My Bronze Cory

[twinkle9]

We bought a bronze cory yesterday. He was in a tank on his own and looked very active swimming up and down the side of the tank.

I have noticed he spends most of his time swimming actively up and down the sides of the tank, rather than being on the bottom.

Is this normal behaviour for a catfish? He swims from the top to the bottom up and down, along the top of the water and looks happy, he seems to spend most of his time swimming up and down. He was doing this in the shop in the tank he was in.

Does he need a mate or can he live happily on his own, also can he live with an albino catfish or is it best to buy another bronze catfish?

Many Thanks for your help

 

[dwarfgourami]

They are schooling fish, so he will want at least 2 companions, but more is better (if you have the space). Albinos are usually the same species as bronzes, so they will school together- either that or more bronzes. They do swim up and down a fair bit, and do take air at the surface at times, but if he keeps going up and down all the time, that could be stress.

 

[fatguppy]

I agree with dwarfgourami - they prefer to be in a group. I have noticed however that our bronze corys were much more active when they were babies and now they are knocking on a bit they are quite lazy.

Get a couple more if you can and see if his behaviour changes. They tend to be very easy fish to keep with few problems. And again, as pointed out - he will swim up to the top to gulp air - it's normal for them. Part of the reason they are robust is that in a tank without a huge air supply they are not phased. Our oldest two survived an unintentional nitrite spike about 2 years ago and are still going strong.

good luck