Fish Lovers 2.0

[Dia.]

Hey, I have another question about corries.

I have a ten gallon tank with four zebra danios in it. I'm planning on heavily planting it with live plants and getting some ottos so they can enjoy my green algae. If it's there, they might as well take advantage of it. :P But, I really love corries as well, and I was wondering if this tank setup would be okay for them. When I looked up about the pygmy corries, it said to be careful with rocks so they can't accidentally squeeze under them and that they should be on sand. I have a large waterfall feature that I'm worried about crushing them. There's also some small river rocks scattered through. Plus, I know they're bottom dwellers, and I'm worried that with the plants I'm planning on adding, they might not have enough open space to swim and then will be unhappy.

Here are the pictures of the tank setups. If anyone could advise me about what would be okay, I'd be very thankful. Also, would the danios and two ottos take up enough room in the tank that I couldn't get a sufficient amount of corries? I know they're a schooling fish.

X
X (size comparison of the rocks)

I don't keep my cories on sand and they are just fine. ^^ As long as your ground cover is smooth and doesn't have jagged edges, things are good. :3
I don't believe that you'll have any problems with crushing fish as long as all decor is well-seated and secure in it's place. :3
The ground cover looks awesome for cories too since they like to have places to hide.

[Hime]

Who ever asked about breeding corries. Breeding them is pretty easy(though I suppose it depends which kind of corry, some are more easily breeding than others), I did nothing special and mine spawned at least once a week. But the eggs will catch mold pretty quick and not be fertilised, if the pH is over 7. Or this is what I noticed with mine, as when the pH dropped just tad under 7 suddenly the eggs were fine. I have metaes(bandit corries?) and they lay around maybe 10 eggs average per spawn(though I don't usually find them all). I only got 2 females, but I'm not sure if they both spawn at the same time. For some reason mine also looove to plant their eggs on floating stuff, like saplings I might have left floating around. XD
The fry is relatively hardy(kept mine in tiny plastic box, before getting a breeding/fry net cage thing, also mainly fed them ground dry food), though none of mine have survived in among the other fish until they are around month old or more. I currently only have one baby alive, due some sort of bacteria hitting my tank, wipping out nearly 20 fry in one week or so.
But this is mainly all just based on my experience with only one type of corry, so might not be the most accurate information.

[Gryffindor's Sword]

Thanks for the info! I don't know reall anything about breeding them other than what I've read on the Internet so I like hearing people actual expieriences! I have Juli Cory's so I hope they are easy to breed too! Thanks again!

[.Lupin.]

Thanks for the the info about both fish. Would two Ottos be okay or do I need three? I just don't want to overload the tank because I'd love some corries too, and I know they both need a couple of their own kind to be happy. What would you guys suggest numbers-wise that I add for Ottos and corries with the four danios in the 10 gal? I have excessive filtration (aqueon quiet flow 20) if that makes a difference.
I did know about the Ottos and I was planning on feeding them boiled zucchini! I realize they are a responsibility more so than the danios because they prefer things other than commercial fish food.

[Gryffindor's Sword]

I put your info in aqadvisor.com and it that you could put 4 danios, 3 Pygmy Cory's, and 3 otos, and your stocking level would be 89% so you could add 1 more of any of those fish (id recommend the coryss just because they love to be in schools. Or the danios.)

[Hime]

For ottos I say 5 is pretty good group size, or more of course. For corries I think 5-6 absolute minimum and temporary solution only if possible, but around 10 would really be more ideal. Those are the rules I personally try to follow. But I'm not really sure how to stock a 10 gal... I like bigger tanks personally, and my research was more focused on bigger settings, so I haven't really thought about how to stock one. : P

[wibeke]

Lupin: Personally I'd stick with either otos or cories, not both. You can definitely fit them all in the tank without water quality problems, but it will be a pretty crowded tank and it doesn't leave much room for a proper school of either otos or cories. They can both live in smaller groups without much trouble (I have three cories and they're fine, I wish I could give them some friends but I'd overstock the tank) but they definitely feel much safer in larger groups. Since both fish prefer a decent sized school (6+is usually reccommended), it would be really difficult to have enough of both and not overstock your tank.
You could get a bunch of cories and a snail or two to deal with the algae instead, maybe? If you're really set on having both that's fine and you can definitely make it work, though. Just thought I'd give a bit of extra info in case it helps at all.
(also, plants won't bother the cories. Mine don't really care what's in front of them, they literally just wiggle up and over whatever is in their way. they're really funny little fish)

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In other news, Tango is getting a new tank. The largest tank we're allowed at my college is 3 gallons so i was going to just bring Pip's 2.5 gal, but I was shopping for dorm stuff the other day and found this.
It's a glass 2 gallon beverage dispenser. It was only 10 dollars so I figured I'd mess around with it and see if it would make a good fish tank. When I filled it with water the spout leaked, but I was planning on resealing it anyways so I unscrewed everything and siliconed it all back together and now it works perfectly.
I'm thinking of doing a dirt tank with it and loading it up with plants. It's a lot taller than it is wide so Tango will need some plants to rest on, anyways, so I'll probably going to try that. Does anyone have some suggestions for fast growing plants that would work in a small tank?
Poor Tango, he's going to be pretty mad about losing so much space. But on the other hand, his water will be ridiculously clean since water changes will be so easy.

Also, does anyone here use sponge filters? Since it's ciricular that "tank" won't fit an hob filter, so I was thinking of using a sponge filter instead. Do they work well? And does anyone know of any good brands to use?

[Dappled Sapphire]

Java fern is good and it doesn't have to be attached to anything (though you can attach it to ornaments)
I just leave mine float in the 8g betta tank and he sits in it so he's close to the surface when he wants a rest
And yes my betta tank has a sponge filter

[.Lupin.]

Thanks so much for the out pouring of advice. I got two ottos tonight, I'm going to see how my tank cycle reacts before I add a third, although I will add another one if not more. I just didn't want to overwhelm it. Still debating on the corries. My heart says yes, but my head says no eventually I'm going to have a 20 (or 40) gal long river tank, and they can probably go in there.

On the other hand, I have a regular 20 gallon that is close to being cycled and nothing to put in it. It has bright colors so I'm thinking about trying neon tetras. My LFS has a very healthy looking batch right now. ^^

[Keletheryl]

Alright, I'm going to go on a little bit of a rant here.

I'm sure most of you saw my posts about moving to the UK, right? Well the friend I'll be moving with, I told her oh, by the way, I'm gunna need to go pick up my fish after we get there. And what's the first thing she says?

"Omg it's a FISH"

I really, really hate it when people say that. "It's just a fish" "you can just get a new one"
It's not "just a fish", it's a live animal that I brought into my home and it relies on me to take care of it. And I'm not going to play god and take away its life for something like this when there ARE other options.

And this is why I'm getting a betta tattooed around my ankle. So when people ask "oh, why did you get that tattoo?" I can say "to show appreciation to fish some more, cause they sure as hell need it"