Schooling Cory Cats

[Alex24]

Hello!
I just wanted to know if cory cats have to school and if so , how large would be appropriate to keeep them happy?

[lucky777ca]

I've kept 3 cories for a year (I guess) after 3 of the ones that I bought with them died. Just a month, I decided to get 3 more smaller ones of the same type of cories. It would be best if they are in a school of 5 or more individuals.

[dbcb314]

supposively 5 or more

ive seen 3 and they were fine though... below three and they aren't very active it seems.

[Cory Lover]

Hi,

Yeah, having about 5+ is good.

CL

[reptileguy2727]

6 or more is the usual minimum for a school. I have 10 sterbai in my 55 discus tank, little army of cleaners.

[Rbishop]

I prefer 5-7 at a minimum

[jm1212]

4 or more should be good, but it is better to have one big group of one speices rather than a bunch of smaller groups of many species. with a big group you are going to see much more activity.

[Alex24]

Is Nitrite 4.00 ppm high enough to kill fish?

[jpappy789]

yes it's poison, are you still cycling?

[Alex24]

Sorry, I was rushing last night. It was 4.00 ppm Nitrate. In the past 3 days, three cories and a cardinal tetra have all died.

[jpappy789]

Oh, then no. Nitrate isn't bad unless it's really high. What are other water params?

[OnyxFishies]

Ouch. I had a small school of Corys, forgot which species :wall:

Mine died soon after Hurricane Katrina. (I live in Gulfport, MS) and they went at least 3 days with no power, probably closer to a week!:eek:

Strangely enough, they didn't die while the power was off, they died afterward. (probably tank chemistry went crazy for a bit afterwards. I was working overseas at the time and my roommate didn't know how to monitor it all that closely.)

Maybe something weird has changed recently? (temp, tap water quality, etc.)

[Alex24]

Ammonia was 0 and Nitrite was 0.75. The 4 fish who died all came from the same fish store, and I introduced them all at once. That probably stressed them out. The tetra died from ick and the cories ... I don't know what killed them.

[jpappy789]

Nitrite should be at 0 as well.