Can Cory Cats Bury Themselves?

[Maxta]

And i mean BURY!

Right, as some of you may know i was enquiring about an airpump.

I eventually got one. But to hide all the tubes and make it look nice i had to take all of the stuff out the aquarium, plus it was time for its weekly change. So whilst weaving the tube along the bottom of aquarium and holding it down with the suction cups i bought, the sand and gravel had total mixed and looked a mess, so i took the majority of it out, added new sand (alot more) and added everything back in.

Looks wonderful, top notch job.

However i noticed that the smaller of the two albinos was actually digging, something iv never seen my cory cats do ever so far. Couple of minutes later i saw him in the corner and his whole head and some of its body (past its gills) was under the sand and wasnt moving. So i started worrying and thought how could he survive in a position like that, so i tapped the glass in an effort to move him, but just stayed there and no sign of movement.

Turned the air pump on and he shot to the surface for air and is now doing what he usually does.

So can they bury themselves? Is this natural?

 

[Lynz781]

I've only ever seen my cories do that once and that was when my tank went tits up earlier this year. I had replaced the old filter with a new one but kept the old media. As soon as I turned the new filter on, everyone went brain dead and deteriorated rapidly. For awhile I was removing cories that had submerged themselves under the sand. It's definitely not normal behaviour.

After my ordeal, anything new that gets introduced into the tank gets sterilised first.
Did you wash your sand and airpump? Perhaps your cory got a fright and was spooked . Define digging. Cories are always rummaging around in the substrate for food. Burying their head is not normal though. Perhaps what you witnessed was just a one off? Do the cories seem ok now and are they eating and breathing ok?

 

[Maxta]

Yeah rinsed the sand 4+ times until the water stopped going cloudy. Air pump is external, didnt really wash the air stone.

 

[richchappy]

a lot of the time there just eating, they are searching around for food and i think when they stop they have found somthing to munch on, when there done they start moving again, in the wild, they would do this as they search for things like bloodworm etc that wont be on the surcace and will be burried

 

[Maxta]

Well now the little one as iv come in, is hiding behind the bottom of my filter....still alive, but hasnt moved as of yet. Tried turning lights off but wont come out, maybe hes hiding from water current or something.

Any explanations for that?

 

[Lynz781]

When cories are not rummaging for food (which is probably the majority of the time) they just sit on a surface and chill.

 

[Maxta]

Well, he died overnight. Just woke up 20mins ago and found him lying there on the bottom dead. Poor thing, he was my fave outa the two albino's and the most active before this. Guess due to him being young he was too stressed out by all this hassle.

Anyways, no sign of disease or anything, though on its underside there was like a red spot...blood, as if itd been nipped or something. Now im not sure if it was female, or it was just its poop hole, but either way the mark was right next to it.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Well, he died overnight. Just woke up 20mins ago and found him lying there on the bottom dead. Poor thing, he was my fave outa the two albino's and the most active before this. Guess due to him being young he was too stressed out by all this hassle.

Anyways, no sign of disease or anything, though on its underside there was like a red spot...blood, as if itd been nipped or something. Now im not sure if it was female, or it was just its poop hole, but either way the mark was right next to it.

Spot of blood sounds like bacterial infection and/or septicaemia.

 

[Maxta]

Damn. Well it wasnt there before he died. Maybe the others picked at him after he was dead, often seen fish do that in stores.

Cant see nothing visable on my other fishies.