Salt and pepper cory

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep them in a group of at least six, ideally more, since they are far more confident and active in a shoal. They work the bottom, sifting sand for food, and a tank around 55 liters gives a decent group room. Feed sinking pellets and wafers plus occasional live or frozen brine shrimp and daphnia, making sure food reaches the floor. They want soft to neutral water, pH about 6 to 7.5, in the low to mid 20s C, and stay peaceful with small, calm tankmates.

In the wild

Salt and pepper corys come from the Orinoco basin in Colombia and Venezuela, in shallow, slow streams and pools with sandy or fine-gravel bottoms and lots of plants. The water there is soft and runs from slightly acidic to neutral. Give them a soft, sandy substrate so they can sift it without damaging their barbels, plus planting and gentle flow. They are a true dwarf cory, so they fit smaller setups better than most.

Good to know

This is an armored catfish in the family Callichthyidae and one of the smallest Corydoras, reaching about 3.5 cm. The body is pale with scattered black blotches, hence the salt-and-pepper look. They are egg layers that scatter and stick eggs on surfaces with no parental care, and eggs hatch in roughly three to five days. Captive breeding is on the harder side. Wild populations are not currently listed as threatened.

Did you know

Unlike most corys that mostly hug the bottom, salt and pepper corys often hover and swim partway up the tank, almost like a tiny shoaling tetra. That mid-water behavior makes a group of them more visible than their larger relatives.

Related species

• 

  Barred-tail cory

  Corydoras cochui

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)13 gal (50 L)70–82°F (21–28°C)
• Nano cory

  Corydoras gracilis

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)12 gal (45 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)
• Reynolds's cory

  Corydoras reynoldsi

  1.4 in (3.5 cm)12 gal (45 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Pygmy cory

  Corydoras pygmaeus

  1.3 in (3.3 cm)13 gal (50 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Dwarf cory

  Corydoras hastatus

  1.3 in (3.2 cm)12 gal (45 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)
• Evelyn's cory

  Corydoras evelynae

  1.6 in (4 cm)15 gal (55 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)