sandpit for corys??

[millym]

hi
we have 2 peppered corys which we love...theyre in a community tank & we've had them for about 11 months. our substrate is gravel, but not sharp its very smooth small pebbly things, i read recently that if you have gravel you should consider putting a saucer or something of sand in your tank for the corys?? is this true...are our corys being deprived of something they love??? pleae let me know if this is so & we'll create a mini sandpit for them.
thanks

 

[clothahump]

They will thank you for it, they love foraging in sand for food.

 

[Violet]

How do you keep the sand from going everywhere? My fish would empty that dish in no time!

 

[steakaphagus]

I agree, I have a sand substrate, and play 'hunt the food' with my peppers....bury a little dried tubifex in the sand, and they soon get the scent and go nuts, digging up to their eyes in the sand! They also seem to like just 'snuffling' through sand, probably searching for food. Have read that in the wild they are found on sand/mud banks, sheltered by plant.
As violet says, a sandpit will quickly disappear....a deep plant saucer may help to keep it in one place for a while, but this may only be a very short while!

 

[JWright]

Or switch over to an all sand substrate.

I love my sand (unfortunately, so do my mbunas...).

 

[millym]

thanks.....come to think of it our yoyos would beat the corys in the 'empty the sandpit race'... would probably last about 1 minute....:theyre always up to their ears( do yoyos have ears????) in the gravel flinging it about D

 

[steakaphagus]

I'd still be tempted to give it a try anyway.....might work better than we expect, and 'the pit' may last a while. No harm in trying I guess

 

[geoffgarcia]

another option which people rarely seem to talk about in here is using a dirt substrate
after its been water logged for a period of time it doesn't get to messy, looks very natural, plants love it and so do fish....
just get regular dirt from a store, w/o chemicals...
or when you get a bag of gravel just don't rinse it....if you dump a bag of flourite in ur tank you should get a nice thick layer of dust that your animals will love....then sprinkle some dirt over the top and ur all set...

 

[lighter]

Sand is definately the best substrate for cories. I love to them the way they dig for live worms in the sand during feeding time. You'll love it.

 

[Clown_Loach_Kid]

I was tempted to do a all sand tank for the sake of my little friends, but I heard plants don't do well in sand, is that true? If so if I was to add plant food to my tank would that keep the plants healthy?

 

[fishysmell]

I put flourite under my sand. You get a bit of flourite on top of the sand that doesn't look the greatest (moving, maintaining plants) but my plants are doing fine. Hairgrass is going nuts in it. I wouldn't run the most difficult plants but as far as the rest of em, they do fine. Just my opinion but...

 

[Clown_Loach_Kid]

ok, thanks, I'll try it over the summer.