I'm so sad my cory refuse to associate with each other

[anewbie1]

I have somewhere between 15 and 30 sterbai cory in a 500 and noticed as i walked by the tank that they are all scatted around the tank in tiny groups of 2 to 4 unwilling to have anything to do with the rest of them. Definitely anti-social my sterbai. Some of them are quite old close to 10 years others not quite as old but the youngest is at least 3 !!!
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i never really noticed before but then again in prior years i never kept them in an aquarium large enough to spread out away from each other. In this case they only have 32 sqft (8ftx4ft) floor space but i'm sure if i had a 16ftx8ft they would get even further away from each other given their anti-social nature

 

[BlaiseinLondon]

I've definitely noticed that sterbai don't school as effectively as other cory.

 

[GaryE29 144]

I find safe corys form groups, but usually 3 to 6, keeping an eye on the others. They're like almost all shoalers - they forage in small groups if they know there could be a larger group if needed. I have 3 CW 027 that I never saw. I picked up 6 more, half their size, and now the 3 big ones are always out and about, as a group. They don't like hanging with the kids, but they like the fact they're around and nothing seems to be eating them.

Just convince your sterbai it's time to migrate. Then they'll shoal like crazy!

 

[anewbie1]

In truth they seem to all collect together by morning only to spread out again during the day. I need a larger aquarium to see if there is a boundary to how far they will separate. This one just isn't large enough.

 

[fishorama26]

Most cory species I've kept stayed in very loose shoals except for feeding time or to follow an egg depositing female for snacks. Our 1st tank's 2 corys were in a 10g (oops). They were similarly patterned, but 1 was a chubby melanistius, 1 a more slender punctatus. We didn't know that for a while. They were fast friends & we, of course, hoped for a pair & eggs.

I had only 5 c. loxozonas that I bought from 2 shops the same day. I had them in a 20g long, so a small tank. Although they were the same adult sizes, likely from the same shipment, they kept to 3 together & 2 near each other. I thought it might be when I entered the room & they went with fish they knew best. They were all very people shy. But it was the same when I peeked around the doorway. They were the only fish, so no dithers to let them know all was safe.

I've never had any corys in a tank larger than 4ft. I'd say pygmaus were the "best" at shoaling. But it was more some were midwater swimming while others were bottom feeding or resting on plants etc. I couldn't tell them apart. & thanks to anewbie, I know even an 8ft tank might not change behaviors. That relieves my guilt of not keeping larger numbers of each species

 

[GaryE29 144]

One of my friends stumbled into a cory migration while fishing in an Amazon region stream, and he said he stood in calf deep, fast water watching thousands pass, and that they kept traveling by all day. So they gather, but I guess they need a reason to. Most of the time if they aren't in danger, they're looking for food, sifting sand and eating the invertebrates in it.

They can't travel incredibly far, because many of the diverse species have limited ranges to one or two small rivers/streams. I'll guess the movement my friend saw was getting away from an area that was drying up with the season, and heading for water less obviously evaporating around them.

 

[anewbie1]

I had some pygmy - 20 or so in a 40B with some kribs and other stuff. After about 3 months the kribs learned that pygmy were harmless (after biting off a couple of tails) and would allow the pygmy to mingle with them and their frys. So an interesting thing would happen - the pygmy - all of them would always stay together during the night they would pile up in front of the kribs cave and during the day they would follow the kribs around as they herded their frys from feeding spot to feeding spot effectively using the kribs as 'bodyguards'.

 

[GaryE29 144]

I had some pygmy - 20 or so in a 40B with some kribs and other stuff. After about 3 months the kribs learned that pygmy were harmless (after biting off a couple of tails) and would allow the pygmy to mingle with them and their frys. So an interesting thing would happen - the pygmy - all of them would always stay together during the night they would pile up in front of the kribs cave and during the day they would follow the kribs around as they herded their frys from feeding spot to feeding spot effectively using the kribs as 'bodyguards'.

That is a very cool observation.