Bronze Corydora- Corydoras aeneus

The small and subtle bronze corydora makes an incredibly good choice to the community aquarium or for first time Cory owners and to say that they are hardy is an understatement, these things are nearly bulletproof, this is part of the reason why they have become one of the most popular species of fish to keep in your fish tank.

Only getting to between 2-3 inches means these little fish can be adaptable to many situations within your aquarium set from smaller aquariums to the larger, however they do tend to do better when they have a longer aquarium to forage around in.

Coming from South America originally the have been found in small shallow sandy streams, to fast flowing rivers and stagnant ponds- however they prefer to be in the shallow streams with low moderate water flow.To get the full effect of these little fish, it is recommended to keep them in a group of six. But in all honesty, if you can double, triple or more you will see the full effect of Corydoras shoaling together.

Bronze Corydora like to dig through substrate to find their food, because of this it is of high importance to keep them on a soft substrate. Sadly, keeping them on a rough or stony substrate can damage their barbells on the face area, once these are damaged, it is sadly only a matter of time until the Cory will die. They use the barbells to forage for their food, so without them they cannot find it.

Feeding Bronze Corydora is a simple task as they will eat almost anything. But being omnivorous it is recommended to feed a good balanced diet, consisting of high quality sinking pellets or tablets, some frozen food and flakes. Personally, I feed mine JBL Novo Tab, JBL Novo Fect, frozen bloodworms and NLS flakes.

Bronze Corydora are very easy to breed in the home aquaria, often it can be as simple as doing a cold water change right before it rains- this replicates a natural spawning trigger with in the fish. Following a cold water, water change I often add some frozen bloodworms. More often than not by the end of the day there is eggs stuck all over the inside of the aquarium. Raising the fry is as simple as feeding fine crushed flakes several times a day and doing small daily water changes. To super charge their growth early on, feeding some hard boiled egg yolk will help.

These fish are best kept in slightly lower temperature, however the temperature range that is acceptable for them is between 22-28 degrees, they like to be in water with a pH between 6-8