Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => Non Cichlids => Topic started by: Jamie on March 09, 2013, 03:22:27 PM
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I have 6 cories (mixed species, but school together) that share my planted 36-gallon hex tank with a small school of white skirt tetras. This morning, my pair of albino corys was doing their up-and down the tank walls 'mating dance' that they always do before eggs show up in there... Anyway, the male got a little bit crazier than usual, even; splashing around at the surface like crazy and putting on a show. It was really entertaining to me until my most assertive tetra (affectionately called the 'jerk-fish' around here) got annoyed by the little cat's antics, darted across the tank and hit him -hard.
The cory immediately flipped onto his back and floated to the bottom, where he lay upside down! :o I thought he was dead for a minute, i didnt even see breathing. Once i did, i went to get my net to nudge him back onto his belly, but by the time i got back, he had righted himself and swam away. He hid in a corner for awhile. I examined him pretty closely at that point and found no outward signs of injury. Now hes back to the 'mating dance' and acting normally, so i guess he's fine???
I know certain species of shark will faint in response to stress, but ive kept Corydoras for a decade and have never seen or heard of them doing this. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, was the fish ok afterward? It was pretty crazy to witness!
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I had one do something similar once. I have prefilter sponges on the intake for my canister filter and he was sitting on top of it looking like he was going to die. I grabbed him with the net and just as I pulled him out of the water he jumped back in the tank. After that he was fine and schools with the other corys. I figured it was because it was early in the morning and he might have been resting on the filter for some reason. Still very strange.
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Not too long ago I read about cories and "self-poisoning". I wonder if that may have occurred in your cases?
Here's an article about it:
http://www.ianfuller.com/articles/authors/i_fuller/s_p_c/authors.html
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Interesting article. I was having a discussion about this with a young lady at my favorite LFS just last week, when I added three Cory's to my school. I actially acclimated these fish differently than i isually do because if it. I suppose it's possible that that's the issue, since there ARE new fish in there, and the albino was almost certainly stressed by his run-in with the tetra... But I do weekly water changes - more when I have new fish, my water parameters always test out pristine, and this tank has been running beautifully for three years - with the albinos in there for two of those.
He seems totally fine now, but it was really crazy to watch that happen!