It’s impossible to group and summarize water conditions from all the environments of South America. Cories inhabit dark and warm waters in the thick jungle to white cold mountain water and flooded plains.
As much as these fish are sensitive to pollutants and toxic substances dissolved in the water, they are very resistant and adaptable to different physical and chemical environmental parameters.
They are hardy fish because of the seasonal environmental variation during the wet and dry seasons.
The change caused on the continent in the rainy season is extreme. During floods, a large amount of rainwater flows into large bodies of water, opening oxbow lakes, drainage channels, temporary streams, swamps, small rivers, and other bodies of water.
The amount of water modifies the entire landscape; there is an increase in pH and water hardness, the temperature drops, light penetration is lower, and so on.
The monsoon season is also a call for the reproduction of most species of ornamental interest, mainly the Corydoras.
In droughts, water bodies decrease considerably in size, and many of them even completely dry up. The amount of organic matter in the water acidifies the pH – often to extreme levels – the hardness drops, and the temperature rises.
It’s interesting to point out that, at this time of the year, a large part of the Corydoras population gets trapped in canals and ponds that are drying up; Death is inevitable, whether from drought or predators.
