Corydoras in nature - habitat in Bolivia, with common green cory catfish ( Corydoras aeneus )

[@ender003]

This was wonderful to see. Corydoras are my favorite fish. My oldest made it to around 10 years and I still have a few dozen of her offspring in several tanks.

[@belowwater]

make sure to check out the other Corydoras in the wild videos in the description!

[@ender003]

@@belowwater Definitely!

[@motherlandbot6837]

There are many records of aquarium C. aeneus living into their twenties, and well documented records for some living into their thirties. They are also my favorite fishes, and were the first tropical fishes I ever saw (in my pre school classroom; unfortunately, they died after a classmate dumped an entire can of food into their tank). Aeneus cories actually represent a species complex, with considerable variation in morphology and microhabitat preferences between populations/subspecies/species. I've long favored those farmed by Florida tropical fish farms from the earlier part of the last century. These have very cute rounded faces when viewed frontally, without the C. seussi type long snouts, "pinched" upper head, and closely spaced eyes of most of the sometimes more colorful recent introductions. Plus like so many catfishes, their juveniles are very cute miniature replicas of the adults, without the unattractive transitional camouflage melanic patterns of C. sterbai and some others. One factor in the frequently long lives of C. aeneus and many other catfishes in captivity is their resistance to Mycobacterium infections, which kill many aquarium and fish farm fishes, particularly as they reach middle ages that they rarely reach in the wild, and their immunological efficiency declines.

[@raisinggoldfishonabudget7058]

@@belowwater So if I put like 6 in a 10 gal aquarium with a lid & a filter pump that will give them the flow they like & sand with some river rock & pea gravel they would thrive?

[@belowwater]

@@raisinggoldfishonabudget7058 it is really difficult to introduce current into 10 gallon without generating turbulence, the tank is just too short. you will need a longer tank (like a 24" 15 gallon or better a 30x12x12" 20 gallon to introduce current. If the tank is too short you will make it difficult for fish to swim if you have too much current. What you see in nature is not just current, but actual laminar flow. 6 Cory.aeneus in a 10 gallon will work, but leave the flow out then, and just have moderate filtration.

[@FatherFish]

Yours is one of the most important channels in the tropical fish hobby. Portraying the natural environment of the Central and South American fish is vital to understanding the development and maintenance of a natural aquatic system.

[@belowwater]

thank you!

[@FatherFish]

@@belowwater I would like to talk with you on video about creating a natural aquarium. Your work is exactly what the hobbyist needs to understand what a natural environment is.

[@maxlarock8788]

Watching corydoras exploring the bottom is fun to watch. It’s cool to see commonly kept aquarium fish in their natural habitats so you can make your aquarium as close as possible to that

[@belowwater]

yes, especially these small fish, it is easy to do something similar to their habitat

[@andrewsager7928]

Great video. Thanks for posting. I always love seeing aquarium fish in their natural habitat to get better ideas how to properly care for them. 👍👍

[@NefariousSpineLizard]

SAME, this was invaluable and I am going to do a complete rescape of my habitats to make it more like home :) Protip: cory's absolutely ADORE mango leaves in your tank. They forage on them, hide under them, sit on them, play in them etc and plus you get the added benefit of anti-fungal properties!

[@rabbitphobia]

@@NefariousSpineLizard I'm not an expert so... do the leaves have to be dried out prior to using?

[@raisinggoldfishonabudget7058]

@@NefariousSpineLizard That's good to know what about bay leaves ? I have a bay tree that drop leaves all the time could I use them ?

[@IndoorEcosystem]

Another awesome video! I love seeing fish in their natural habitat.

[@alaskajdw]

Living in Alaska for 30 years I can sympathize with the bug bites !!!

[@ckid8957]

Living In England for 30 years I unfortunately can not

[@thekraken1173]

@@ckid8957 *fortunately

[@Putukusi]

There are two Astyanax species appearing in the video - one from the bimaculatus complex (most likely abramis or lacustris - both common at the upper Paraguay basin), the other being Astyanax lineatus.

[@belowwater]

Thank you Flavio!

[@formercityboy9772]

I have five of these in one of my tanks. Apparently their wild friends have an exciting life out there !

[@michaela-be4le]

A wonderful little area of the jungle 😉 It is extraordinarily upsetting that every time I here about the Amazon, the conversation always includes the destruction and polluting of this incredible eco system !! I dread the day when it is dead...

[@raclark2730]

We cant let that happen, we need to put more pressure on governments and start the process putting things back.

[@RoySATX]

I'm nearly 60 years old, growing up there was an aquarium shop within walking distance from my home, House Of Tropicals, that a couple Hippies owned. I spent a lot of time in that shop as a little kid, the owners liked me (or they at least tolerated my presence) and over time I got to know the fish species and how to maintain them, eventually I was old enough to pay back their kindness by helping out with some of the daily responsibilities. I moved away when I was fourteen and a few years later I learned the store had closed. I am forever grateful for their kindness, their patience, and for the experience and knowledge they shared with me, and for igniting a lifelong love for Tropical fish. I have no way of thanking them, but thank you for sharing these videos. I fear that soon, like The House Of Tropicals, the natural homes of many Tropical fish will disappear. If we can't save these locations we must at least document their existence. And it's just incredibly nice to see them in their environment, behaving naturally.

[@belowwater]

the small shops are really in trouble, we just don't have enough interest in the hobby at that level anymore.

[@brianr76]

That wasn’t house of tropicals in glen burnie md was it?

[@thesolaraquarium]

Great video thks. I am surprised that the muddy bottom does not get disturbed by the corys. I was expecting clouds of muddy water in places, but the water is very clear. Interesting for anyone keeping corydoras. My cories are in a tank with almost zero visibility because of this issue. Too much mulm buildup - have to fix soon. Ah yes the current! That explains it...

[@belowwater]

yes, current, look near the end, you can see that the centre of the stream the substrate is totally clear. This is peak dry season in a record drought, in rain season this place must be absolutely rocking.

[@belowwater]

also check out the _Scleromystax_ habitat: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWeteJ1_a8iXbqM

[@thesolaraquarium]

@@belowwater cool, thank you amigo.

[@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn]

Great viewing! I remember watching a video with schools of 100 or more Cory's swimming in open water, they were Pepper Cory's though. This still makes the point though, don't just buy one! 🙂

[@AcuariosyEstanquesRG]

Veo peces como pepescas iguales a las que hay acá en mi país Guatemala. Saludos

[@aquahobby1982]

thanks a ton for such marvelous videos .......

[@alkgugl8925]

Спасибо большое! Для аквариумиста просто необходимо знать,естественную среду обитания рыбы. Это очень помогает в создании условий для её обитания в аквариуме.

[@razvanduta3563]

Excellent video! Great seeing the Corydoras in their native environment. Thanks for posting.

[@Brotherdrew561]

Corydoras are my favorite fish. I appreciate this video so much I’ve been waiting to see the natural habitat of the Corydoras. Subscribed 🤜🏼🤛🏽

[@belowwater]

thank you. I have several other Corydoras in nature videos, check the links in the description.

[@robecks5370]

Wild Corydora, I love your videos! Greetings from Germany

[@johnarizona3820]

^5

[@moviepat83]

wonderful

[@CypressPhotoStudio]

👍🏻👍🏻

[@thurstonhowelliii335]

I’m very impressed with this channel. I’ve been watching videos about aquarium fish for several years but somehow never found this channel until today. The photography and narration is top notch. You definitely deserve more views and subscribers with quality videos like this.

[@belowwater]

Thank you - getting there, slowly!

[@alaskajdw]

Dude you ROCK 😊👊

[@Fishtory]

wonderful! thank you so much for sharing.

[@belowwater]

thank you.

[@drockingfish]

very nice!!

[@therealtopg4441]

Great Icthyology content, Tog G approved !!!!

[@matteocardellino3849]

Come here in Ecuador , there's a los of new species!! And a lot of endemic species

[@rembrandtapartments4938]

Awesome video Oliver, thanks! :)

[@idaholewis265]

Thank you for the video! I enjoyed watching it

[@australianbiotopes4563]

Beautiful habitat, Thanks for sharing 🙂

[@belowwater]

Thanks for visiting

[@matsolsson9179]

I wish a good new year to you, i wunder witch corry i shall have in my new tank.

[@jochenvahle5802]

Wieder ein sehr interessantes Video, vielen Dank dafür. Viele Grüße aus Wuppertal /Deutschland

[@belowwater]

Danke!

[@raclark2730]

Awesome the tetras are cool too. It is sad to here about the forest there, we have all the water here in Australia due to the Pacific oscillation cycle. Well it may well be that human activity could be disturbing the cycle I am sure it will eventually switch back and then it will be our time to be dry again. We need better environmental management to help mitigate these extremes on both sides of the ocean.

[@paulmccarthy7467]

Enjoy watching Great video

[@robbo2k10]

Cool video - thanks for sharing!

[@MZUNGUWILLY]

I think this is not aeneus Oliver, they look like something in between aeneus and melanotaenia, so most probably a new species, depending on how far you were away from the "normal"aeneus area...

[@belowwater]

well, by that definition nothing is normal aeneus.... for now it is. The type locality is Trinidad (the island)!

[@OddSpeech]

Iv always wondered what kind of environment Corydoras lived in. Thanks!

[@Jay9595]

I just bought 2 bronze corys the other day and it’s great to see how they should be living. Also I see @fatherfish commented. You too should do a live stream that would be great. Giving a sub keep it up

[@belowwater]

thank you!

[@peterpiper_203]

So glad this popped up on my feed So awesome . Not only one my favorite fish but, their actual habitat. When I kept fish 20 years ago I did something similar Went diving in Mexico and took Canon 35 mm film camera designed for underwater shooting No go pros then Anyway the goal was to shoot the reefs and I was going to use as background for what I was planning on getting in to salt water end of the hobby Wasn’t to be Pictures came out fantastic as I used quality film and different speeds of film Thinking of getting back in the hobby So much has changed Going to look now to see if you ever caught any Urau in the wild

[@belowwater]

i have, but it is in analog times and i don't have any video - just photos of both species in nature

[@keeping_gecko_simple]

Thanks for great video! So can I keep Corydoras in fast current aquarium?

[@belowwater]

yes, most species live in quite fast current. I saw C.araguaiensis in a place, in dry season the current was too strong to swim there!

[@gabrielfrost9134]

Thank you for this awesome video, corydoras are the cutest fish ever.

[@APtS_Gh0stHunt3R]

Thank you for this great video

[@fischverruckt7321]

Thank u for the interesting video!

[@pilocereus2]

hi oliver i see some fish not yet named this might help i bought my grandson 2 goldfish later i asked him there names he answered one and two puzzled by this i asked why he said if one dies i still have two 😊😊john from paisley

[@belowwater]

good idea. i will suggest it to people naming fish!

[@plantlifeproject]

Loved seeing these fish in a natural habitat. Good point about home aquariums often not having much water flow compared to the native habitat. Thanks again!

[@belowwater]

yes, most aquariums would do well with more flow.

[@paulstingray]

Very cool

[@paulstingray]

Apart from the fires and drought!

[@marcosvazquez5912]

Loved this video man

[@matsolsson9179]

Hallo! i wundering what cleaning crow can you have whith bucktotth tetra?

[@belowwater]

most scaleless fish should be ok, so are the really nocturnal catfish. I had _Tatia_ with mine for years.

[@thunderfalkfalk5590]

Thank you for the Video

[@konliner9286]

A lot of fish "experts" say these fish need sand but look at their habitat. They substrate is rocks.

[@belowwater]

They occur over sand, because few habitats actually have "gravel", but where current is strong in a habitat, sand gets blown away, and the gravel is exposed. Keeping Corys over gravel is fine, but the pebbles should not have sharp edges. Beyond that, the issues are small cuts and high levels of bacteria. If you have dirty sharp gravel the bacteria will enter the damaged barbels and dissolve them. A mix of fine sand, varied gravel pellets, high enough current, and oversized filtration would be ideal.

[@crim5447]

i never knew they existed in the wild :D

[@Orlosthedruid]

OMG...I LOVE THIS VIDEO !!

[@noway742]

I need a bigger filter now....

[@DEXTER-TV-series]

Excellent explanation. Many thanks. 💚

[@belowwater]

So nice of you

[@rmaquaculture]

Thanks! for sharing this video, it's really helpful for my corydoras breeding experiment

[@grumpymcgrump5822]

That was cool! Thanks!

[@judokazuzu]

❤❤❤

[@corydoraszoneaquatics]

It's interesting to see how bad the barbels are on most of the Corys.

[@belowwater]

I think the extreme drought and very low water level means the organic and pathogenic load on that water is quite high, so bacteria likely start to melt their barbels.

[@corydoraszoneaquatics]

@@belowwater Think so too. Did you measure any water parameters? I'm writing an article about barbel erosion in the tank and will link to your video to show what it could look like in nature.

[@belowwater]

@@corydoraszoneaquatics not enough time there, sorry. Water temperature 24C. This river would drain to the Rio El Encanto, but never reaches any connectivity, it ends in a "curiche", a swampland. Despite the isolation the Corydoras aeneus look the same as in other Bolivian river basins. I think the barbel erosion is caused by bacteria, but if the aquarium has sharp-edged substrate the bacterial infections are just more likely.

[@renoslifead7095]

Excelente video !!!!

[@vitaliyvyntu4566]

Very interesting

[@Buildingenjoyment]

Cool spot

[@astotoh]

need 1 hour videos of this litte fellas on natural habitat

[@belowwater]

the problem is that we would get punished by the KZbin algorithm - anything too long like that does not work. But we are working on more Corydoras content!

[@AkwarystaNiedzielny]

👍👍👍👍👍👍Great video

[@mingbritson]

Amazing!

[@zeus756]

Nice work thank u

[@csharpe5787]

Fab

[@nathalie228]

so cute!! :)

[@djbenice]

Awesome videos. Tip on the midges try smidge or avon for a non-deet repellant that genuinely works.

[@belowwater]

yes, that was in the car 100m away, where there were no midges....

[@djbenice]

@@belowwater D"oh

[@stevenbisset8717]

brilliant

[@aquariumlifestyle]

Thanks for this video!

[@belowwater]

My pleasure!

[@apexpredator8395]

What a beautiful place.

[@klausoxen6597]

😊👍

[@theamazing10yearold65]

Are corydoras easy to dipnet?

[@belowwater]

not really, they have a good sense in the change in current when a net approaches. A larger seine is the better way!

[@물멍-d8b]

They really love high flow :-)

[@belowwater]

yes, most fish do.

[@princetrophies]

What kind of tetra are those?

[@belowwater]

Astyanax species, not sure which one.

[@materethelyi7068]

What are the other fish?

[@belowwater]

An Astyanax species

[@michaelholevas9385]

Your videos are great and you deserve more subscribers. I've always wanted to explore C. and S. American streams.

[@belowwater]

Thank you very much!

[@gokidooke1345]

Amazing!

[@belowwater]

Thanks!

[@croma4158]

Will we ever get a glimpse of Bolivian rams in the wild

[@belowwater]

I don't have any footage of Bolivian rams, but i do have Bujurquina oenalaemus and Satanoperca pappaterra that will come eventually.

[@croma4158]

@@belowwater very nice

[@rabbitphobia]

Great video please do more fish species if possible.

[@belowwater]

check out the other videos on our channel - there are lots of habitats with many different species.

[@rabbitphobia]

@@belowwater Already on to it...😀

[@EyesOfTheVulture]

Thank you

[@belowwater]

Welcome!

[@bloatus7611]

Those are some big corys. My mom has a few bronze corys I gifted her that have chunked up but they're still not this big.

[@belowwater]

yes, they can get really big in some home aquariums. I have seen some 10 year old fish like this.

[@briancole1950]

New sub here. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this channel. I've been keeping tropical fish most of my life so these underwater shots of the fish in there natural habitat are a real thrill for me. The tidbits of various info is interesting as well. Keep up the great work!

[@belowwater]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@graphite2786]

I always get a little stressed when you drop a video, there are usually references to environmental destruction in them. It seems La Nina causes droughts in South America and floods in Australia. 3 La Nina in a row now. Hopefully we won't see a fourth 😨😓

[@belowwater]

Yes, bad government combined with global warming, same as in Brazil, but worse.

[@anticlimactic165]

i really love corys :D they look so cute

[@udaydas6291]

How much(Feet)deep water was here?

[@belowwater]

from 15-45cm, but water depth is very relative, this is a record dry season. In general Corydoras are rarely deeper than 1m.

[@udaydas6291]

Thank you.

[@richardreynolds9896]

Nice video

[@belowwater]

Thanks

[@quitlife9279]

Very nice footage, i'm not familiar with the location but it may not be very isolated from the main river system, seasonal rainfall could create connections that are not present in the dry season.

[@belowwater]

the river ends in a "curiche", a mire. It may in extreme flood events be connected, but it is not in normal wet seasons.

[@carpy1252]

They are so cute! Have you seen corydoras share the same habitat with neon tetras?

[@belowwater]

I have seen cardinals with _C.concolor_ - never seen normal neons in clear enough water.

[@carpy1252]

@@belowwater Do the cardinals tend to live in clearer waters than the neons?

[@carpy1252]

Come to think of it, I haven't seen any neon tetras 'in habitat' videos. They are always cardinals. @@belowwater

[@belowwater]

@carpy1252 yes, _P. axelrodi_ and _P. simulans_ are more in the headwaters , _P. innnesi_ is mostly an Amazon lowland species, where clear water creeks are more rare. I have not seen them in clear water, but it does not mean there are no terra firme creeks with neons in clear water.

[@belowwater]

@@carpy1252 my channel has videos with both simulans and axelrodi if you look through the videos.

[@AndreGWolf]

Priceless. Thank you

[@belowwater]

Thank you.

[@riki9506]

Hi, I have a friend who successfully bred c. Geryi and he’s trying to figure out why it happened. Have you gone to the northern side of Bolivia? I’d appreciate it if you could make a video on alto madeira/Beni/Mamore. Thanks

[@belowwater]

I do not have any video from there. Likely it is larger water changes with cooler water. Mine lay eggs with 75-90% water changes, and a drop of around 2-3 degrees Celsius in water temperature

[@riki9506]

@@belowwater When his fish spawned, he had only done a normal 30% water change at 25 degrees. No change in diet, no change in tap water quality. I hope you'd get there someday for great information. Anyways, I really love your videos. Thank you as always.

[@piratetseng]

Can i share this video to my FB Group?

[@belowwater]

yes, of course

[@kjeaquatics]

I really enjoy all of your work -

[@belowwater]

thank you. I am happy people are starting to notice the channel!

[@MattyP650]

This is awesome, would love to see more of this

[@belowwater]

Check in the description, we have several other Corydoras video, and many other common fish like cardinals, discus and ramirezi.