Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => General Fishkeeping advice => Topic started by: sunshine on November 04, 2015, 10:27:53 AM
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Hi
I've been MIA for a few months for various reasons including my Mum passed away. I was her carer for 9 years so it's been very difficult. Anyway, I know where to come to ask fish-related qns!
I have 5 panda corys in my 100l tank (for 5 months now). 4 are large but there is a runt in the litter that just does not seem to grow at all altho' I know it eats enough.
I digress, my query is this: I notice in the evenings 2 of the larger corys seem to pick on another large cory. They swim either side of it and nudge it and generally get in it's way or chase it wherever it goes in the tank....even if it goes for a snooze. Last night I couldn't take it anymore as they even rolled it onto it's back a number of times. So not knowing what to do, I placed it in a small incubation tank overnight.
This morning all seems calm and the isolated one looks like he is in one piece. So I decided to put him back in the tank as it's only ever at night this 'bullying' occurs. All 5 pandas are snoozing on the sand in a tight-knit group at present.
Any advice please? I love my pandas!
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I'm sorry to hear about your mother. It is hard when a parent passes away, but much more so when you have been caring for them.
That does sound odd behaviour as cories are just about the least aggressive types of fish we keep in aquariums.
A couple of thoughts occur.
It is well known that shoaling fish will pick on weak members of the shoal because weak/sick fish make easy targets for predators and will attract them to the shoal. This is instinctive behaviour. Are they picking on the small one because they 'think' it will attract predators? The little one doesn't have to be ill just, as you say, the runt of the litter and can't keep up with the rest of them.
It might just possibly be that the little one is a female, and because of her size doesn't want to breed but the males do and they are pestering her. Cories start the breeding process by males chasing a female round the tank.
I don't know what to suggest ??? You can't put it in the isolation tank every night, that would just stress all the fish when you went to catch it.
It might be that your only choice is to see if you can find someone with small pandas and give this one to them in the hopes that as they all grow up it will settle in better with a new group :-\
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Thanks Sue - yes, I was concerned about stressing all the fish trying to catch this one. It isn't the small one being bullied, it's one of the large ones that is being bullied. They all seem to leave the little one alone.
So 2 of the 3 larger ones are involved in this activity. I will keep a close eye on them and see what happens and also look around for a friend with other pandas.
Thanks so much for your help. :)
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Ahhh, sorry, I mis-read your first post. Blame it on the fact I'm in the process of discovering lots of Cheshire ancestors from the 1700s and was engrossed in that when the email about your post arrived. (This is what happens when you take out a month-subscription-for-£1 offer on a site that has Cheshire parish record images on it!)
The one that's getting bullied, is it somewhat larger in width when you look down on it? That's the way to tell males from females with most cory species, females are fatter.
Other than attempting to breed, I'm at a loss, I'm afraid.
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Sounds exciting - wow, 1700s?! Wishing you all the best with your ancestor hunt. :)
Maybe it is the frisson of breeding happening - I'll try & see them from the top & see if that one is broader....hmmm interesting!
Thanks! :)
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I was just waiting for a nice cheap offer like that £1 for 1 month as this site is the only one that has these records and I generally use a different one. I'm making the most of the opportunity before the month is up :)
It does mean that I'm sitting here with my laptop almost all day at the moment and get emails from Thinkfish whenever there is a new post so I know when to come here and look ;D
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Welcome back, Sunshine.
One of the theories I had for my 6 pygmy cories' demise in the summer (lots of posts on here re that) was that, once one died, they weren't happy in a smaller shoal and it stressed them out, resulting in a domino effect of falling ill and dying. Subsequently, I felt that a much larger shoal may have resulted in a much better outcome, and all the more so if the other fish were larger. My hunch is that, with the other fish (tetras, harlequins) each being double the size of the cories, I might have been better off with 12 cories for every 6 fish that were double their size (in effect meaning that the small cories collectively would be the same size in fish cms/inches as the bigger fish collectively), and the cories might have fared better.
In your case, I wonder if increasing the shoal size to a minimum of 8 would help disperse or remove the aggression or competition or whatever's going on - it might improve the general group behaviour to be more natural at least, and it might also result in some similar-sized companions for your 'runt' or even ultimately for your larger ones. If you happened to have more space, then you might even want to consider increasing the shoal size to more than that, depending on your other fish in that tank, their sizes (possibly along the lines of my untested hypothesis above) and area of the tank which they tend to inhabit (eg you wouldn't want the bottom over-crowded).
Just another option to add into the mix for you. Out of interest, what other fish do you have in that tank?
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Thanks for the advice fcmf - that sounds like an interesting solution. I've got 15 green neons I bought & 10 black tetra (given to me by a neighbour) with the 5 pandas. I'll check the 'calculator thingy' and see if I can have more pandas. I do love them - they fascinate me! :D
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I know my males go through spates of 'hassling' my biggest female and it can look very aggressive. I read up on it and the males will keep nudging the female, forming a T shape of cories and when there's several males and 1 female in the mix it's a bit of a bun fight to be honest. Are they doing something like that?
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Hi Fiona
Yes, they do that! So it's something they're known for doing? I thought they were peaceful, placid fish! ;)
Thanks for letting me know.
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They are peaceful but they're also vigorously amorous for want of a better description. ;)
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Update:
Two panda cories have just swam out of the coconut followed by a 1cm long baby cory!!!! :D It's feeding away merrily.
Wow! That's made my day/week/month/year! Think pandas are my favourite fish - I love them to bits so I am especially happy about this new addition to my tank! (As you can see by all the exclamation marks!)
;D
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That's good news!
If you want to get them to breed, a trick a lot of people use is to do a water change when the pressure drops, and refill with cold water. This simulates melt water from the mountains, which signals spring. And feed them live food (or frozen live) at the next feed after the water change.
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Thanks Sue! I'm just pleased to have 1 baby and if it happens again that would be great! :)
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Congratulations! Sounds wonderful and must have been fantastic to witness.
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Thanks fcmf - I'm just in awe watching the little one! He has his own hideaway which is in a small log that none of the other fish have shown any interest in & I didn't even realise there was a space large enough for for him.
I only have tetras in the tank otherwise and they seem to be ignoring him so he has a great time snuffling around on his own or joining up with the adults. :)
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Great news indeed and congratulations, I discovered I had an acquired extra cory once, I don't know where the little guy had been hiding until he was big enough to be seen.
Sue's tip with the cooler water works with celebes rainbows too btw.
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Thanks Fiona - the joys of fish keeping! :-)