cory cats and rough gravel, please help

[tmy420]

I have 8 cory cats and i have what I think looks like really rough gravel... Its the regular colored kinds you would find at walmart and such, but its really rough compared to alot.... I need more gravel as it is... can I put some kind of smooth gravel on top of the rough? What should I do?

 

[Zagz]

You could put some smaller smoother gravel over top if you want. I'd remove the gravel as best as possible and put new gravel in. Taking into consideration 2 things, your tank is cycled right, otherwise don't remove the substrate, and secondly be careful not to dump the new gravel ontop of the cory's.

 

[rich311k]

the regular gravel sold at most places should be fine. the epoxy is very smooth.

 

[QTOFFER]

If you decide to replace the substrate, remove as much as you can from one side of the tank and replace it with the new gravel. I made a scoop from a well-rinsed plastic milk container for this purpose. The fish will flee to the undisturbed side - well, the smart ones will anyway.

Wait a week or two and do the same thing to the other side. This creates alot less stress on the fish and helps prevent the minicycle caused by a massive loss of your substrate's bacterial colonies.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

If you just dump new gravel into the tank, it will become mixed when doing gravel vacs anyways. I would just put new gravel in the tank. I've switched out the entire substrate before on tanks and never had any issues. But we also removed all of the fish prior to doing it.

 

[mvigor]

It's also just as easy to net the cories into a bucket. They are fast, but your gravel work with go much faster without worrying that the fish are getting in the way.

I replaced my cory gravel with sand and their barbel whiskers grew back to full length. They must be more comfortable now. You can see the tank with the link in my profile.