Bronze Cories

[keithk831]

After a long, drawn out process of mistakes, I believe I finally have my tank stable. It looks like it's cycling wonderfully, and my fish have never been happier!

Here's a question, though. I have three bronze cories. When I got them, they were all about the same size, and now one is getting a lot bigger than the other two. I'm guessing this is the female? She also has developed a reddish patch on her underside that starts about halfway back and gets darker toward the tail. Everything else seems fine. Is this normal? Does it mean anything? She also has kind of a "gut" on her underside, in front of her underside fins. Is she fat? Or is that where the eggs develop?

Also, I feed the fish twice a day, yet they're always looking for more food. It seems as though no matter how much I feed them, they eat it all (I use shrimp pellets). How much is too much?

Thanks!

 

[Kissyboots]

The female is on the right in the first pic: http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/bottomfeeder-discussion/50261-cory-spawning-habits.html

I slightly "overfeed" my fish so some flakes get to the cories on the bottom. Every four days or so I throw in an algae wafer. They are always "cleaning" the bottom of the tank, looking for food. I just feed my fish once a day in the morning and they are pretty healthy (some kinda fat too .) As long as they are getting some food, don't worry about them. Just don't overfeed too much, cuz that can cause some problems.

 

[Lakea]

Sorry for the bad pics, they were the only ones I had on the comp.

This is a pic of my female bronze cory, she is a lot rounder and bigger than her two male counterparts. She does have a slight pink belly, but if what you are seeing is a darker red patch, that could be a sign of a bacterial infection, but my albino's patch is a bit redder, so it could just be coloring.

This one is of the female and male (the male is on the bottom) they are longer and more slender than the females.

I usually cannot tell when my female is holding eggs, but I don't pay that much attention. Kissyboots has an excellent post up there about the spawning habits! I have always wanted to hatch corys, but it turns out the eggs i found and tried to hatch were actually my albino cory, didn't know she was female.

 

[keithk831]

Thanks for the info! It's not really a red patch, just more of a tint.

Also, we're going out of town for the weekend. Will the fish be ok not being fed for 2 1/2 days?

 

[Kissyboots]

If you throw in a couple algae wafers, then they should be fine, I would think. I've got some of my younger self-bred cories in my tank so I try not to make the feeding to irregular. But yours should be fine, imo.

 

[keithk831]

Also, one of my cories is acting kind of weird. He'll start swimming around, then start "twitching" in a tourette's sort of way...like his whole body. Also, a few minutes ago he was kind of "sniffing" the glass (like they tend to do), then started twitching again by doing backflips.

Think he's ok?

 

[Lakea]

He could have irritated gills due to bacterial infection or your water parameters may be off, usually twitching occurs when there is high nitrates or nitrites so check those, also parasites can cause this too.

 

[keithk831]

He could have irritated gills due to bacterial infection or your water parameters may be off, usually twitching occurs when there is high nitrates or nitrites so check those, also parasites can cause this too.

There are two other cories in there that seem fine; in fact, they all have been more active lately than they have been in the past (this may be because I did a fish-in tank cycle, and I think it's completing now since the water is clearer). So maybe it's an infection or parasite then?

He doesnt do it all the time; only sometimes when he's swimming (not on the bottom).

 

[Lakea]

Not all the corys will necessarily have the same symptoms if it is water params. But I would look closely at the gills for any kind of worm things or look over the body and fins to see if you see any white spots. It may be nothing, just something he does.