Cory health problem? Erratic behavior.

[yodafett]

Hi all. I have a trio of Spotted Cories in a 20 gallon tank with a plecy and 8 guppies. When I got the Cories (about 2 months ago), they were just fine, doing the normal Cory antics, very entertaining to watch. Lately, they've been very shy, staying hidden under the rocks. When the lights are out, they'll come out a bit, but are still very skittish. They like to hide under a rock pile we have about 95% of the time. We just found 4 baby cories the other day, so I guess that could account for 1 or 2 of them acting strange, but I find all 3 acting the same way being odd. The babies are acting normal for cories, out quite a bit, swimming all over, eating their hearts content, but the "parent" generation is still hiding. 20 gallon tank with good filtration. PH is consistently between 7.8-8.1, (which is a little high, but water in this area is generally higher, and the petstores we normally get from keep theirs around that and said that lowering it too much more may cause problems since they've been raised in it). Just trace ammonia and nitrites (0.0-0.1). Temp in upper 70's.

And ideas or help would be appreciated! We've also considered moving a couple of them into the 10 gallon tanks we keep our betta's in (yes, a whole 10 gallons for each betta... we spoil them) to see if they act better, but would cories and a Betta get along?

 

[kyle3]

i have a betta in a ten gallon too it's a good practice

yes corys and bettas usually do well together(bettas are individuals however so observe carefully to be sure he behaves himself)

i'm assuming you're having a mini cycle with the addition of the baby corys (which by the way is quite an achievement)

so these traces of amonia and nitrite could be part of the problem

make sure you're doing extra water changes until they return to zero

depending on a few things there could still be eggs left to hatch and the adults are still tending them (corys use thier fins to keep a constant flow of water over the eggs and it is quite time consuming) now i don't know if they will help each other with this but it is entirely possible that either thier being helpful or you have 2 females and they both have eggs to care for still.

i'd do some reseach on cory breeding behavior- and just out of curiosity what kind of corys are they?

 

[yodafett]

They're Spotted Cories. And I actually was wondering if we don't have 2 adult females, as the 4 baby cories seem to have 2 distinct sizes. We saw 2, then a few days later we saw 2 more, a much smaller size. i'm amazed at how fast they grow, even compared to baby guppies, but it's obvious that they hatched at different times, but i was thinking they may even be from 2 different batches. :-\. I'll definitely :read: up on cory breeding habits. if they have a long gestation cycle, that's very possibly still the reason. Thanks for you quick reply and help.

 

[misscrosson]

when i first got my cories they use to zip around the tank like crazy... but now they're sooo shy and lazy lol.... i think it's just because they become use to the tank.... nothing to worry about, mine are always hiding in the plants, until it's feeding time then they come out lol

 

[pitthull]

Mine too -- they still do their tricks but usually only when they think I'm not paying attention!! Most of the time, they just hang out under the low leaves of my water lilies. My bronze corys just had two babies as well -- and it's an identical situation to yours -- I have one that is about 1/3 the size of the other. I have 4 adult bronzes so I'm not sure if it's from two "litters" or what -- but the tiny one hides under the very low leaves of an aponogeton -- though there's really nothing for him to worry about -- the bigger guy acts like the adults did for the first few weeks they were home.

When my tank was very new, I had a bubble wall installed on each of the two sides -- the corys loved to play around in the bubbles and did so day and night. The bubbles were carrying all my CO2 away though so I had to scrap them until I figure out a better alternative.