Santa Cruz cory

Care at a glance

Overview

The Santa Cruz cory is a rare, agreeable cory for the bottom of a community tank. It is a step up from the easiest fish.

Caring for the Santa Cruz cory

Keep a shoal of six Santa Cruz corys in a tank of 16 gal (60 L) or larger. Give them sand with plant cover.

Hold the water at 73 to 81°F (23 to 27°C), with a pH of 6.0 to 7.5. They cope well with moderate water chemistry, and they take prepared sinking foods right away.

Santa Cruz corys are peaceful and safe with other community fish. They have been bred in captivity along standard cory lines, with cool water changes prompting eggs on glass and broad leaves. Breeding them is moderately difficult. Bolivian imports are sporadic, so captive-bred groups are the sustainable route.

Good to know

The Santa Cruz cory was described in 2002 from Bolivia's Santa Cruz department. The 2024 revision lists it as Hoplisoma cruziense. It wears a broken-line mosaic over the flanks, and Bolivian populations show subtle pattern differences between drainages.

In the wild

The Santa Cruz cory comes from Bolivian lowland streams in the upper Madeira drainage, where sandy creeks wind through forest and savanna. It handles the region's milder temperatures well.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Blackstripe cory

  Hoplisoma bondi

  2 in (5 cm) · 15 gal (55 L)

  2 in (5 cm)15 gal (55 L)70–79°F (21–26°C)

• 

  Dirty bandit cory

  Hoplisoma loxozonum

  2 in (5 cm) · 16 gal (60 L)

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)70–75°F (21–24°C)

• 

  Duplicate cory

  Hoplisoma duplicareum

  2 in (5 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)

  2 in (5 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Ehrhardt's cory

  Hoplisoma ehrhardti

  2 in (5 cm) · 16 gal (60 L)

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)66–77°F (19–25°C)

• 

  Fairy cory

  Hoplisoma atropersonatum

  2 in (5 cm) · 16 gal (60 L)

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)70–81°F (21–27°C)

• 

  False bandit cory

  Hoplisoma melini

  2 in (5 cm) · 16 gal (60 L)

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)