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My corys did not go to school. I think they are drop outs. I have 7 abino corys and they are never in a group. Everyonce in a while I will see a few in the same area but for the most part they are all over the place. I must be a bad parent.

I got a call yesterday saying that one of the species had come in. I got to the LFS to find these HUGE cories marked as agazzi, which were quite definitely NOTHING like the one I had. Besides the spelling differences in the name tags, these cories were practically twice the size of the ones I have. So, umm... yeah... didn't get them. *sigh*

In talking with the guy who ordered them, we tried to identify exactly what kind of cory I have. Yay for helpful LFS guys. I may wander over to planet catfish and try to do some ID myself, but that will have to wait until I'm not swamped with work. Ah well... you can't mess up trilines, can you? Hopefully those will come in with no issues.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Good luck with the increased numbers Kitten, and if you get even more comedy antics, try and post some pics ... you'll find there are a LOT of Cory comedy addicts on this board!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

One of my favorite LFS guys termed cories as clic-y. I asked him if the poor lone agassizzi I was buying to put with my duo of trilineatus would school with them. After watching them all stick together and generally make me laugh every time I saw them, I finally remembered to order more of both species. They should hopefully be coming in soon and then we'll have happy cories, four of each species. *nods sagely*

Also, interestingly enough, the agassizzi seems to have formed an attachment to one of the trilines... either they're all together or one triline is on the other side of the tank while the aggassizzi and the other triline are being buddy-buddy. They're really quite adorable.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

My experience is that the larger Corydoras tend to be, shall we say, moderately gregarious. They will school tightly if they feel threatened, but will equally wander off in ones and twos on their own if they feel it's safe to do so. Smaller species, however, are, to use that well worn phrase of mine, more avowedly social. The species hastatus, pygmaeus, habrosus, cochui and panda should al be treated as avowedly social, and given a good sized group of their own species. My main aquarium has 8 Pandas, and though they feel safe enough to go off on lone expeditions now and again, they still feel happiest when they know that they have companions within easy reach, and consequently much of their comic activity is of a group nature.

I suspect however that if you were to put, say, 20 sterbai together in an aquarium with sufficient space and a suitably stimulating environment (i.e., live plants, bogwood 'climbing frames' for them to explore) then they'd exhibit almost as many group-activity comic moments as my Pandas Whether anyone on this board is rich enough to put 20 sterbai together in one aquarium is, of course, a moot point, and a tangential diversion best explored in an off-topic forum

Aspects of Corydoras care that I know for certain work wonders, apart from keeping them in decent sized groups of a given species, are these: [1] give them a stimulating environment full of live plants and bogwood caves, and they will have more than enough reason to provide those much loved Corydoras comedy moments, and [2] feed live food regularly and watch your Corys come alive!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Is that Kimba on your avatar Gomer?

Mine generally hang in groups of two or three. They probably feel relatively safe in my community tank.

-- Gomer

I have 7 abino corys and they are never in a group. Everyonce in a while I will see a few in the same area but for the most part they are all over the place.

Same here.

At a 125 gallon display tank we have at the LFS, there are like at least 10 albino corys in it. They do not, however, ever seem to be schooling. They are usually pretty evenly distributed throughout the tank, and the most "schooling" activity I notice it two of them occasionally sitting near each other. There are angels and flag cichlids in the tank, and none of them are aggressive to the corys.

I think once they realize that they are perfectly safe, their urges to school seem to significantly decrease or diminish.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I have 9 different varieties of corys (over 70)in my 6ft tank now and they all school together through the day.
I bought a single Sterbai recently because the poor little guy was in the LFS by itself and it is happily schooling with the Trilineatus. If I see any more Sterbais I'll get a couple more just to make the lone guy happier

ctt33, you actually must be a good parent. If your Cories aren't schooling, it's probably because nothing is frightening them. The only time my Cories stay close together is when somebody knocks on the glass.]:|

Will different species school together?

This is for all those that de-railed the thread in G.A.

Jason

My cories will only school with each other when they don't have a sufficient school of their own. When I have less than 6 of one kind of cory, they will try to hang out with the other school. When their numbers are large enough, however, they ignore the other species completely. Cories are schooling fish and should be kept in groups of 6 with the same species just like any tetra.

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

Generally the different species school with each other very minimally. Some species are known to school more than others. The small ones (pygmaeus, hastatus, and hasbrosus) tend to school the most.

I know for sure that Shwartzi school. I have only one, but it hangs around with the Bala Shark when it can catch up to it.

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

50 Pandas in it. That was a madhouse

wow! .....
emm the original question, I've seen a lone cory "hang out", somewhat in the same way a lone white skirt tetra will "hang out" with diamond tetras. For some people this is enough of schooling, not IMO though, you can tell that the odd one out is just like that kid in school clinging to the edges of the in crowd.

^_^

an aquarium with 50 Pandas in it.

Wow that must have been fantastic!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Ideally, Corydoras like to be in decent sized groups of their own. 4 is a minimum for the moderately gregarious larger species, and with some of the avowedly social ones such as pygmaeus, you're looking at a minimum of 8 to keep them happy.

Incidentally, if you want to see happy Corys, one late lamented aquarist acquaintance of mine had an aquarium with 50 Pandas in it. That was a madhouse

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I don't know by experience, but i heard they won't. They might when they feel they are in danger, such as when you stick your hand inside the tank and such. They may school together for a short while, but only for a short time. Again, i don't know by experience, but this is what i heard.

i have 2 julli and 2 peppered and 3 aneus and they stick bye each other but not when its feeding time