looking for a fun little fish to cruise around in the bottom of your tank then let's talk corydoras
versus loaches battle of the bottom dwellers hi my name is Irene with girl talks fish and this
was a really hard video to make because honestly i love both of them but also there are like a ton
of species in each of these categories so i'm gonna try to limit it to quarries and loaches
that can live in a peaceful community tank that's 20 gallons or smaller our first category is cost
and for loaches i came across anything ranging from three dollars for a coulee loach all the
way to thirty dollars for a panda loach and then pretty much the same thing for corydoras it was
like three dollars for an albino quarry all the way to thirty dollars for a green laser cory
so i'm going to give them a tie in this category but i'm sure there are rare species of corydoras
that i just haven't come across yet that would be higher in price for size it really runs the gamut
you've got the pygmy corydoras all the way at one inch long to the banded cory catfish which is
technically not in the corridors genus but they get up to four inches i think adults mainly are
kind of on average about 2.5 to 3 inches at least the ones you can get in this hobby easily and
then for loaches same thing the rosy loach is about 1 inch 1.2 inches long versus the kuhli
loach is 4 inches long so i think again size we're about tied and we're mainly capped by
the size of the tank because i want to stay 20 gallons or below for appearance i think
we're gonna start to really deviate a little bit so for my particular video constraint of
nano tanks 20 gallons only there's a lot more species of corydoras that you could put in a 20
gallon versus a lot fewer species of loaches however i feel like all the quarries pretty
much look exactly the same like shape wise they all have that classic shape with the
armored scales and the barbells you might get some differentiation from the spots or
different stripes or patterns and then most of them are neutral colored but you do have
like the orange laser cory or the pinkish white albino cory right loaches fewer in this category
and yet i feel like they look so different like the rosy loach kind of looks like the pygmy cory
the dwarf chain loach looks like your classic loach with a very long narrow snout but then
you have like the weird hillstream loach which is like a miniature stingray and then the kuhli loach
which is a miniature eel so again bottom line appearance is all up to personal preference i
personally like the corydoras appearance but given that there's so much more variety with loaches
i'm gonna personally give this one to the lips but before we go on to the next category i wanna give
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shows for only 14.99 a year all right back to our regularly scheduled program let's talk hardiness
how well are they going to stand up to less than optimal care or a wide range of water parameters
and i would say you know caveat it depends on the species but both quarries and loaches seem
to have a pretty bulletproof species like with the quarries you've got the albino bronze pepper
corys seem pretty bulletproof and then on the loaches you know i've had the hillstream, kuhli,
and dwarf teen loaches and i've never had any problems with them showing any sign of sickness
they're hearty eaters you know very lively fish so i think for this category they're about the same
except if you happen to get a wild caught species in that case they may be weaker
they may have a harder time adjusting to your water and then they may come with lots of
parasites or other diseases that you need to treat when you get them into your home the next category
is behavior or personality and i think this is another case where also there's a wide range so
you've got some cores and loaches that are really brave and others that are kind of more shy so with
corys you've got the albino corys pygmies they're always out about you always see them kind of up
front ready for more food and then loaches they get a reputation for being boisterous and outgoing
versus there are also other species of quarries that are really shy from what i've seen online
and then kuhli loaches they definitely get a bad rep for being nocturnal and hiding all the time
but i personally didn't have that experience so i think sometimes a lot of it depends on your
tank setup you know how much coverage you have how many other corridors or loaches of the same
species do you have in the same school and then do you have peaceful tank mates that's going to
kind of determine how often you see them but if i had to summarize their personalities corys seemed
more happy-go-lucky very peaceful gets along with everyone versus loaches a little more high energy
more playful sometimes i like them both i can't choose their diets are nearly identical they're
not picky eaters both of them will eat pretty much anything that sinks to the bottom of the aquarium
so they are great scavengers that will they won't eat other fish's poop but they will
scavenge around eating any leftover crumbs that happen to get away now one thing to mention is
that hill stream loaches do eat algae as well as dwarf chain loaches are known for hunting down
small snails so i'm gonna have to give them the slight edge when it comes to being a great cleanup
crew member for tank mates i would say first off of the bat corys and loaches they like to be
usually in a school of their own species the more the merrier except for maybe hill stream loaches
they can get a little bit territorial sometimes the males but yeah really at this size any kind of
peaceful community fish that is not going to pick on them or eat them would do fine with
them except for dwarf chain lodges obviously they have that problem with eating snails so
keep your snails away from them another thing is that they get sometimes loaches get a bad
reputation for being really boisterous and at this size i didn't really see my dwarf chain loaches
bother anyone but if you did have a slower fish that you are worried might get out competed during
meal time or maybe might be stressed out by them rushing around the tank doing their little crazy
antics it's just something to be watching out for so i'm going to give this one to corydoras because
they're just so peaceful and get them along with pretty much anyone anything except for maybe the
smallest fry that would fit into their mouths i definitely want to discuss breeding because
albino cory catfish they were my first fish ever to breed in my home aquariums pretty much you just
feed them a lot of good food and they get nice and round and plump conditioned for breeding
and then there's eggs everywhere and then you can just collect those eggs and then raise up the fry
however with loaches i feel like it's a little bit harder you have to do more digging to find out how
to breed them at home some species are easier and they're all different techniques too like some of
them have like a mesh you need to use some tell you need a rock pile so the fry can escape so
i'm gonna give this category to the cory catfish because it just seems like at least anecdotally
i hear more success stories of people actually breeding them at home just like with a mono strip
and cherry shrimp we have a tie it really does come down to personal preference i would say that
corydoras seem to be more popular right now or at least more available in the hobby and so
it seems like more people are on team cory but the people on team loach are very passionate
about their love for loaches so bottom line if you haven't kept one or the other make sure you keep
both corys and loaches at some point in your hobby totally worth it me personally i love them both
so you can see videos i've made about cory catfish and loaches over here depending on your preference
take time to enjoy your aquariums and i'll see in the next video