Glass Surfing Cories

Hey everyone, I have 2 little schools of cories. 3 peppered and 3 sterbai.

2 of my SterbaI have a hardcore glass surfing routine about twice a day, I think it’s just excercise. But anyway my most recent SterbaI addition, the 3rd one was really excited to be a part of the school I think. But the others don’t come down from their glass surfing routine to hang out with him.
I think if they paid attention to him they could be a happy little group.

Any suggestions on how to get my cories to stop glass surfing. They’re the only ones that do that

 

How long have you had them for? My corys glass surfed a lot in the first week or so that I had them.

 

I think I may have had them 2 or 3 weeks. They usually do it for a good span of the afternoon into the early evening. My other 4 cories have never glass surfed and they’re the newest.

I thought getting a 3rd sterbaI would make them a little happier, but it seems they haven’t noticed the new one yet. Which is a bummer for him, because I seen him waiting for them below :/




This is the best picture I could get of them together. The one in the front is darker and he’s one of the original glass surfers. The back one is the newest one, he is smaller and lighter colored.

Are they in fact the same species to begin with? Is that why they’re not schooling?
Why are my originals so dark compared to my new one

 

It's normal.. I don't think you can stop them if they want to. Cory's don't usually school across breads. My JuliI and pandas all surf the glass.

 

It's normal.. I don't think you can stop them if they want to. Cory's don't usually school across breads. My JuliI and pandas all surf the gl

Are the 2 in my picture both Sterbais? I didn’t find out recently they can be mislabeled at the stores.

 

Yep those are sterbaI corydoras. Both have the orange-ish fins and appropriate body patterns.

 

Yep those are sterbaI corydoras. Both have the orange-ish fins and appropriate body patterns.

Why is my OG so dark though? He/she is also a bit darker than the other OG.

 

My Panda's glass surf occasionally, my Sterbai's don't. Think it depends on the fish.

 

It could be stress, or a wild caught Sterbai.
All of my wild caught SterbaI are a lot lighter than than the one captive bred SterbaI I have.

It could also be stress because I’ve seen my SterbaI about that pale for the first week.

 

I have a few panda corys that did this from time to time for a few minutes a day the first year or so. Then they stopped. I bought a couple of SterbaI corys and they did not do any glass surfing. They just hid for about a week. Now all the corys swim about and do a lot of sand surfing

 

Ideally they need to be in larger schools of their own species, otherwise they can exhibit some stressed behaviour as cories of different species don't shoal together.

You can try adding more plants or cover, but I'd personally decide which species I'd like to keep and add another 3 of them and rehome the other 3

 

Glass surfing and that little "maneuver" they do where they charge the surface at lightning speed and then do a hairpin turn at the waterline are natural behaviors for cory. At least, it's natural in an aquarium environment.

The fry I raise even teach themselves how to do this in the fry tank not long after hatching.