I think my betta attacked my cory

[daleekee]

I recently bought three peppered corys as tankmates for my betta. Two of them are always hanging out with each other, but the other, smaller one has always been sort of an outcast. The other day I noticed that this cory is now missing an eye and a whisker, and his tail is completely fraid. He's obviously been attacked, and I'm guessing that the betta is the culprit. I've never seen him actually attack any of the corys, but what else could have happened? I do see him intimidating them when it's feeding time, and he typically steals a good portion of their food. Do I have an overly aggressive betta? Also, I don't know what to do about the injured cory. Should I leave him in the tank to be mauled again? I'm worried that his injury might grow fungus, and he'll infect his tankmates. I'd like to take him out, but I don't have an emergency tank with an air supply. I don't know what corys need in that department, but I don't want to suffocate him. Any suggestions?

[sawcat]

There is someone in the betta livejournal group, who's had several cories, and it turned out the other cories had attacked the one eyed one. It's been a while and she still has it. Did you get them all at once? Perhaps they were from different schools. Apparently cories get teritorial in establishing school hierarchies and can get violent with each other.

Cories are messy little guys and would require filtration for best conditions. If you want to get advice from the owner of the one eyed wonder, you can always go and post to community.livejournal.com/bettas/ if you ask about the one eyed wonder cory, the owner will know who you mean.