Mixed cories

[f8fan]

I have four cories in my 55 gallon tank, I don't know the Latin names but the common names are:

Two Bronze
One Albino
One Peppered

The larger bronze is about two years old, the other three have been in the tank about 6 mos.

It's so bizarre, I thought all cories schooled together but I guess not, the twp bronze hang out together always, but the other two just do their own thing and don't hang tightly with the bronze ones or each other.

The peppered one has been acting weird the last couple of day, I could swear it's dead it just sits sideways on top of the knob on the submersible heater. But then, when it's feeding time, he comes out of his coma-like state and acts completely normal!
He looks healthy, and when he isn't acting dead, he ACTS healthy. Not sure what's up with him, should I get a few more peppered cories to give him some company? I thought a cory was a cory was a cory?

 

[TLH]

I've had 3 of the Cories in my sig at one time.They never went around together.The one I still have just sits there most of the time,I've even seen him on his side like you describe.He's active at feeding time aswell then he goes into hiding.
I think you need quite a few before they start acting normal.In the wild they're found in schools of 50 or more.

 

[twoluvcats]

ya, unfortunatly different species of cories rarley school together. Your peppered prob would appreciate a buddy or 2...of all the cories i've had, the peppered seem to be the most distressed at being 'alone'.

I did have a Julii that was 'allowed' to follow around a mated pair of peppered cories that I had...but he was kinda like the third wheel...he was there, but always off to the side.

 

[Lotus]

I had the same thing, with 6 sterbai cories and one "unidentified cory" where they would sometimes hang out with him, but most of the time didn't want to. I would get a couple more peppered buddies for him.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

I've got 5 cories: 2 schwartzi, 1 spotted, and 2 peppered. I got the 2 schwartzi first, then added the spotted shortly after. They look very similar, and are about the same size, so they all shoaled together. Quite a bit later, I got the 2 peppered (lfs had no healthy spotted ones), and they were much smaller. They didn't shoal with the larger, established ones. Now they've gotten quite a bit bigger, and the peppered cories still tend to be off either together or by their selves.

I've noticed that the peppered cories tend to stay more consistantly at the bottom, too. The spotted and schwartzi cories travel all the way up my fake plants looking for food, and they like to perch on this fake plant suction cupped to the back wall near the top.

 

[f8fan]

What about panda cories? My LFS had a bunch of them, and no peppered currently . Do you think they will hang out with the peppered if I got like two of them , or should I just wait for some peppered to come in?
Of course, I could always go to Petco and take a look, however, honestly, I like to give the local store my $$ and Petco always has questionable health issues....

 

[Lotus]

I'd wait for some healthy peppered cories to come in.