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After I'm done torturing my current fish and the tank has cycled I'd really like some Cories. I was wondering if I got different types if they'd school together? Anyone have different cories in their tanks? What are they up to?

Saint Paul, Minnesota USA 20g Freshwater Started June 10th 2008
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Its always much better to keep cories in shoals of their own species for proper company, and its better not to treat them like a pick'n mix group of species, youll see the best of them when they are with their own kind, the social interaction is usually more intense and real for them, but cory shoals are often sympathetic to the shoaling unrges of the unfortunately segregated fish, often adopting it almost as one of their own.

In fact its a very helpful thing to happen as often you will find a lone cory in a shop in dire need of a shoal, and those of us who take pity on the little mites can usually integrate them into a shoal of unrelated species and it does stop them waning, which is handy.

So yes, more than one species is do-able, but watch that your not just treating then as pick'n mix fish, cos its not what they really need or deserve.

So overall its better to keep full shoal sizes of individual species, and if you want to take on that lone cory that needs a shoal even though yours arent related, yes you can do that, but its better not to treat cories as if mix and match is good fishkeeping. Whenever you can, aim for at least 6 of each species.

I have bronzes, peppers, julies and a couple of c- number stragglers. The one-offs are permitted to take part in shoals but their lives are not as fully integrated as those who have same species company, but since some of them were rescues and pity jobs, its the best they could have hoped for. They might look a bit more bored than the others, perhaps a little less active, but they do have the security of a shoal that stops them waning and becoming completely insecure about their lives. Not having their own species around does mean they miss out on all that great stuff like courting, social heirarchies etc that keep their lives full and busy, but im content that its not abusive and it does keep them alive.

Better than nothing or being dead, but like I said , you can exceed that life quality by avoiding mixing and matching and having full shoals of individual species.

So picking pairs of about 6 species of cories and calling it a shoal would be dumb fishkeeping. Having 6 specimens of two species would be decent fishkeeping. Going larger to say 8-10 or more in a shoal per species would be great cory keeping, the activity level and social interaction would be excellent, and they would lead very secure and rich lives.

I've got 5 Sterbais and 6 Pandas in my tank. Generally they keep to their own kind. IMO corys generally prefer their own kind, even though they will hang out with members of other species just fine.

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