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Passport
- Family
- Corydoras Catfish
- Grows to
- 3.5 cm (1.4")
- Lives
- 3–5 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Beginner
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- In a group of 4 or more
- Water
- 20–26 °C (68–79 °F)
ColombiaVenezuela
Care requirements
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On record for Salt and Pepper Cory: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 38 L / 10.0 US gal
- pH 5.5–7.5
- Hardness 2–10 dGH
- Diet omnivore
- Tank length 60 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Salt and pepper corys are the dwarf that stayed on the bottom. They're the same size class as the pygmy cory and behave nothing like it — where pygmies hover in midwater, these work the sand the way a proper cory should, in a busy little group with their snouts down.
The pattern is a row of dark blotches along a pale, speckled body, and it breaks up beautifully against fine sand. Up close they're far more finely marked than the shop tank suggests.
They're a genuinely good choice for a small planted tank, which very few catfish are. Big enough to be visible, small enough not to need a long footprint, and busy all day.
Tank setup
Give your salt and peppers fine sand and open floor. Their barbels are proportionally tiny and gravel damages them faster than it damages a larger cory's.
Keep a decent group. They forage as a unit, and a few of them scattered in a big tank behave nervously and hide.
Leave the front of the tank clear and plant behind it. They cover ground continuously and the display works better if you can see them doing it.
Give them shade — wood, broad leaves, moss — and keep the light moderate.
Leave an air gap. They surface for gulps of air like every cory.
Feeding
Salt and pepper corys need small food, and this is where they're commonly failed. A standard catfish pellet is too big for them to manage.
Feed crushed wafers, micro pellets, baby brine shrimp, microworm and finely chopped frozen food. Grade everything down.
Get it to the bottom before the rest of the tank does. In a busy community these are slow, small feeders and they lose every race to the food.
Avoid: whole sinking pellets and coarse substrate, which are the two things that most reliably starve them.
Filtration and flow
Gentle to moderate flow. They're small and don't want to fight a current, though they like clean, moving water over the sand.
A sponge filter saves you worrying about the intake at all. These are small enough for an unguarded pipe to be a genuine hazard.
Keep nitrate low and siphon the sand. Small fish in the waste layer have very little margin.
With plants
Salt and pepper corys are safe with plants and never damage them.
Plant the sides and back and leave a clear foraging area at the front. That's the layout this fish is designed for.
Moss and low carpeting plants at the edges give them cover to dart under without taking away the open sand they need.
Health
They're reasonably hardy once settled and often arrive underweight. Small, frequent feeds for the first weeks make a real difference.
Barbel erosion is the standard cory problem, and fine clean sand is the best defence you have against it — though it is a defence rather than a guarantee, and shortened barbels are still worth investigating when they appear.
Salt is worth avoiding here. For medication, find a product whose label speaks to catfish and use it the way it is written: a fraction improvised at home can be too weak to clear anything while still being hard on a fish this small.
Breeding
They spawn readily in a well-conditioned group, with the usual cory trigger of a cool partial water change.
The female presses small numbers of eggs onto plants, glass and wood, and a group will distribute them widely over a morning. Adults eat them given the chance.
The fry are small and need infusoria or a very fine food before microworm. Clean water and a sand bottom for them to sift are the other requirements, and they grow slowly compared with the larger corys.
Tank mates
Avoid10
- Convict Cichlid Convict Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Salt and Pepper Cory at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Jewel Cichlid Jewel Cichlid grows to 15 cm against Salt and Pepper Cory at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Panda Garra Panda Garra grows to 9 cm against Salt and Pepper Cory at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Pictus Catfish Pictus Catfish grows to 12 cm against Salt and Pepper Cory at 4 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Common Goldfish Common Goldfish is not safe with Salt and Pepper Cory: common goldfish and corydoras catfish are a bad pairing.
Only with care7
- Chinese Algae Eater Chinese Algae Eater is aggressive and Salt and Pepper Cory is peaceful.
- Clown Loach Clown Loach is a risk to Salt and Pepper Cory: corydoras catfish and loaches and botia are a pairing to watch.
- Dwarf Chain Loach Dwarf Chain Loach is a risk to Salt and Pepper Cory: corydoras catfish and loaches and botia are a pairing to watch.
- Hillstream Loach Hillstream Loach is a risk to Salt and Pepper Cory: corydoras catfish and loaches and botia are a pairing to watch.
- Kuhli Loach Kuhli Loach is a risk to Salt and Pepper Cory: corydoras catfish and loaches and botia are a pairing to watch.
No conflict is recorded with the other 88 species in the database, so nothing to flag. 3 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.