Love the pretty eyes! Yours look much more colorful than I've seen in lfs, might be that spawning thing, huh? Or maybe your lighting?
I'm sorry your melons were not good in your tank. I had hopes they'd be less obnoxious than tiger barbs...now we know...not so much...Too bad
Well usually fish in stores are cramped, constant change in tankmates, etc and not given the chance to settle so theyre often pale. Ive learned not to judge fish on their appearance in store.
Every source I read on the melons said theyre peaceful and community friendly. Its a shame because theyre not cory friendly, and the cherry barbs were pestered by them too.
But even so, I think if I had different fish in with them they'd work. The person I got them from keeps his with botia loaches and they don't mess with them. I'm thinking cories are just easy targets (face it, theyre not the smartest of fish out there lol), but nowhere in my reading did it say they'd behave this way with them. So it was a gamble.
I'm wary of any barb now, with cories, after this @theloach because even if they say peaceful, it may not be that way. Odessas are supposed to be peaceful too, but someone I know had the same issue with the barbs with their cories too.
I was considering getting more cherry barbs, but the fact my 6 are super peaceful and perfect citizens, I figured I wouldn't fix what isn't broken at the risk of new ones being badly behaved as ive heard mixed experience with cherries too.