Corydoras

Who a Corydoras suits

For a keeper who wants activity on the tank floor and understands they need company of their own kind to show it — a lone one hides and a group forages happily in the open. Peaceful with everything. A soft substrate matters more than most people are told.

How to build the bond: Keep at least six — a happy cory squad is the tank's mood meter. That sits on top of how the species works generally: The bond is stewardship — stable water, fixed feeding hours, your face at the glass until it means safety. Ritual is the whole language.

The Corydoras against the other nineteen

Lined up stillest to liveliest, the Corydoras is 7th of the twenty fish breeds here, one of 5 in the balanced band — enough appetite for activity to stay interesting and enough of an off-switch to be livable, which is the widest fit of the four bands and the least distinctive.

Ordered by how near each one sits to the Corydoras on the energy axis, then by the notes they have in common. Every fish breed reads this table from its own position, so no two of the twenty are ordered alike.

The birth years a Corydoras sits easiest with

This half of the reading is the species rather than the breed — every fish meets a given birth year the same way. These are the communities that sit easiest with one:

• Whale Spirit Guardian—1948,1960,1972,1984and later
• Lion Spirit Guardian—1950,1962,1974,1986and later
• Cat Spirit Guardian—1951,1963,1975,1987and later
• Elephant Spirit Guardian—1959,1971,1983,1995and later

A birth year outside that list is not a warning — it is the half of the reading this page cannot settle on its own. Seat the pair on the board and it reads the rest. What the fish is like as a companion applies to the Corydoras as much as to the other nineteen.

A pairing that involves an animal returns a word rather than a percentage. The board's deepest layer reads two inner selves against each other and an animal cannot hold one, so the result is described rather than scored — what is read here is the keeper's birth year against the species, and the breed decides everything about living with it day to day. An animal does get a chart of its own once its birth hour is known, one rung further up.

Frequently asked

What is a Corydoras like to live with?

The cleanup crew with a heart — corys forage the floor in cheerful squads, wink one eye at a time, and rest in piles; their comfort is the shoal's comfort. On the energy axis this catalogue uses, the Corydoras reads as balanced — 7th of the twenty fish breeds here when they are lined up stillest to liveliest.

Who is a Corydoras a good match for?

For a keeper who wants activity on the tank floor and understands they need company of their own kind to show it — a lone one hides and a group forages happily in the open. Peaceful with everything. A soft substrate matters more than most people are told.

How do you bond with a Corydoras?

Keep at least six — a happy cory squad is the tank's mood meter. That sits on top of how the species works generally: The bond is stewardship — stable water, fixed feeding hours, your face at the glass until it means safety. Ritual is the whole language. The thing that most reliably undoes it — Neglect shows before it harms — dulled color and hiding are the tank asking for help.

Which fish breeds are most like a Corydoras?

Harlequin Rasbora, Angelfish, Goldfish — nearest first, measured on energy band and shared traits. At the other end of the same twenty sits the Arowana, two bands apart. Every one of the nineteen is ranked against the Corydoras further up this page.