Unfortunately, it is also illegally wild caught in various places in Southeast Asia. Captive breeding, poaching, and smuggling are all encouraged by the high prices these fish bring.

Captive bred fish from Singapore usually come with an embedded microchip to prove that they are captive bred and prevent theft. Asian Arawanas are selectively bred for color, especially red or gold variations. There is a tradition in China that this fish, especially if red or golden, brings good luck to its owner. This is one reason for the fish’s popularity and high price.

Because of the prices these fish sell for, farming this species is quite lucrative and has been described as a ‘gold rush’ on the Arowana club website. A very good specimen may be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Because Asian Arawanas are so expensive, they are sometimes smuggled. This means that if you are looking to buy one, you should check its papers and that it has an identifying microchip. It is all too easy to find stories about Arowanas being confiscated by customs officials, whether in boxes under legal items, or inside a dress being worn at the time. Problems you just don’t get with Neon Tetras…

Sources:

Arowana-care.com

Arowanaclub.com

CITES Convention Text

Fishbase.org

Ng, P., Tan, H. (1997) Freshwater fishes of Southeast Asia: potential for the fish trade and conservation issues. Aquarium Sciences and Conservation. Vol 1: 79-90

UNEP-WCMC. 6 March, 2007. UNEP-WCMC Species Database: CITES-Listed Species

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They will happily eat sinking tablet foods. There are several different types of these which can be found at most pet stores. They also enjoy frozen foods, especially frozen blood worms. Live worm-type foods are eagerly accepted so long as they are small enough for the fish to eat.

Types of Corydoras

There is an astonishing number of Corydoras species. The number of named Corydoras species was 156 in 2006 (Fuller, 2006), with new species being discovered faster than they could be named. These fish originally come from South America, mainly from the great river basins of the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Rio Negro.

The most common Corydoras species in the tropical fish hobby is the Bronze Corydoras, Corydoras aeneus, followed by the Peppered Corydoras, Corydoras paleatus, but there are many are other species available. They range in size from scarcely over an inch in the case of Corydoras hastatus, pygmaeus, and habrosus to approximately 3 inches for Corydoras aeneus and others. Fish that look like Corydoras but are larger are probably in one of the genera Brochis or Schleromystax, both of which are closely related to the genus Corydoras. The common Corydoras are usually between two and three inches in size with Corydoras aeneus being approximately three inches when adult.

With so many species, there are many different color patterns available. Most Corydoras patterns contain contrast in dark and light coloring, or large amounts of gray. Different color patterns will appeal to different people, but the intricate pattern of spots on Corydoras trilineatus makes it one of the most beautiful species.

Corydoras Behaviour

Corydoras school. Almost all species are bottom dwellers and enjoy digging in the gravel. The schools often sit on the bottom or hover and swim just above it. The exceptions are the dwarf species which will often be found schooling in mid-water as well as near the bottom. These smallest corydoras have a slightly different and more streamlined shape when compared to the Bronze Corydoras. The shape of these small Corydoras is probably due to their preference for mid-water swimming where a more streamlined shape is useful.

Corydoras can absorb oxygen from air taken into the gut and for this reason will sometimes dart to the surface for a breath of air and then back down to the bottom. This is normal behavior, but if all your Corydoras are doing this constantly then there may be inadequate dissolved oxygen in your tank.

I have kept Corydoras for many years and I have never seen recognisable aggressive behavior by Corydoras against members of their own species or any other, including towards much smaller individuals that have beaten them to the food, and partially grown fry of other fish species.

Corydoras are egg-depositors and will lay eggs on any available flat surface including the walls of the tank, the tank heater, and tank decorations. Reports on whether they eat their eggs are mixed so you may wish to separate the eggs from the adults.

With their even temperament, myriad species, and comical appearance, Corydoras are much more than just tank scavengers. When given what they need to flourish they are a fascinating and beautiful addition to the tank.

References:

Fuller, I. 2006 Starting with Corydoras. http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article33.htm

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My first male and female began courting the evening I took them home from the pet shop. They began spawning the following morning, and did so frequently after this. The male was extremely assiduous in courting the female, and would not stop chasing her around the tank. I went back and bought a second female in order to give the first some peace, and then started adding other fish species to the tank. Fry did not survive in the community tank.

In order to raise fry, I moved the cherry barbs to a 5 gallon tank containing Java moss and Java ferns. I did not succeed in raising any fry from the first spawnings due to an inadequate food supply. It was the middle of winter; all green water sources were frozen and I could not buy any food aimed at egglayer fry in the local pet store. When I tried again later, the weather had warmed and I had also taken to creating green water indoors which gave me a food source for the young fish. I only succeeded in raising one fish the first time, but the fish was a healthy female. I believe the scarcity of offspring in this case may have been due to a poor spawning.

I later left the three fish together in the 5 gallon tank. I had not intended to raise any offspring, but when I looked inside a jar of dirty fish tank water I was about to pour on my houseplants I discovered a young fish swimming inside. I then moved the adults to the main tank and proceeded to add green water 2 to 3 times a day to the little tank, graduating to egg yolks squished through nylon stocking and crushed flake food as the fry grew. Some 40 or so young fish from that spawning survived.

While cherry barbs have a reputation for being shy and rather timid fish, I found that this was untrue of the male so long as there were both females and hiding places around. Under these circumstances the male spent the majority of his time displaying and chasing the females. He was in fact the most aggressive fish in the tank, chasing my neon tetras and occasionally attempting to chase the corydoras catfish which were larger than he was. They ignored him, but his harassment of the female Cherry barbs appeared to cause them stress. One developed a fungus patch on her side which disappeared after I separated her from the male, and one female jumped out of the 5 gallon tank with fatal results. I believe she did this in an attempt to escape the male’s attentions, and any future breeding of cherry barbs will be done with a cover on the tank.

The male’s aggressiveness in this regard severely surprised me as nothing I had read about this species suggested this level of aggression. It is notable that his aggressiveness only occurred when females were present; in the absence of females he usually hid in the darker corners of the tank.

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The most often recommended type of filter for the fry tank is the sponge filter. This type of filter works by pulling water through the sponge. The holes in the sponge are small enough and the water current is weak enough that fry and eggs are unharmed and cannot be pulled inside. The microorganisms growing on the sponge are also considered to be a source of food for fry. This makes these filters doubly valuable in the fry tank.

When rearing fry I used a box filter since it was what I happened to have handy. Fry got into the filter, but they seemed completely unharmed by the experience, being healthy and about the same size as fry living outside the filter. I merely check for fry when I clean the filter and move any that I find into the main tank.

Undergravel filters should not pose a problem in drawing fry into themselves as water intake occurs through the gravel bed. I suppose it is potentially possible that eggs could get sucked down and any resulting fry be stuck in the gravel bed, but I could not say if or how often this happens.

I suspect the main complaints about fry being sucked into filters involve power filters where there is quite a strong a current to draw fry into the intake tube. The danger to fry could be reduced by placing something over the filter intake that has very small holes – such as a piece of nylon ladies stocking attached with an elastic band. The holes should be too small for the fry to be sucked through into the filter. However, if current at the intake is extremely strong the filter could still potentially harm the fry by holding them against the nylon stocking by a current of water too strong for them to swim against. I have no personal experience using this sort of filter with fry, but based on other people’s comments I would not recommend it.

Sponge filters are usually very cheap to buy so you may find the best solution for a fry rearing tank is to buy one of them and leave the power filters for tanks with adult fish. A simple sponge filter may cost around $5-10 CAN, or it is possible to make your own. However, in addition to the filter you will also need plastic tubing and an air pump. An air pump for a small tank is usually under $20.00 CAN, but you may already have one so check before buying. With a little extra tubing and valves you can often hook more than one thing up to the same air pump.

In short, fry getting into the filter is only a problem with certain filter types. With box, undergravel, or sponge filters fry either won’t enter the filter, or are unlikely to be harmed if they do.

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