I don't get my Bronze Corys!

[jaylach]

I have a small group of corys that I'm sure should be a larger group as there are, currently, only 5. They just don't seem to act like what I expect from a Cory...

One thing is that I'd expect them to spend most of their time in the bottom third of the tank yet they spend a LOT of time in the upper third. Not gasping at the surface or anything, just swimming at a higher level than I would expect.

Another is that they have shown signs of aggression which is not their nature.

Third I thought this morning that I lost one of the Corys as it was still and up-side-down on the substrate. I reached in to remove and it took off just fine and has remained fine since. Granted in that the critter was up-side-down right next to a rock with an Anubias and may have just been feeding from the lower part of the rock.

All water parameters are fine and all fish seem healthy and active with good color and eat well. They just don't seem to be acting right... Any thoughts?

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I chucked out the rule book regarding Cory behaviour years ago...my Bronze and Peppers...nah...they are totally anti-normal Cories

Tantrums, schooling with the Harlequins & Tetras...even trying to get jiggy with the Apisto (and no he was not amused)....Cories are lunatics of the highest order and mine have never behaved like they are sposed to do according to the books. Mine sleep upside down on the rocks or substrate.

Lunatics...stark raving nymphomaniac lunatics

 

[GaryE]

One of the many things I like about Corys is their unpredictability. They are weird little things, and the bigger the group, the weirder they get.

I have 4 (all I could get) of a relative of Corys, Scleromystax barbatus, and they are completely off the wall. It's like having aquatic young retrievers. I hope I can breed them - years ago i had a big bunch from doing that, and they were fun.

 

[Guyb93]

I used to have a large group of bronze corys 16-20 and they are funny little fish , the females were particularly strange some were that fat they looked like ballon fish
I mainly bought them hoping they would eat the eggs of breeding fish to stop the agression that comes with brooding cichlids but they never did , now I don’t have them I realise how beneficial corys can be to a tank even just how they keep the sand turned over and eat anything and everything I personally think a good group of corys and better tank cleaners than plecos , I only got rid of my corys because of a pleco , my green phantom hated them used to display all signs of agression towards them tail whips and body slams and the corys didn’t have a single ounce of return agression

 

[DoubleDutch]

Since when are they in? Shortly ? Then it is completely normal they do this.

Another possibility is spawningbehaviour.
That might explain what you see as agression (doesn't excist in a Cory vocabulary)

 

[jaylach]

Since when are they in? Shortly ? Then it is completely normal they do this.

Ya, they have only been in the tank 3-4 weeks.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Ya, they have only been in the tank 3-4 weeks.

If they are adults it could be both