[Emmh]

Hi I'm new to this forum and and keeping fish!
I recently got one julii cory (i'm getting 4 more asap) and while he seems perfectly healthy and happy, he's not acting the way I thought he would. He's been swimming with my 4 platys. The platys like to swim all over the tank together and the cory swims with them like he's schooling with them or something. The platys don"t seem to mind. Is this normal? Is it because he's missing his own kind?
Thanks

 

[Sylverclaws]

He doesn't think he's a platy, he's just very lonely.
This is normal for cories who don't have a proper group. They -need- shoals of five or more. Many kept without a proper shoal will try to school with any other fish in the tank who allows it. Unfortunately this is stressful for them. Some will do it even with a shoal and not be stressed out because when they need to rest and relax they can go back with the rest of their own shoal...trying to shoal with mid-top level swimmers will wear him out, active and sweet as they are, because they don't relax on the bottom with him and he'll try to stay with them as long as he can.

I had a group of six schwarzi(SP?) cories a while back who would try to drag my dwarf gourami into their shoal. lol When they saw him, all of them would swim up and check him out and go around with him for a short time before going back to their spots to feed and relax.

 

[Emmh]

okay thanks for letting me know I should have more by the end of the week. Is 5 enough or do I have to keep a group of 6?

 

[Sylverclaws]

Five will be just fine. It's a minimum number. Or maybe four is, but five is just fine for them. I've always kept them in five or more and so long as they have a group of buddies they tend to do much better.

 

[Emmh]

Alright good to know thanks so much!

 

[huckleberry77]

I have 6 cories and some of the cories swim with my denison barbs frequently. It seems to be the larger albino cories that do this. They also swim and shoal with the other cories too. The 2 biggest albinos are just very very active and seem to like moving around with the denisons. Then denison barbs don't seem to mind at all.