new cories!

Things are always shifting in the tanks lately, it seems. Yesterday friend from the club came over, and we swapped fishes. I gave him my black kuhli loaches, for three green cories. Last month a kid in the club said his emerald cories were spawning and he's got too many fish, was giving them away. I said "Are they brochis splendens or corydoras aeneus?" He said splendens, and I was thrilled- it's the brilliant blue-green catfish I've thought of trying to keep with my angels. They get larger than the usual cories, so the angels won't attempt to eat them.

Anyway, I set the fish trap for my black kuhlis, but only three went in- on a second try several shrimps crawled in, grabbed the bait and walked in circles with it trying to find the way out. Funny. It wasn't quick like last time. Then I found my zebra nerite dead in the corner- with a shrimp tugging at it. I guess the kuhlis feasted in the night, so weren't that hungry for bait although I hadn't fed them in several days.

I had to use a net to catch the other four kuhlis. I guessed right about the black ones intimidating the striped kuhlis- later that afternoon I found two striped ones hanging out in the favored spots- over the suction cup of the heater, under the cave arch of a sponge.

The new cories are very tiny. One is juvenile fish size about half an inch, and lovely bright blue color.

The other two are tiny. I'd still call them fry. I was surprised my friend thought them big enough to transport!

They're speckled and barely bigger than the substrate particles.

So now I feel have to do frequent feedings and extra water changes for them. And they're not brochis splendens. They have the rounder noses and dorsal fins of aeneus and I can count their fin rays. Green cories.

 Still pretty, and will be easy to re-home when they're grown- they're popular fish. But not the one I wanted to put with my angels. (The larger one has a nick in its tail).