20 Gallon Tank Mixing different types of corys together

I have 3 emerald green corys in my 20 gallon high tank... had 5 originally. 2 of them died, 1 of those 2 was a couple weeks ago and other was a long while back. Wanted to know if I can add smaller corys, like pandas with them and if so, how many? What other kind of smaller corys could I get besides pandas? I have 6 zebra danios and 1 dwarf honey gourami also.. If I shouldn't mix them, should I get 1 or 2 more like before?Thanks in advance for the help.

 

I think that cories of different species can mix together, but I would highly recommend buying more of the same species. so maybe enough so that your cory school gets back up to 6. I would also suggest (if possible) you get a long tank. A long tank will not only mean more cories (the more bottom surface area = happier cories), but also will make the rest of your inhabitants have more swimming space. Hope this helps!

 

Thanks for the info... Wish I could, but can't get a long tank because I don't have space for one. I kinda figured that about mixing them, but wanted to be sure. I'll just go to Petco and see if they have any more emerald green ones and get 3 more if they do. Hopefully they'll have some in stock... I didn't realize they could get up to 3 in. when I got em. They look cool and fun to watch....Wish I could add 6 smaller cories as well, but don't wanna overstock my tank.

 

Also another tidbit of advice, I would suggest finding a local fish store if possible. Although petco is ok, when you find a good lfs, you will get products miles better than those of the big companies.

 

True, but we don't have any local ones. I've had better luck at Petco than Petsmart. Plus, employees actually know about the fish they sell. They seem impressed when they ask what kinda tank I have and the kind of fish... Haven't had the best luck with Petsmart.. half the time, they don't know what they're talking about when it comes to fish. I got my honey gourami online from The Wet Spot. First time I got a true honey gourami. Didn't know they get a dark blue color on the bottom and around the face. I named him Ziggy. I had a blue one and a red flame one before too.. Thanks again for helping out. Appreciate it.
Pics of my tank...

 

Hi Mooky, I’ve been in your position before and only had big box lbs, like PetSmart, and Petco. I find I get better stuff from various forums which usually lead to hobbiest breeders that always have quality fish to get involved with. 100% of my Ranchu gold fish are from local breeders, and I am happy with my guys. So just keep looking around. There are more hobbiest breeders around than you think. Just gotta look around. Good Luck

 

+1 for The Wet Spot. Every time I've gotten fish there they've been great.

 

They're very helpful. Found about them on this forum.. Was able to message them on Instagram and they answered all my questions. Wanted me to update them on how my gourami was doing. I sent them pics after a few days. Really like how they ship the fish too.

 

Unintentional home cory breeder here- mine have been busy! What state do you happen to be in? Close to NH? I would give you some.

 

I think that cories of different species can mix together, but I would highly recommend buying more of the same species. so maybe enough so that your cory school gets back up to 6. I would also suggest (if possible) you get a long tank. A long tank will not only mean more cories (the more bottom surface area = happier cories), but also will make the rest of your inhabitants have more swimming space. Hope this helps!

I couldn't agree with you more on both the cory, and the tank. I just recently started a tank back up and bought a beautiful 32 gallon Bowfront but I wish I had gotten a longer than instead. I got pygmy Cory for this reason too. Smaller so they have more surface area.

 

Hi, I think it would be better to start a school of 8+ smaller cories Then to add a few more random unschooled fish that are too big to be ideal for your tank.

I have personally owned fish stoes all around me, very few if any are that much better then the chain stores in regards to knowledg, and care, the main difference is more species,

Some adorable small cories-
Sterbae, Juhlie and false juhlie, agassizzi, and many more.
I recomend that you look up the size of any potential candidate. And go with a species that stays under 2 inches.I posted this link because I could not find a similar source on fishlore.

FYI, I love that dragon decoration. I had that dragon in my tank but I thought A loach might be trapped inside and I got my husband to break it open for me. there are a lot of dangerous nooks and crannies inside. But thankfull, no fish were inside. You might want to conside a decoration with more openings, Pvc pipe, terracotta pots, cocunut shells...

 

Glad ya like the dragon...My big tree decoration thing has an opening that the fish love to swim through... one will hang out in the opening.. I don't wanna overstock the tank by starting a new school of smaller ones... if I didn't have the 3 emerald green ones, I would. Figured it would be overstocked with them and my 6 danios a honey gourami

 

OH NO, for some reason I thought that you only had 1 emerald left. SORRY
As long as you keep up with water changes, you should be ok to add 3-4 more emeralds.
Sorry again, fyi I had a cat named Mooky!

 

No problem... I do once a week water changes. I saw on some sites I've been on say no more than 4 in a 20 gallon high, but I've never had a problem when I had 6... I used to have smaller regular corys before, until they eventually died.

 

I have five Peppered Corys and four Bronze Corys together in my 60g tank. They get along great…..some times they’re in one large group, other times they’re in two groups by species. This tank is the best overall community tank I’ve had….Corys, fancy male Guppies, and eight Yellow Honey Gouramis. It is active with virtually all the areas of the tank having fish activity. My 75g tank has eight Bronze Corys w about 20 Platies, two Dwarf powder blue Gouramis, and a single koi Angel. It also has turned out to be a good community setup. I so love the Corys that I don’t think I’d have a freshwater tank these days wo them.

 

Didn't have any at Petco... I'm thinking to not add any more and then get a school of smaller corys when they die..

 

I would rather do the slightly extra work of keeping a slightly heavilly stocked tank with 6 or seven bronze cories, then purposfully only buy 4 of them. I do not like advise that says, just buy 4 if your tank is so and so large. If you can not keep a full school of a species, get a different fish, is my advise.
You have room for them, they dont mind being close to each other, you just need to maintain the tank. And possibly aim for smaller fish for a smaller tank next time.
If you choose to just keep the ones that you have, that is fine too. It happens.

 

I had 6 smaller corys like that before... Like I posted earlier...I do once a week water changes and tank looks great. Can't get any corys right now anyway... Seems like a cory shortage at Petco.... They only had 2 albino ones and nothing else. I checked out Pet Smart's site and they didn't have any in stock. Guess I'll just have the 3 I have and wait...

 

I would rather do the slightly extra work of keeping a slightly heavilly stocked tank with 6 or seven bronze cories, then purposfully only buy 4 of them. I do not like advise that says, just buy 4 if your tank is so and so large. If you can not keep a full school of a species, get a different fish, is my advise.
You have room for them, they dont mind being close to each other, you just need to maintain the tank. And possibly aim for smaller fish for a smaller tank next time.
If you choose to just keep the ones that you have, that is fine too. It happens.

I switched around my whole tank species to ensure that I had enough room for each species of fish to have the school they required. It meant I had to rehome some and go with different cories than originally planned, and wait it out until I could get the cories I needed to so that it could all work.

While some advice recommends fish will be ok in their smaller schools, when I added the correct amount of schools to the fish that I had to make them whole, it changed their attitudes, they were more happy and it brightened up their colours for some others. This is important and great advice by noroomforshoe!!

 

Hi, I think it would be better to start a school of 8+ smaller cories Then to add a few more random unschooled fish that are too big to be ideal for your tank.

I have personally owned fish stoes all around me, very few if any are that much better then the chain stores in regards to knowledg, and care, the main difference is more species,

Some adorable small cories-
Sterbae, Juhlie and false juhlie, agassizzi, and many more.
I recomend that you look up the size of any potential candidate. And go with a species that stays under 2 inches.I posted this link because I could not find a similar source on fishlore.

FYI, I love that dragon decoration. I had that dragon in my tank but I thought A loach might be trapped inside and I got my husband to break it open for me. there are a lot of dangerous nooks and crannies inside. But thankfull, no fish were inside. You might want to conside a decoration with more openings, Pvc pipe, terracotta pots, cocunut shells...

Did you have any issues with your dragon no longer making small bubbles and just bigger ones? I've googled it and found on some sites where some folks asked the same question. I bought a new air stone the other day. It makes small bubbles when the air stone is in the tank by itself... bigger bubbles in the dragon. The dragon used to make small bubbles when I got it...