Best Food For Cory Catfish?

Food plays a vital role in your corydoras life. Feeding them the right food will ensure their faster growth and development. So, knowing the best food for your cory catfish is necessary to ensure their good health and longer lifespan.

We will discuss the best food for our cory catfish in this article. So, let us find out.

Cory catfish are omnivore fish and need meat and plant-based food in their diet. Feeding them food like bloodworms, brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, sinking pellets, and algae wafers will make them thrive. To avoid overfeeding, give them food in quantity they can finish in one to two minutes.

This article will discuss the best food for our corydoras. Also, we will discuss the best commercial food to feed our cory catfish. So, let us get into it.

Cory catfish ideal dietary requirements.

Cory catfish are omnivore fish that require meat and plant-based food to fulfill their ideal dietary requirements.

Feeding your cory catfish with complex food that contains plant and meat matter food will ensure their faster growth and development.

Cory Catfish FoodServing QuantityNo Of Times
Brine shrimpOne pinch at a time1-2 times a week
Mosquito larvae10-15 pieces2-3 times a week
BloodwormsOne pinch at a time1-2 times a week
Tubifex WormsOne pinch at a time1 time a week
Sinking flake foodOne pinch at a time2-3 times a week
Shrimp pelletsOne pinch at a time2-3 times a week
Bottom feeder tabletsOne tablet at a time2-3 times a week
Algae roundsOne round per fish1-2 times a week
Blanched vegetables (Zucchini, cucumber, and lettuce)One small slice and piece per fish1-2 times a week
This table shows the ideal dietary requirements of a cory catfish.

Feed your cory catfish live, freeze-dried, frozen bloodworms, tubifex worms, blackworms, brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, and flake food.

You can feed them with blanched vegetables like zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, and boiled peas to fulfill their plant-based nutritional requirements.

Make sure to feed them in a quantity that they can finish eating in one to two minutes.

If you are feeding them once a day, feed them in a quantity that they can finish eating in three to four minutes.

Also read: Can Cory Catfish Eat Bloodworms?

Which is the best commercial food for my corydoras?

There are various commercial foods present in the pet store and online at amazon.

Commercial food includes:

  1. Pellets food
  2. Flake food
  3. Live and frozen food

Pellets food

Pellets are the most common food every aquarist prefers to feed their fish.

There are hundreds of pellets food brands available in the market.

Corydoras are bottom feeders and will feed from the bottom of the tank.

You have to feed sinking pellets to your cory catfish.

The main reason why aquarists prefer pellets food is that it will not pollute the water.

These are some best pellet food you can consider feeding to your cory catfish:

  1. Hikari sinking carnivore pellets
  2. Fluval color enhancing pellets
  3. Hikari mini sinking pellets
Corydoras pellets foodLink to buy from amazon
Hikari carnivore sinking pelletsHikari sinking pellets
Fluval color enhancing pelletsFluval sinking pellets
Hikari mini sinking pelletsHikari mini pellets
This table shows the best pellets food for corydoras.

Hikari and Fluval are well-known and trusted brands.

Hikari sinking carnivore pellets are high in stabilized vitamin C, which helps reduce stress and build immunity to fight diseases.

Fluval color enhancing pellets are also good for your corydoras. Feeding these pellets will help you bring out the best fish color.

Hikari mini sinking pellets also provide your corydoras with vitamin C, which helps them in reducing stress and build immunity.

Flake food

Flake foods are known to be the best food among aquarists, and fish love to feed on them.

Nowadays, many aquarists prefer pellets rather than flake food for their fish.

However, flake food is best for your fish as it dissolves quickly in water, and they can feed on it easily.

Feeding your corydoras with flake food once a day will do great for them.

However, these are the reason why many aquarists don’t prefer to feed flake food to their fish:

  1. As flake food dissolves quickly in water, it will dirty the water if left behind uneaten.
  2. You can easily overfeed flake food to your corydoras.

Some of the best flake food for your corydoras are:

  1. TetraMin plus tropical flake food
  2. Aqueon tropical flakes
  3. Fluval Hagen color enhancing flake food
Corydoras flakes foodLink to buy from amazon
TetraMin plus tropical flake foodTetraMin tropical flakes
Aqueon tropical flakesAqueon flake food
Fluval Hagen color enhancing flake foodFluval flake food
This table shows the best flake food for corydoras.

Tetramin plus tropical flake food is among the best flake food for your corydoras.

It will not make the water cloudy if fed in an appropriate quantity.

Tetramin plus tropical flake food is nutritionally balanced food with added shrimp.

Aqueon tropical flakes also contain all the nutrients your cory catfish requires to thrive.

Fluval Hagen color enhancing food is also an excellent food you can consider feeding your corydoras.

Fluval Hagen contains nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants derived from several key elements, including Atlantic Herring and Norwegian Krill.

Also read: Can Cory Catfish Eat Tropical Flakes?

Live and frozen food

Feeding your corydoras with live or frozen food will give them good nutritional values and make them thrive.

Cory catfish feed on larvae, worms, and other insects in the wild.

Feeding your cory catfish with live or frozen food like bloodworms, blackworms, brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, and tubifex worms will do great.

All these food will make them thrive and ensure their faster growth and development.

Feed your cory catfish with bloodworms or blackworms twice a week.

Tubifex worms should be fed once a week, and mosquito larvae 2-3 times a week.

You should not feed live tubifex worms to your corydoras as they can contain harmful bacteria which will affect your fish’s health.

Also read: Can Cory Catfish Eat Betta Food?

What are the other best foods for my corydoras?

Corydoras are bottom dwellers and spend most of their time scavenging on the bottom, searching for food.

They are omnivore fish and require a balanced diet of plant and meat matter food to thrive.

Feeding them homemade foods like blanched vegetables will do great for them.

You can feed them with blanched zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, and boiled peas.

Other commercial foods are recommended for feeding your cory catfish, like algae wafers and bottom-feeding tablets.

Cory catfish will not feed on algae but will eat algae wafers, and you should provide them with that.

We recommend feeding your corydoras with Hikari algae wafers as it is the best algae wafers.

You can buy this product at amazon: Hikari Algae Wafer.

Also read: Can Cory Catfish Eat Brine Shrimp?

What to feed cory catfish fry?

You don’t have to feed the corydoras fry for the first 48 hours, as they will feed on the remaining yolk sags.

After that, when you notice them wriggling on the bottom, start feeding them with powdered foods.

You can start feeding your cory catfish fry with live or dead protein foods when they grow a little.

We recommend feeding your cory catfish with baby brine shrimp as it is the best food for your corydoras fry.

How to feed cory catfish when leaving out for a vacation?

There are various ways to feed your cory catfish when you are not around.

You can do all these things to ensure their regular feeding:

  1. Ask your friend to feed your corydoras.
  2. Ask your family to provide food for them.
  3. Set up an automatic feeder.
  4. Don’t feed them.

Ask your friend 

If your friend also has an aquarium, then you can ask your friend to feed your corydoras, as they will be much more experienced and will not overfeed or underfeed them.

You just have to tell them how much to feed your corydoras and how often you feed them.

Ask your family

If you don’t have any friends nearby or have experience keeping an aquarium, you can ask your family to feed your cory catfish.

Make sure to make them understand the quantity and timings of feeding correctly.

Let them feed your cory catfish in front of you three to four times first to make sure that they are doing it right.

Set up an automatic feeder

If you don’t have friends or family to look after your fish when you are out on vacation, the best option is to set up an automatic feeder.

An automatic feeder will make your work easy by feeding your cory catfish adequately from time to time.

You must set the timings and quantity to feed your cory catfish, and then the automatic feeder will feed your catfish when you are not around.

Make sure not to add any wet food. Instead, consider adding pellets to the automatic feeder to ensure it works fine.

Many aquarists set up an automatic feeder anyway, as they are not able to feed their fish adequately because of their busy schedule.

Don’t feed your cory catfish.

If you are moving out for 2-3 days, it is okay if you don’t feed them.

Your cory catfish will live on their own for 6-7 days.

So, it is better to let them fast for three to four days if you are moving out and don’t have anyone to feed them.

Conclusion:

Cory catfish are omnivore fish and will feed on plant and meat-based food to fulfill their ideal dietary requirements.

Feed them live or frozen food like bloodworms, blackworms, tubifex worms, mosquito larvae, and brine shrimp.

Commercial food like sinking pellets, flake food, algae wafers, and bottom feeder tablets will also do great for them.

You can prepare plant-based nutritional food for them at home by preparing blanched zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, and boiled peas.

Feed your cory catfish one to two times a day in a quantity that they can finish eating in one to two minutes.


Reference: Wikipedia

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