Corydoras Peppered

The peppered cory (Corydoras paleatus) comes from further south than most of the genus, in the river systems of southern Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. The pattern is exactly as the name suggests: irregular dark blotches scattered over a pale olive body, no two fish marked the same way. The southern origin matters in practice, because this is one of the few corydoras genuinely comfortable in an unheated or cooler room-temperature tank.

Aquarium care

• Reaches roughly 6 cm.
• Peaceful and community safe.
• Keep six or more.
• Tolerates cooler water than most corydoras.
• Sand or smooth gravel; avoid anything sharp.
• Bottom-dweller fed on sinking wafers, pellets and frozen bloodworm.

The cool tolerance makes peppered corys an unusually good match for white cloud mountain minnows, and they work equally well in a standard tropical community with tetras and rasboras. They are also among the easier corydoras to breed at home, which is a fair reason to start with this species rather than a rarer one.

Stock rotates with each shipment, and livestock is sold for local pickup at our Lethbridge store. See what else is in on our corydoras page.