Tailspot cory

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep it in a school of six or more on the bottom of a tank around 75 liters or larger; it gets nervous and inactive in small numbers. Water should be soft to neutral, pH 6 to 7.5, at 20 to 27 C. Feed sinking pellets, frozen foods like bloodworms and daphnia, and the occasional algae wafer. It is fully peaceful and a solid choice for a calm community tank.

In the wild

The tailspot cory comes from the upper Amazon drainage in Bolivia and Brazil, living over soft, sandy bottoms in warm, slow streams. It spends its time sifting the substrate for bits of food. Set up a fine sand bottom so it can dig without wearing down its barbels, and add wood, plants, or leaf litter for shade and cover. Keep the water on the warm side, roughly 20 to 27 C.

Good to know

This is a small armored catfish in the family Callichthyidae, reaching about 5 cm, which makes it one of the smaller corys. Its body is covered in overlapping bony plates and it carries fine speckling with the dark tail-base mark that gives it its name. It is an egg-layer, but it is on the harder side to breed at home compared with other corys.

Common questions

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