Corydoras??

Question
Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my question.
I have a 22 UK gallon tropical community tank, with currently 2 Mollies, 7 Black Phantom Tetras and 2 Blue Rams. The tank is quite heavily planted, has a rather high pH (nearly 8.0) but the Rams have grown accustomed to that slightly higher pH. The tank has been set up for 7 - 8 months.
My question is.. I like the look of some small corydoras, and have researched into them a bit, and found them suitable for my tank. I plan on buying just 4 or 5 of them. These shall be the last fish I'll stock the tank with.  
What sort of corydora do you recommend, for hardiness and compatibility? I don't mind if they're a touch sensitive to water quality, as long as they're not very sensitive and shall be too hard to keep.
Thank you for your help.

Answer
Dear Kathryn,
Corydoras catfish would be very suitable for your community tank! Corydoras are some of the best fish and bottom feeders around. You can't really go wrong with any of the commonly available species like the green corydora, peppered corydoras, Julii Corydoras, Black sail corydoras, or Panda cories. Any of the corydoras would be suitable for your aquarium because they all stay small (most not much bigger than 2 inches) and all are peaceful and generally very easy to care for. Most all Corydoras are hardy and tolerant of most water conditions, but like all fish, they will be sensitive to ammonia, nitrite and high levels of nitrate. Fortunately a well-established and well-maintained aquarium shouldn't have any trouble of ammonia or nitrite and nitrate levels should also be low.

Corydoras do love planted aquariums and especially little hiding places created from driftwood or stones. There is nothing more sweet than to see a group of corydoras resting together sometimes to the point of piling on top of one another! A group of 4-5 is a good number to start with but with cories the more the better! A shoal of 6 would be even better.

Corydoras will forage around in the substrate for small tidbits of food overlooked by the other fish. But of course they should also be fed just like any other fish. There are commercially available shrimp pellets, sinking tablets, and algae wafers that are all suitable for Corydoras. Cories also thoroughly enjoy getting occasional feedings of frozen foods such as Brine shrimp, Tubifex worms, red worms, daphnia and of course live foods but live foods are not a necessity and frozen foods can easily take their place.

Take a look around your local fishshop to see what corydoras species are available. Whichever species you chose, you can't go wrong with a shoal of Corydoras catfish for your community aquarium!

Best wishes and Happy holidays!
Karen~