# Other Aquarium Forums > Freshwater Fauna > Catfishes >  Advisable to keep Corydoras using ADA soil?

## tanguanh

Hi guys,

Is it advisable to keep corydoras using ADA soil as I intend to retain the soil after decommissioning the plants in my 3ft tank? or am I asking for trouble as it is a potential time bomb for disease outbreak? 

Thank you.

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## tanguanh

Anybody tried keeping them using ADA aquasoil? or is it advisable to use sudo fine sand ?

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## benjamin216

Soil is fine. Brings out the colour better for certain cories

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## stormhawk

Using the soil is fine with Corydoras, as long as you do not intend to feed them live foods.

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## gum

y not live food for ADA soil? power or the normal AdA soil?

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## stormhawk

If you use live foods such as Tubifex in ADA aquasoil, the worms will tunnel deeply. Whatever the Corydoras cannot reach even with all their digging is bound to die in the deeper parts of the soil bed. When I mention aquasoil, I'm referring to the standard Aquasoil like Amazonia, Africana etc. Since these soils will degrade over time and the lower parts will start to break down into some sort of fine mud, the worms will die in there if the soil becomes anaerobic.

Where Tubifex is concerned, a tank with a thin layer of sand will ensure that the Corydoras are able to reach the worms easily even if they tunnel deeper into the sand.

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## qngwn

> If you use live foods such as Tubifex in ADA aquasoil, the worms will tunnel deeply. Whatever the Corydoras cannot reach even with all their digging is bound to die in the deeper parts of the soil bed. When I mention aquasoil, I'm referring to the standard Aquasoil like Amazonia, Africana etc. Since these soils will degrade over time and the lower parts will start to break down into some sort of fine mud, the worms will die in there if the soil becomes anaerobic.
> 
> Where Tubifex is concerned, a tank with a thin layer of sand will ensure that the Corydoras are able to reach the worms easily even if they tunnel deeper into the sand.


How thin a layer of sand will be ideal of cories? i have some but they do not seem to be digging much, but just on the surface of the sand.

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## stormhawk

The depth should be around 1cm and no deeper, or dead zones may occur in the sand bed and this can be bad for the Corydoras. Not all Corydoras will dig deep for their food. Long-snouted species will do the most digging, round-snouts like C. panda, sterbai etc, will more or less just root about along the surface. They will dig from time to time. Dwarf species will seldom dig, and if they do, not very deep.

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## qngwn

perhaps it's time to remove some of my soil, i put around 2 to 3cm. thought they would dig, but my pygmy's dont dig much.. very shy little creatures, always hide when i come near the tank..

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## stormhawk

Unless you intend to use live plants like Echinodorus or Cryptocorynes (to give some examples), a deep substrate layer is not necessary for a Cory tank, especially for a dwarf Cory setup. C. pygmaeus are shy by nature, but very fascinating to watch when they spawn. The males will go crazy chasing a gravid female all over the tank.  :Grin:

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## imzf

thanks for all the advice

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