Corydoras agazzii without a school

Taratron · Post by **Taratron** » 28 Jan 2004, 04:00

Here's the general problem. I'm a sucker keeper for that "one lonely fish" all by himself in the tank. Such as the lone cardinal, the lone neon, the lone cory. I figure, hey, as long as it schools with my current fish, life is good.

However, today I picked up a cory that is certainly NOT one of my other cory species. I keep pygmy cories in one tank, and albino bronze in another, and today I came home with not one, but TWO "lonely fish" that were brought in by different people, and set aside in the For Sale Misc tanks of my lfs. One of these two was a bronze cory, who had not seen another cory in at least a month. Right now, he is schooling quite happily with my albinos; for the first few hours, he was always chasing after them, or trying to touch them constantly.

My other purchase looks, by all means, to be a corydoras agazzii. According to the lfs employee, he himself brought in this guy; apparently the employee picked up some concolor cories at another store, and this one was a "contaminant," in the employee's own words. So I snagged him up; better, thinks I, that he at least have SOME cories to school with, rather than being in a misc fish tank, including a red-tailed shark and a half dozen half-grown CAE.

Well, this newcomer won't be getting a school of his own, it looks like, because NO ONE in this entire area has these guys. If they did, I'd buy some, no problem...but alas, no one does. He's with the albino and bronze cories right now, and though he was touching the bronze constantly for some time, he seems to be going off on his own now, maybe looking for more of his kind?

The basic problem I face is which tank to keep him in, or rather, which species: the pygmies, whom are half his size, or the albino and bronze cories.

Is there another, common cory that LOOKS like agazzii in some form, such as the peppered cory? Please keep in mind that bronze, albino, peppered, and sometimes, rarely, overpriced pandas are the only cories in the area!

Really, should I have left this guy in the fish store, or can I possibly make him happy without other agazziis?

Fish Demon · Post by **Fish Demon** » 28 Jan 2004, 05:53

I'd say put him in with the bronze corys. He will "have more in common" with them.

Corys like to be with their own kind, but when no other members of their species are around, they will school with other species. As long as he spends time with the bronze corys (plays, eats, and hangs out with them) he will be fine.

But if you see any more C. agassizi, be sure to snag them!

wonder woman · Post by **wonder woman** » 03 Feb 2004, 23:07

I have a lone Agassizi too! Its' mate died mysteriously. Now, he schools with my sterbai. I think any mid-sized, somewhat spotted cory would be a good companion.

matpreec · Post by **matpreec** » 08 Feb 2004, 16:44

i too had the same problem so i got some C. barbatus for him to school with (similar size and colour). But luckily all the fish shops in my area seem to have an abundance of C. agassizii at the mo, so i snatched a few up (hes very happy now)

Beersnob · Post by **Beersnob** » 22 Feb 2004, 02:38

Am I messing up?

I have two groups of Cories.

6 San Juan Cories (bilineatus) in a 15-gallon tank. These guys seem happy but I have yet to own them for 24-hours. We couldn't leave 2 of them by themselves.

5 mixed cories - paleateus, panda, juli, melini, metae. These guys are also happy and seem to have included my loan dianema longibarbis into the group.

Is this a bad thing? I never was concerned about this until just now. Any help will be appreciated.

Bigdan · Post by **Bigdan** » 23 Feb 2004, 02:02

I found an Arched Cory at the LFS all by his lonesome. I didn't see that kind of cory around here very often and loved how cute the little guy was.

I brought him home and he fit right in with my Peppers and Emerald Cats!

Cories do love their own kind and don't seem to mind difference in appearences.