My Uncooperative Cories.

[Kaz]

I have 3 of them. Regular type.

One was always smaller than the others, so I started giving them a little bit more food. So now, instead of everyone being healthy I have one annorexic, Cory one healthy Cory and one fat Cory.

I'm of to pick up another one tomorrow, BTW.

So could something else be the cause of the plumpness? Like a build up of eggs because of how perfectly I keep them, or something like that?

Also what can I do to keep the one from being outcompeted? Sometimes I swear it's cause of its own stupidity cause it like, swims right over some food and doesn't eat it.

I may add that Cories are really funny in the way they eat, because one cory will be swiming along and another one has to get right up in the other ones face until it bugs it enough that it swims away. And then it chases it around.

Oddly enough the smallest Cory is the one that normally bugs the other ones.

[Dave66]

The reason is you have too few Corys. It is unnatural for Corys to be in trios, or pairs, or any number under six, so one gets most all the food, and one slowly starves to death. Add four or five more to the group and see what happens to the dynamic. I expect you'll be pleasantly surprised.

I keep four species of Corydoras in groups of no less than 12 in four of my tanks. More fun can not be had when you have groups like that.

Dave

[Kaz]

Really? I always heard that they do fine in groups from 3-6.
They always seem to be having fun.:scry:

[troy]

Also there is no 'regular' cory.

[Brookfish]

Sound advise from Dave, the bigger the group the better the interaction,
and the more natural behaviour you will see from them.

[robflanker]

yah what type of cory is it kaz? Dave is spot on with the 6+ thing from what ive read

[Kaz]

Bronzeback Cories.

The 'regular' morph of Albino Cories. I consider them to be the 'normal' kind.

I thought the 6+ rule was only for Pygmies!

This absolutely ruins my plans for this tank.

[robflanker]

Ok so what was the plan?

What size tank is it?

and we'll see if we can troubleshoot with you

[Flowcus]

Yeah I have always run a small shoal of 5-6 corys and I have had large ones of 12-20 corys... The larger shoals are great fun to watch as they cruise up and down the glass back and fourth following each other.

As far as a "fat" and "anorexic" cory go... Smaller ones are males, larger ones are females. Corys don't have the greatest eye sight ( I do love when they roll their eyes though ) and more or less seek their food out with their barbells. So if one is swimming over the top of the food there is a good chance it just didn't catch that it was there.

[Northernguy]

The 6 plus rule is good for any schooling fish!
WT had a vid of corys in the wild.There were thousands of them.
Probably a good time to post it again!

[Wild Turkey]

You rang?!?!?! :hmm3grin2orange:

cWIVCdLOImw

[Kaz]

As far as a "fat" and "anorexic" cory go... Smaller ones are males, larger ones are females.

I understand that, but even taking that into account one has gotten pudgy and round aroung the edges and the other is fading in colour.

And I figured out an alternative way to still keep the fish I intended to:

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Platy aquarium.