# Crazy Cory Cats



## brancasterr (Mar 30, 2010)

Hey everyone I have a silly question to ask about cories.

I have 4 in my community tank. Three of which are just the regular grey speckled and one is an albino.

The three regular ones act normal. You know; poke around at stuff, graze the bottom, explore a little here and there. 

However, the albino one is crazy! He swims very fast all around the tank. Back and forth, here and there. Then he'll settle down and poke around. Then he'll take off on another energetic swimming rampage.

Is this normal? I doubt anything is wrong with him. I've had them for nearly a year now and he's always been like that. What could it be?


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## Calmwaters (Sep 2, 2009)

brancasterr said:


> Hey everyone I have a silly question to ask about cories.
> 
> I have 4 in my community tank. Three of which are just the regular grey speckled and one is an albino.
> 
> ...


It could be he is stressed out even though you have other corys you only have the one albino. However I have a group of albinos and they get the zoomies as I call them ever now and then exspecially around feeding time.


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## viachinski (Dec 6, 2010)

If you have the room I would get more albinos, and maybe more of the other kind too. They like to be in schools of 5 or more of their own kind.


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## brancasterr (Mar 30, 2010)

viachinski said:


> If you have the room I would get more albinos, and maybe more of the other kind too. They like to be in schools of 5 or more of their own kind.


I'm running low on space as it is. I have 5 neons, 2 ADF's, and actually 3 cories. I don't know where I got 4 from last post. haha.

If I put in a few more cories I'll definitely be overstocked.

But I was thinking, they do hang out closer to the bottom so maybe it won't be a problem if I do more frequent water changes. But I don't want them to intrude on the ADF's


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## RCinAL (Nov 14, 2010)

brancasterr said:


> Hey everyone I have a silly question to ask about cories.
> 
> I have 4 in my community tank. Three of which are just the regular grey speckled and one is an albino.
> 
> ...


Mine does the same thing which prompted me to dig into the book shelf. After identifying the one I have - probably the same fish as yours since most albinos I have seen are just like mine - I quit worrying. Quoting from a book I have called Exotic Aquarium Fishes, _*"The fish has the interesting habit of swimming rather freely in the upper reaches of the aquarium.... Not being such a constant rooter in the soil, it disturbs the sediment less than do most of it's relatives, thus registering a point in it's favor." *_

It is identified as Corydoras Elegans. It gets 2" long and comes from upper Brazil, lower Peru. This particular book was first copywritten in 1937, so the fish's name may have changed, but it looks like the same fish as mine and almost every small albino Cory I have ever seen. So this behavior is probably normal and nothing to worry about with this fish.

Ralph


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## ginagv (Oct 26, 2010)

I have c. elegans and they do like to "hover" mid water more than my other cories. Its a very distinctive thing they do. The other cories go crazy running the walls, up and down, back and forth.. that is also typical cory behavior. Honestly, it would be in the albino's best interest to at least get 2 more of his kind.. 3 is absolute minimum. 5 or more of course is better. My elegans and my other cories do shoal together from time to time, but for the most part, they do stay in species specific groups.. How they can tell the difference, I don't know.. I mean its not like they have mirrors... yet, they do know.

all part of their charm...

Gina


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Hi all, love the Cories too. I have a large Albino and a 3line, and read they need about 5 so picked up 3 little ones. The large albino checked them all over with it's mouth and they all went off together to explore the 70G tank. Eventually the 3line did the same. 3 days later I saw the tiniest little Panda Cories and brought ONE home and the littlest of the new 3 came and met it, and off they went together! It's interesting, they all roam around independantly now except 2 of them are the Peppered and those two seem to be inseperable. The 6th one seems to have a large round spot on its sides but I can't find a species name for it. Anyone have one like that and know the name?


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## brancasterr (Mar 30, 2010)

RCinAL said:


> Mine does the same thing which prompted me to dig into the book shelf. After identifying the one I have - probably the same fish as yours since most albinos I have seen are just like mine - I quit worrying. Quoting from a book I have called Exotic Aquarium Fishes, _*"The fish has the interesting habit of swimming rather freely in the upper reaches of the aquarium.... Not being such a constant rooter in the soil, it disturbs the sediment less than do most of it's relatives, thus registering a point in it's favor." *_
> 
> It is identified as Corydoras Elegans. It gets 2" long and comes from upper Brazil, lower Peru. This particular book was first copywritten in 1937, so the fish's name may have changed, but it looks like the same fish as mine and almost every small albino Cory I have ever seen. So this behavior is probably normal and nothing to worry about with this fish.
> 
> Ralph


That sounds exactly like what mine does. Thanks for the explanation! 



ginagv said:


> I have c. elegans and they do like to "hover" mid water more than my other cories. Its a very distinctive thing they do. The other cories go crazy running the walls, up and down, back and forth.. that is also typical cory behavior. Honestly, it would be in the albino's best interest to at least get 2 more of his kind.. 3 is absolute minimum. 5 or more of course is better. My elegans and my other cories do shoal together from time to time, but for the most part, they do stay in species specific groups.. How they can tell the difference, I don't know.. I mean its not like they have mirrors... yet, they do know.
> 
> all part of their charm...
> 
> Gina


I understand that it would be in the best interest to get a few more albino's for the one I already own. I was told that it would be fine with the peppered ones I got at the same time. However, I feel like my tank is already stocked. How much extra stress do you think 2 more albino's would have on a already stocked 10g tank? Would I be able to increase my water changes to accommodate?



Jakiebabie said:


> Hi all, love the Cories too. I have a large Albino and a 3line, and read they need about 5 so picked up 3 little ones. The large albino checked them all over with it's mouth and they all went off together to explore the 70G tank. Eventually the 3line did the same. 3 days later I saw the tiniest little Panda Cories and brought ONE home and the littlest of the new 3 came and met it, and off they went together! It's interesting, they all roam around independantly now except 2 of them are the Peppered and those two seem to be inseperable. The 6th one seems to have a large round spot on its sides but I can't find a species name for it. Anyone have one like that and know the name?


My peppered one's are inseperable as well! They go everywhere together.

I wish I had a 70g tank. Shoot, I wish I had a 20g or 30g. Haha Anyone want to donate one to me? :lol:


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## ginagv (Oct 26, 2010)

brancasterr said:


> That sounds exactly like what mine does. Thanks for the explanation!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I don't know about how much bioload the ADF adds, but I think the neon tetras add just a little. Doing an extra partial water change could help, especially if that water change includes a good vac of your substrate.


You know, you can almost always find a cheap 20 gal on craigslist. Frequently all they need is a good cleaning, and sometimes come with filters, heaters.. etc.. Might want to look online at your closest craigslist and search aquarium and see what comes up 

Gina


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## brancasterr (Mar 30, 2010)

ginagv said:


> You know, you can almost always find a cheap 20 gal on craigslist. Frequently all they need is a good cleaning, and sometimes come with filters, heaters.. etc.. Might want to look online at your closest craigslist and search aquarium and see what comes up
> 
> Gina


I've been scouring craigslist for a while now to find a cheap tank larger than 10g. I've only come across a few but by the time I see it, it's already been sold. I've also been searching on freecycle to no avail. 

Haha, I'm sure I'll find one eventually. I got my current 10g off of freecycle and it came with a hood and a filter which were both in perfect condition. I didn't pay a dime for it.


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