Omigosh, They Spawned!

platytudes

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Hi everyone,

I have a question about corydoras spawning. If anyone has any tips, I would be all ears - I am completely new to this! Here's some background information...

I just recently set up a 29 gallon tank - by recently I mean about two weeks ago. I have two other 29 gallon tanks, so I grabbed the H.O.T. Magnum off another one and got it cycled just about instantly. I used leveling sand from Lowe's as substrate, the stuff is as soft and fluffy as anything. I decorated generously with plastic plants and two large pieces of red lava rock. It's low lit, a perfect bedroom tank...which is where it is located. It gets no ambient light since I have privacy drapes over my bedroom to block the view of the neighbor's junk cars, etc.

I first started off by moving two of my corys from another 29 gallon tank, a C. metae and a C. julii. They were pretty tickled to have the sandy substrate after having lived for years with fine gravel, but they were also low key since it was just the two of them. About a week went by and I added four C. aeneus, also from another tank with a sand/gravel mix, which after a few years had turned into mostly gravel with a few sandy patches.

Here it is, two days after adding the four bronze corydoras, and I turn on the aquarium lights at 11 am to find that they have laid eggs all over the sides and back! There must be at least 20-30 eggs in total. All of them are totally white, so I know they are no good :( However, I am wondering - is there anything I can do to ensure they are viable next time?

I have been feeding them various sinking foods...Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets and Tetra Veggie Algae Wafers, along with Aquadine Freshwater Fish Food (from a free sample tin I got recently) and New Life Spectrum Cichlid Pellets. Both these last are not really sinking foods, but they do sink after a few seconds, so they seem to enjoy rummaging for them.

I have been doing 5 gallon water changes twice a week, just to make sure the water stays nice and fresh when I get around to adding the final inhabits. The plan is blue platys and a few golden wonder killifish...I am not ready yet though, as I have a hectic work week up ahead, so I won't have time to keep an eye on things until the middle of this month.

In case it matters - and I'm sure it does! - here are my tank stats:
Ammonia - 0 ppm
Nitrite - 0 ppm
Nitrate - <10 ppm
pH - ~7.8
alkalinity - 300 ppm
hardness - between 150-300 ppm (sorry, my test kit is rather crude)

There is no heater in this tank, as I intend to make it an ever so slightly subtropical setup. Since it's summer here in Florida, the house stays between 78-80 F, but the bedroom might be a bit cooler, maybe about 77 F or so. Around winter time it might get as cool as 70-72 F, at which time I will see how the golden wonders do, and add a heater if need be.

Anyhow, sorry for the long post...I figure, better TMI than too little!

If anyone has a clue as to how to get this bunch into a spawning mood (to this minute, they are still frolicking wildly amongst themselves) and get the eggs to keep from getting fungused or whatever it is that turns them white, please do share. Baby cory kittens are just about the cutest thing there is! I never would have thought to intentionally breed them, but now that they have shown some interest, I figure I ought to encourage them however I can.

Thanks so much!
Nicole
 
Hi Nicole!

Sorry it took so long for a response.

Are you sure the eggs are not viable?

C. aeneus will spawn and give you babies if there are a male and a female. Clearly you have a female. I really have no doubt you have males in a group of 4. the expectation for viable eggs from bronze Corys is near equal to the expectation of live birth from guppies.

You are doing exactly what you ought to get them interested in breeding.

In my mind bronze Corys are nearly equal to Betta in personality.

Harvest the eggs, put them in a tub or net floating in the parent tank. If in a tub install an air stone.

Check the pinned thread of faqs at the top.
 
Hello there! :hey:

Thanks for the response! No need to apologize... :)

I have gotten some more info elsewhere, and everyone seems to say, remove the eggs, put them in a separate tank. Sometimes an airstone is suggested, other times not. I am sorry to be such a complete newbie, but is this what "egg tumblers" are for? I definitely need to sit down and do some reading and researching.

I guess my real question is, will just leaving them there produce fry? There is nobody else in the 29 gallon tank to eat the eggs...I don't know if people remove the eggs usually because they get eaten? Or because if they are not removed, they fungus? Or both? I don't usually have carbon running on the tank, but I packed a small internal filter chock full of carbon in case it helps.

One expert I asked (Dr. Neale Monks, who is a treasure trove of information) said that fertilized eggs turn grey, and unfertilized eggs stay white. I was assuming the eggs were no good because they were white, and I expected them to be amber...like the picture of eggs in his article:
http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Projects/corydoras.html

He also said that in a few days, it would be clear which ones had fungused because they would have stringy stuff on them. As of yesterday night, the eggs looked the same as they did at first - plain ol' white. I included an image this time, maybe that will help.

Anyhow, I know right now I don't have the time (I work at a library and we are swamped with summer programming, plus I have to work for all of those slackers who are taking long weekends before and after the 4th of July :rolleyes: ) to do anything special like aerate the eggs, or probably even raise fry right now! However, as far as breeding goes, I would like to be ready if this miraculously comes to fruit without my doing much of anything, and also I would like to be knowledgeable, because one day I would like to breed them on purpose!

A very silly question that I'm sure has been answered before...do Corydoras hybridize?

Well, that's all for now. Thank you so much, jollysue. You are just wonderful, I can tell! :fun:

~Nicole
 

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When my cories spawned, the eggs were white, but they hatched. I'm pretty sure your eggs are ok, but I'm no expert. If they get really white and cloudy one the outside, they probably fungused. Also to answer your question about removing the eggs, the parents will eat them so you could use some sort of tool to separate them from what they are stuck to.

On a final note I've never heard of hybrid cories. It would be awesome if it happened though!
 
Yes, Corys will cross breed.

If you leave bronze alone you will eventually get fry that survive if they have places to hide and perhaps a little green living stuff, like moss or any plant.

Some eggs are tan as they mature and some are cream and some are pearl. The eggs that are not viable are a "dead" white, but it can take awhile to see the difference.

The Corys will eat eggs. Most will sometimes, some will most times, but even so often some will survive. I have volunteer bronze all the time with no help from me, and bronze will eat their eggs if they are hungry. Some individuals are greedier than others.

I have fry hatch in tanks frequently, but not many survive the riggers of life in an adult tank.

I am going to do a search now and post some links for you here of viable Cory eggs.

Believe me when I say that Ian Fuller, Coryman, knows more about Corys than Monks. Coryologist can share much more about breeding Corys I have no doubt.
 
Thank you, Frank! Just the right touch.

And, platytudes, I didn't notice your picture before, but those look like living pearls to me. See the little sparkle, the gleam?

As for fry hatching, there are many variations. Most people for their first time will have the eggs in a separate container with an airstone or air tube under the eggs. Again there is a frequently asked questions thread pinned at the top. It gives that basic method. It is labor intensive, but allows you to watch the process.

Myself I use fry nets. They are less work for me and I can keep up with them as I am time challenged.

Egg tumblers are not normally used for Cory eggs, but have been used. Good water circulation is sufficient. Most eggs fungus because they have been infected from bacteria and are dead. Infection occurs because they are not viable, they were damaged in harvesting, or they are not kept clean. The water circulation helps keep them clean.
 
Wow! Thank you so much everyone! :hyper:

At first I thought my post was going to lie dormant, and now it is a full-fledged thread complete with amazingly detailed, professional pictures...thank you so much for the pics, Frank!

Sorry not to have replied to all of your wonderful input sooner everyone, for some reason my e-mail notification failed. I am sorry to say that the cory eggs disappeared somehow. They left a little egg shaped ring around each egg. Lots of clutches of little egg shaped rings, that I will have to scrape off, are all that is left of the (to me) miraculous event! Perhaps they did eat them after all, in spite of leaving them alone for about three days? Well, anyhow...that's ok!

As I said, it was my first time...now, I am armed with knowledge, definitely going to bookmark that pinned FAQ for reading in the near future, and next time, I will know just what to do. My plan is to get some free Java moss from somewhere (since it seems many people are happy to give it away) and get it to grow on whatever ornament I buy to get the free moss. I know that there is one guy on Aquabid who makes handmade catfish caves out of clay. They look like terracotta, which is a gorgeous color underwater in spite of being rather unnatural - that's where the moss comes in to make it blend in better! I wish I could find a decent selection of low light live plants, but alas, Petsmart's selection is what I have to work with in my smallish town.

If I can get the Java moss to spread, the bronze should have no problem volunteering me some kittens! I know right now, the tank is too immature, since it doesn't even have any algae growing on it yet...except for a little bit of brown coming in on the plastic cabomba. So, not much natural forage at all, although I hope to change that soon as the tank settles in more.

Thank you all SO much for your help. I will definitely know where to turn the next time, hopefully I will have some pics of baby cats in a few months! My big thanks to you, jollysue, for getting the ball rolling. This thread probably wouldn't have happened without you. ;)

~Nicole
 

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