Flying Cories?

[attibones]

For my large tank, I have six albino cory cats, and none of them seem to realize that they are catfish and ought to be on the bottom. Once they were released from their little mailing bags and settled in a bit, they have become obsessed with racing each other at the top of the water from one end of the tank to the other. It's really cute. I'm watching my tank as I type, and there are currently four of them darting across in a single file line, while numbers five and six trail behind. 
 
Do any of you guys have cories who just don't understand that they are bottom dwellers? This is the first batch I've had to be this healthy and hyper. I hardly ever see the little buggers on the ground of the tank, though they do dart down for a shuffle in the sand from time to time.

 

[techen]

A lot of corys will do this after a waterchange. It's normal for them to be quite active but once settled in they'll sit at the bottom being lazy half the time

 

[TallTree01]

I second what techen said

 

[attibones]

They've been in for about a week now. After two hours of introducing them to the tank, I can't keep them down at the bottom. They look like little airplanes! I don't care if they stay at the top, I just think it is kind of funny. Maybe they'll settle down after another week or so, perhaps when they're a little older (they're still quite young).

 

[This Old Spouse]

Is your tank mature?

 

[snazy]

That's typical for albino corys. They won't race all the time once settled of course but I have found out they like sniffing around the top layers more than other corys and also racing from one end to the other from time to time, or racing up and down the glass. I put a breeder net in the tank once, but I had it lowered down so the entrance was in the water. It's one of those made from mesh. The albinos had to all go in there to check it out. My lasers aren't like it for example.
Corys tend to race a lot before they lay eggs too so it isn't only about non-mature tank. Especially when moved to a new tank. I think yours are frisky too

 
I have some old pictures and videos from when I was excited observing that odd behaviour:
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUzABoDEYVo
 

Just to note that the pleco and the cory went into the fish net themselves for anyone wondering...

 

[This Old Spouse]

I had a tank full of 18 albinos at one time, so I'm familiar with the racing around. They just didn't generally spend most of their time off the substrate near the top, which is why I asked.

 

[snazy]

Not most of their time, but generally they do go up a lot. I understand why you asked whether the tank is mature which is a valid question. Did you have decoration higher up in the tank? I doubt it they will go up unless there's something they can sniff, like tall plants or driftwood. The same corys didn't do that in the tank they came from as I only had decor close to the substrate. So I think it depends on the setup too.

 

[snazy]

I don't want to add more unnecessary rubbish to the original post, but I had a look through my youtube stuff. I have taken videos of other fish in the same tank for one or another reason, but on most of them you can see my albino corys doing something in the upper layers all the time, whether sniffing something higher up on the plants or just swimming at the top layers. So it's been like that for a year and a half. These are not targetted videos so it shows their natural behaviour.

 

[attibones]

I got the tank used from a friend who had it cycled and everything. I upgraded most of the equipment but used the filter media in one of the new filters and kept in half of the gravel (which is now covered with sand).

Snazy, I can't see the video (I'm on my phone though), but the picture looks just like my cories' behavior. I've noticed that at night they like to rest on the bottom, sometimes in the flower pot cave thing, and other times in the plants. They've been flying around all day, and, as I'm watching, I can see some of them gradually shifting lower in the tank, like they're tired.

 

[snazy]

You should be able to see the video on a computer I presume.
Watching the parameters is a good idea in the tank currently and up the water changes for the time being to prevent any ammonia build up just in case but when there's ammonia the corys go into hiding somewhere on the substrate and tend to stay still, rather than race around in my opinion.
I actually stood up and looked at the tank tonight and there was a couple of albinos going upper layers that very moment and a few down the bottom, so I really find it natural for them to swim around top layer. They won't always be hyper and do it all at the same time but they do it often enough for someone that expects these fish at the bottom to actually take notice. These corys have been in that tank for a long time and have always behaved like that.
 
Here is a couple of more recent videos of the same tank when you have a chance to look. I wasn't particularly taking videos of the albino corys but it appears on most videos where I've taped the entire tank there are some racing around. They are from different times, months apart.
 
On this one I was taping a corydoras melanistius but you can see a crazy albino racing around the tank in the back ground.
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO661UUgUoU
 
On this one I was taping my forktail rainbows, but notice in the beginning and the end of the video to the very right of the tank the two albinos swimming the middle layer.
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=riikbks2aTc

 

[Shaddex]

I had 90+ Cory Albino Juveniles and they spent most of there time flying around the middle of the tank.
 
Fun to watch mass Shoaling Corys

 

[frapadoodle]

The best way I have heard it said, is that if they are racing around like airplanes, they are happy.
My albino does it all the time. My bronze, only when feeling frisky. The offspring are too busy getting fat.

 

[RCA]

They look like little airplanes!

I love this, that is exactly how mine behave too.  When I have transferred my Corys from smaller tanks to the large aquarium, most of them settle into looking around at the bottom, whereas the Albino takes off back and forth.  Eventually they settle, but "airplanes" is a good name for them and I may well use that in the future if I may?
 
90 of them must have been awesome to see, it would be like Heathrow airport without the bags
 
Snazy, love your tank, it looks very clean and pure, what filtration is on it?  Do you use Seachem Purigen at all?  Just got some of this and have found it to be amazing stuff for water clarity.

 

[snazy]

At the time when this videos were taken I had no Seachem Purigen. I've got a small bag now and I make no difference in water clarity, not sure what people are on about to be honest. I possibly need to put way more but I am not bothered.  I think what matters is how the flow is setup, as some ways could be counterproductive and keep particles suspended in water, rather than sucked in by the filter, at least in my experience.  And of course the filter media itself but I use nothing special. The filters are setup with ceramic bio media and coarse and medium sponges. I didn't like what floss does.