till they got small enough to fit in his stomach whole-which is not good for him either. To ensure they got enough I had to divide the tank which was just a pain.

Its also a hassle when it comes to treating the tank, if even you just wanted to use salt.

Two wonderful species but in my own experience not so wonderful together.

hi

ive got three cories in with my goldfish ive got three bronze cories and mine are about an inch and a half long i made sure i got the big ones so they dont fit in the goldies mouths some of my fish are the same as yours and i have had no problem at all though mine are in a big tank and i get my goldies over to one side with a few small flakes and then while they are distracted drop cat fish pellets around the cories so far no problems at all though i have a friend willing to take them at the fist sign of trouble.