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Okay, odd question... there are four full grown cory aeneus (or, heck, they're huge, they've got to be nearly full grown, I'm assuming someone brought them in?) at my LFS. Everytime I go in, I just stare at them because they're hovering just above the substrate. Seriously, just high enough so that they don't bang their fins on the gravel. It's just the ODDEST sight.

I've looked at the gravel, it doesn't seem sharp or anything like that. I've asked one of the guys who works there... no one seems to know what they're doing, but they're CONSTANTLY just hovering there. It's really kind of disconcerting.

Anyone have any ideas about why they do this?

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

If the fish look to be healthy and have no external injuries, then it's just normal. At least eight or so of the Corydoras in my tank hover at various levels in the water column, and will do it for five minutes or more. I have seen this behavior in shops as well; I wouldn't be worried about it. If the fish look kind of beat up, then the hovering may be an attempt to keep pressure off of wounds or sore spots. I had a C. septentrionalis who did as much as he could to keep above the substrate, because he had been shredded by one of his companions.

Just to check though- the behavior you're seeing is nothing more than the catfish waggling several fins to stay in place? I just want to ensure that you aren't seeing a different type of "hovering", and that we're talking about the same thing here.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

kitten could they be doing it just to drive you i mean no offensebut i swear sometimes fish do things to do just that, drive us crazy how would you go about checking out their bellies to see if they had booboos there? any idea hml

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

If the fish is hovering above the gravel and is near the tank front or sides, its stomach should be visible. Also, if you have good enough timing to catch the fish going up for air, you can get a glimpse of their underside then. It may not be necessary to view the belly in order to determine if the fish is hurt there, and the wound may not be visible, either. If you can see injuries on other areas of the fish (shredded fins, torn/missing barbels, etc.), and the fish is treating its belly very gingerly, it could be assumed that it has a wound or wounds there. The C. septentrionalis I mentioned above had multiple injuries, and actually bent its body over its stomach (the head and tail were positioned lower than the belly, which looked as if it was sucked in) to keep it from the gravel.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I think that it's normal with Corydoras, as mine do that aswell, especially the Big Bronze Corydoras.


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The fins were a bit torn up when I first noticed them at the LFS, but other than that, they look pretty good. It's just weird, because I've never seen my cories really do that. Of course, I have very smooth rounded gravel, and the LFS - while it doesn't have sharp gravel - doesn't have gravel quite as smooth.

They look big and healthy, I was just curious about them... never seem cories just hover there. And yes, it just sorta looks like they're doggy paddling ... just wiggling fins to stay in one place. They do it constantly though, not just for a few minutes... tireless little things, I suppose.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~