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Not expecting an explanation or answer to this, but just thought I'd share something I'm curious about. Always been told that cories like to be in a group of at least 6. For one reason or another, I had only one sterbai cory. So, I gradually built the stock up & now since last weekend I have 6 in the tank. 3 are good buddies and hang out together. They lounge around & swim & on top of each other at times. The other 3, all hang out each by themselves - sometimes maybe 2 of them might join up together, but usually on their own, as a single. Now, I'm a curious fish owner. I wish I could ask them - why don't you hang out together?

Cheers
TW

It's probably because they feel safe enough to hang about on their own.

If there are no aggresive fish in the tank or any other reason for them to school together then they will most likely feel safe enough to venture away from the school.

Another explanation may be that they are still getting settled into the school/tank and you may find as time goes on they will school closer together.

I have three sterbai cories in my 75g along with six panda cories. Two of the sterbais hang out together... and the third one hangs out by himself. I guess they don't like him... They look happy though so I don't worry about it.

Fish are individuals just as much as you or I are.

I've noticed that even among my madcap Pandas, one or two will sometimes take themselves off into a corner for some meditation before rejoining the throng. Mind you, what has been said above about the absence of fishes that 'look' potentially predatory to the Corys almost certainly has a bearing on the matter too - in my case, the Pandas share their home with Cardinal Tetras and Otocinclus, and are consequently the dominant fishes in there!

I'm willing to speculate that if I added a Pearl Gourami to the Panda Fun Palace, everything else would school up tight in no time ...

The fun part though, is that on those occasions when one or more of my Pandas decides to look for a spot of personal space, this is usually accopmanied by comedy slapstick antics. The classic instances being the one that performs Synodontis impersonations upside down beneath my bogwood arch, and the one that sits on Amazon Swordplant leaves swaying in the current doing his 'budgie on a swing' number

If Cory groups that fragment as described above are in aquaria where they're accompanied by other non-threatening fishes, I'd watch for comedy antics too. Even the more 'sedentary' Corys can provide their share of laughs in this vein!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002