Corys or Test Comparison or Stocking?

[Lakea]

As the title suggests, this is kind of like three threads rolled into one. I put a smile in front of each topic in case you want to skip through!

Well I went cory crazy the other day, and I probably made some mistakes, but I bought 8 new bronze corys (whichs I got for four bucks [all 8 for four bucks], I am a terrible person and I don't want to inform you how I managed that deal).



Then I added my other three corys to the group and put them up in my 55g with the pl*cs, no quarantine, hopefully I won't run into any issues *knocks on wood*. Well so far these guys are some healthy looking little buggers with huge appetites. Its fun to watch in the morning, all 11 of them and my two pl*cs devouring the shrimp pellets, I am very entertained by it have to do a real youtube video of it.

I like this pic has a cory, but if you look on the left you can see my well hidden female BN. I hate using flash, but those corys are just too darn fast for my camera...


Well Yesterday my older female cory laid lots of little eggs, YAY! But I did not want to deal with removing them, I thought some might make it since there weren't any guppies or other fish to eat them, but that darn male BN found them really quick, so no more eggs. Well I wanted to see if I couldn't figure out what caused it, it may have just been the change from the 75g to the 55g that made her lay eggs. So I tested the water, well I found some old test strips so I decided to compare liquid and strip test results for fun, pretty good results.

Ammonia: Strip- 0.25ppm Liquid- 0.25 ppm (I attribute this to the new additions, eleven corys introduced at one time those BB better catch up, I'll watch the ammonia levels closely)
Nitrite: Strip- 0ppm Liquid- 0ppm
Nitrate: Strip- 0ppm Liquid- 5ppm (strip goes from 0-10 so the strip ain't accurate)
pH: Strip- 7.2 Liquid- 7.6 (High Range liquid- 7.4)
Alkalinity (KH): 120ppm (don't have liquid for this yet)
Hardness (GH): 75ppm (don't have liquid for this yet)

So those strips seemed to work, for me anyway, but I will definitely stick with liquid tests!

And lastly my original tank plan was not for eleven corys, but they have been so fun to watch, but they sort of change my stocking plans. I would still like to go for two angels, then I have my two BNs and my eleven corys, I figure that's about all my tank should have, under-stocking would probably be good, but I really wanted some top dwellers, I would like some south American tetras of some sort, I could probably get away with 8 maybe. Anyone have any suggestions?

I think that just about wraps up the thread, sorry its so long, but I really did not want to do two or three separate posts. Thanks for reading!!! :thumbsups

[Lotus]

Congrats on the cories They should be fine with the BNs.

If you did a large water change with slightly colder water, it may have made the cories spawn.

I think you'll be OK with your stocking plan, although it's on the heavy side.