One of the Best! Adolfo's Cory Cat: Care, Tank Mates & Breeding Guide

I am super excited to bring you a species profile of a fish that is in one of my new favorite tanks in our home. Let’s take a closer look at Adolfo’s Cory and how to care for them. If you’d like to see more about this fish in action, check out our featured blog. I have been wanting to do this species profile for so long. This is one of my top three cory cats on the face of the Earth.

Otherwise known as the Adolfo’s cory, the Adolphi cory, Corydoras adolfoi, or more recently, Hoplosoma adolfoi. This is an awesome cory cat, and as you will see, it is full of color, full of personality, and just awesome. It is from South America, like pretty much all other cory cats.

They tolerate moderate water flow and adapt well to typical aquarium currents. I’ll provide more details on how to set up the tank in a few moments.

Size

They are a typical cory cat. Adult size is right around 2 inches, maybe a little more. But what sets this cory cat apart from so many others is the color, and you’re seeing that with the orange and the deep black. Here, we have them in a tank with some rust cory cats, and they make a great addition. Both the males and the females show awesome color. Females are a little larger and rounder. They are very peaceful, as most cory cats are.

They are an excellent choice for beginners and experienced aquarists alike. This is a fantastic inhabitant for your aquarium, and it’s one of the qualities that attract people to cory cats in general. With this one in particular, you’re not only getting a peaceful, goofy cory cat, but it also has vibrant color and is a very hardy species. Expect them to live around five years, maybe a little longer.

Price

If there is a downside to this fish, it’s the retail price. It is a little more expensive than a lot of other cory cats. You’ll usually find them for around $10 to $20 apiece. Sometimes you find them a little cheaper; sometimes, they are a little more. If you’re interested in finding this fish and other amazing species from this aquarium, check out Flip Aquatics at flipaquatics.com. They are a channel sponsor and are awesome.

They quarantine all their shrimp for at least four weeks and their fish for at least two weeks to ensure that you get the healthiest fish possible.

Tank Mates

When it comes to tank mates for your cory cats, and this one in particular, it’s really not that difficult. You want to keep them in a group. We currently have six of them in this aquarium. You can keep them with other cory cats if you want, but I usually try to keep at least four of a particular type of cory cat.They are not schooling fish the way some of the other fish are, but they do like to be in groups.

Keep them with other peaceful fish. In this aquarium, you’re seeing them with green neons, galaxy rasboras (otherwise known as celestial pearl danios), lampeye rasboras, and a green dragon pleco. Most tetras are fine, except for the more fin-nippy ones, like the Buenos Aires tetra.

All rasboras work just fine. They will probably leave adult shrimp alone, though shrimplets might go missing. Snails are usually perfectly fine. If you want to keep them with a betta, that is usually not a problem. Some smaller cichlids, such as rams, kribensis, and apistogrammas, work just fine.

In this tank, we have Nanochromis, and that has worked out okay. Dicrossus might be another example. Stay away from African cichlids. Most African cichlids prefer to dominate the bottom area and will relentlessly chase these guys around, stressing them out. The same goes for more aggressive loaches like the burmese loach, red tail loach, and red tail or rainbow sharks. You can also keep them with gouramis, including sparkling, honey, or dwarf gouramis, which all work well.

Water Parameters

Temperature-wise, they are pretty easy-going, anywhere from around 72 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. We keep them closer to 78 to 80, but they also do fine in the mid-70s. Online sources will tell you their ideal pH is around 6.0 to 7.0. We keep them at a pH of 8.0 and have successfully kept hundreds of these fish without any issues.

So, a pH range of 6.0 to 8.0 should work just fine. They are really hardy fish. Water hardness should be somewhere around 2 to 4 degrees on the low end, up to 12 to 15 degrees on the upper end. We keep ours at around 10 degrees GH and KH. Ensure there is no ammonia or nitrite in the tank. It needs to be well-cycled. If ammonia or nitrite is present, cory cats will not do well.

Feeding

•         These fish are really easy to feed.
•         They accept a wide range of foods.
•         We feed all our fish NorthFin foods because we absolutely love them.
•         They eat a variety of flakes, including krill, community, and kelp flakes.
•         They love NorthFin Bug Pro.
•         We also feed them small sinking pellets like community and cichlid pellets.

If you want to see something fun, drop in a NorthFin kelp wafer—they’ll create a little cory cat tornado around it until it’s gone. It’s pretty fun to watch.

Tank Size

These fish are not huge, maxing out at around two inches. However, since they do best in groups, I strongly recommend at least a 20-gallon tank. A 20-gallon standard or 20-gallon long would be a solid option.

Tank Setup

For decoration, sand should be a strong consideration. We use red flint sand, which we really like. A darker sand will make the black and orange of the Adolphi cory stand out more. Rocks, wood, and plants (real or fake) are great additions to provide structure and security.

Breeding

Like most cory cats, they lay eggs that stick to the glass or decorations. If you don’t remove the eggs, they will likely disappear, either eaten by the cory cats themselves or by other fish. If you want to breed them, gently scrape the eggs off and place them in an egg tumbler.

After a few days, they will hatch. Move them to a breeder box and feed them live baby brine shrimp or crushed NorthFin nano pellets.

Fry are not difficult to care for, but they should not be left in a community tank, as the eggs will likely be eaten.

Key Information

Final Thoughts

This is a really peaceful fish, full of color and personality. Among all the cory cat types, this is one that really stands out. If you get a chance to keep them, I highly recommend it.

There aren’t many challenges in keeping them—they are typical cory cats: hardy, peaceful, and a great addition to your aquarium. I’d love to hear your experiences—have you kept Adolfo’s Cory before? Share your thoughts in the comments!