A few years ago I bought six "Corydoras sp. C 123 - yellow finned corys". Three died in quarantine, and one died a couple of years after. They were large fish when they came in, and since I had such a small number, I tried them with a variety of other corys for a while. At different points, they were in with concolor, grantii or panda. They were also invisible. I would see them once every couple of weeks, just enough to know the two females (actually, Gastrodermus aff elegans C 123) were alive. I gave them their own tank a few weeks back - a 3 footer - because after a long while, I had found more. I scored another group of six, which were also honking big corys compared to the other wild sourced species in the same order.
They were so fearful I haven't even gotten a half decent photo to show here.
While it's an unorthodox quarantine, I decided to put the new group in with the 2 I already had. These are social fish and either they live in a group, or they don't have much of a life.
Interestingly, these fish are constantly in view. They're active along the front of the tank, and show no fear. Two fish I had barely gotten to know about over several years are suddenly leading the pack (they are slightly larger so easy to identify) and outrageously extroverted. In cory only tanks with one other species, they didn't join the pack. Big corys, small corys - they hid. With their own species, they are transformed.
Meaning? There are things to think about in cory social lives, but one size fits all fails again. A fish I didn't especially like when I had two scaredy catfish are fantastic in a group of eight. We like to think because they're all corys, they don't care about species. But if space aliens collected me for a zoo and thought I'd fit in with a group of chimpanzees, I'd hide. Species matter.
They were so fearful I haven't even gotten a half decent photo to show here.
While it's an unorthodox quarantine, I decided to put the new group in with the 2 I already had. These are social fish and either they live in a group, or they don't have much of a life.
Interestingly, these fish are constantly in view. They're active along the front of the tank, and show no fear. Two fish I had barely gotten to know about over several years are suddenly leading the pack (they are slightly larger so easy to identify) and outrageously extroverted. In cory only tanks with one other species, they didn't join the pack. Big corys, small corys - they hid. With their own species, they are transformed.
Meaning? There are things to think about in cory social lives, but one size fits all fails again. A fish I didn't especially like when I had two scaredy catfish are fantastic in a group of eight. We like to think because they're all corys, they don't care about species. But if space aliens collected me for a zoo and thought I'd fit in with a group of chimpanzees, I'd hide. Species matter.
