What is my cory doing?

[Aeris]

Hi my fish are breeding (angels and now my corys). The female cory was holding eggs between her fins and swimming around the tank. I was watching it for a while, and then it suddenly burrowed itself in the sand/gravel/rocks. I thought it did it by accident and would get itself back out right away. But after waiting for 10-15 seconds, it still wasn't moving, so I got my boyfriend to move the rocks away. Right after the rocks were moved, the cory swam away and was resting on a plant.

Here's what it looked like


What's it doing? I hope it wasn't depressed, since the male cory hasn't been mating with it.

 

[ronw007]

You said you have angelfish breeding in this tank with the cory's. Are you sure the angels aren't picking on the cory to make him do this. Angels get pretty territorial when breeding.

 

[Aeris]

Yeah, I've noticed my angels chase the other angels away when the others get close to their eggs. But I haven't seen them chase any other fish around.

The thing is, before my cory burrowed herself under like that, I think she was looking for places to put her eggs. And then she suddenly stops swimming, and then digs under the sand.

 

[daayda3]

maybe she let them go there?

 

[Malefic23]

Or she stopped for a snack. I see our cories do a faceplant pretty often looking for treats in the substrate. Odd that she held that position for a while though.

 

[Dangerdoll]

I can't help but think that is really cute.... perhaps she is leaving the eggs beneath the sand surface in order to keep them out of the mouths of the angels suring breeding. Maybe the Angels were eating them otherwise.

 

[Aeris]

hmm thanks for all your thoughts

Yeah, I've seen them digging for food as well, but haven't seen one actually burrow its entire head and stay there yet.

heheh I guess it was cute seeing that :grinyes: but after a while it was worrisome because I thought she might die. Especially since she wasn't movie either. She could be putting her eggs underneath the sand, or trying to because one of the other corys got the eggs that time.

 

[shaggbark]

One of my cories did that for hours at a time when I had a nitrite spike due to a filter malfunction. Since I fixed the problem, I have not seen him do this since. At the time, I could also tell that his barbels looked irritated. How is your water?