How to make cories shoal together

[rtcatz]

I was wondering if I would need to buy multiple members of the same cory sp. for these guys to feel safe and sociable. I would really like to have a variety of cory species instead. Any comments appreciated

[apistomaster]

I would suggest for each Corydoras species that you try to get 6 to 8 of each. They tend to hang with each other although Corys will combine into a mixed group from time to time. They find safety or security in numbers and sometimes they make little distinction between species.
Perhaps one strategy would to get fewer species and more of each one rather than a larger number of different species if you desire them to form separate groups most of the time.
Another way is to chose a bottom hugging species and a dwarf species like C. hastatus that tends to school in midwater.

[Marc van Arc]

I would really like to have a variety of cory species instead.

I would strongly discourage the idea of keeping let's say 15 corys of 15 different species. This seems nice, but it'll soon become very annoying imo.
You could choose for 3 groups of 5 specimen each. But as far as I'm concerned, nothing beats 1 group of the same species. It remains a personal taste matter, however. An example.
I see people combining C. aeneus with C. gold stripe. My problem with that combination is that the aeneus, which are quite nice fish, suddenly look like dull or even ugly gold stripes, if you see what I mean.
Good luck in deciding.

[hellocatfish]

As far as looks go, I like my albino c.aeneus mixed with silver-colored cories that have some black on them. Art Deco effect, I guess you could call it. I have one peppered cory in with 5 albino Bronzes (1 recently passed away) and one Elegans (bought for personality, not for looks) and 4 Sterbai. The Sterbai are very good about staying together and do not mix often with the other Cories. The Aeneus will accept anybody and have taken in the single Peppered cory and the single elegans as one of their own.

You probably have already bought your cories by now. But if anyone else has the same question, I do think the Sterbai are very inclined to school. Even when I had only 2, they were swimming so in synchronization with one another, I instantly regretted not getting more of them to keep each other company. And they are beautiful fish, with a hint of orange in their pectoral fins, but not so much that they would clash with other colors of cory.

But I think that's about as much diversity as I can permit in my 29 gallon. It's not so much that I would get annoyed looking at additional species, but I think the cories themselves would be rather annoyed. I mean, the sterbai are very sweet, gentle fish, but they clearly prefer to be with their own kind. Sharing limited space with too many other kinds/mini schools of cories could end up stressing them, at least from what I have observed. So if I were to add any other cories, I would try to stick with just adding maybe an additional peppered cory or Elegans. Elegans isn't very much to look at, at least mine is not, but I have nothing but admiration for how gentle and friendly mine is. She seemed to keep a vigil over my ailing and now deceased albino cory. It was amazing to watch, though very sad.

[apistomaster]

I raise C. sterbai so I get to see how gregarious they are all the time. They are good schoolers. I especially like the effect when a tank of two hundred goes after a piece of food. I get a tight 6 inch diameter ball of 1 inch Corys swirling around the food.