Cory eggs?

Just noticed these.
Have my Cory’s spawned?
If so, what do I do?

Note: No snails in tank. Black Skirt and Buenos Aries Tetras are the only other tank mates.

Nice, they do look like it.

If you can gently remove them that'd be the way to go, otherwise they most likely will get eaten, unless you can hide them we it some floater plants or find another way to keep them isolated from the general population in your tank

outofwater said:

Nice, they do look like it.

If you can gently remove them that'd be the way to go, otherwise they most likely will get eaten, unless you can hide them we it some floater plants or find another way to keep them isolated from the general population in your tank

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I don't have another tank, I may see if I can find a breeder/nursery tank at the lfs. I do have a pump and airstone available, but no heater. I may pick up a nano heater and fix up a large vase as a nursery.

What do I feed the hatchlings (if they hatch)?

Oblio said:

I don't have another tank, I may see if I can find a breeder/nursery tank at the lfs. I do have a pump and airstone available, but no heater. I may pick up a nano heater and fix up a large vase as a nursery.

What do I feed the hatchlings (if they hatch)?

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I have zero experience with them breeding. From what I've read the first 24 hrs or so they're covered with the yolk sack, after that, I've seen most recommend microworms, baby brine shrimp (frozen seems to work just as well), and as they grow they are transitioned to crushed flake and tablets.

Where I'm at I can't find a reliable source of live food, so I'm going to start looking into frozen quality feed for my fish, the current diet of flakes and pellets only goes so far, plus for me at least, experimenting with different food adds to the allure of the hobby.

Good luck!

This thread might be good for you (and me)

Thread 'Which Is The Best Corydoras Fry Food.' https://www.fishforums.net/threads/which-is-the-best-corydoras-fry-food.180202/

They look empty.

They look like empty egg sacks to me too (have raised bronze and pygmy cories, have a batch of month old baby bronze cories right now) and they don't quite look right to me as cory eggs, but that maybe be down to you having a much sharper image from using a better camera!

What else is in the tank? Whatever eggs have hatched, whether cory or otherwise, can perhaps raise themselves in the tank if you provide tiny food for them. As someone said above, microworms, baby brine shrimp (I'm currently using a jar of baby brine shrimp that lasts for a few weeks, as I can't easily raise live BBB or get hold of frozen right now), and even usual adult food crushed very tiny can work. The fry can raise themselves in the tank, although mortality rates with cory fry tend to be high even when you've collected the eggs, so try not to get your hopes too high.

Adding things like Almond leaves and alder cones to the tank can help, as they provide food for tiny micro-organisms that tiny fry can eat. I'm convinced my pygmy cory fry live largely on seed shrimp and other tiny critters I encourage to live in their tank.

Also be wary of over-feeding the tank! Don't ever want to do that. And substrate still needs to be cleaned. My pygmy cory fry raise themselves in the tank with the adults, and it's inevitable that one or more fry get sucked up when I gravel vac, no matter how I try to avoid it. They're also really hard to spot when hidden among the mulm at the bottom of the bucket. Only thing I've found to do is carefully check the bucket of water I've removed, going through it one jugful at a time, using a strong light (I usually put the tank light over the bucket!) checking for that fry shape, eyes and movement... it adds a great deal of time to water changes, but have saved many fry from being thrown out with the old water this way!

Definitely eggs, I actually witnessed a female lay them on the glass after posting the OP
There are many more batches now (5-6). Pretty hard to remove, I gently scraped several with a dough scraper into a vase with tank water, and added an air stone. They are nearly impossible to see.
The BA Tetras have poked at them a bit but they seem to remain adhered to the tank wall for now.

I picked up a breeder box, but I'm concerned that any eggs will fit thru the slits. I'm also concerned that I may damage eggs by trying to remove them from the glass. I'll have to delay a WC (water params permitting) because some of the clusters are quite high on the tank walls. I'll wait a day and see if I can see any development.

Oblio said:

Definitely eggs, I actually witnessed a female lay them on the glass after posting the OP
There are many more batches now (5-6). Pretty hard to remove, I gently scraped several with a dough scraper into a vase with tank water, and added an air stone. They are nearly impossible to see.
The BA Tetras have poked at them a bit but they seem to remain adhered to the tank wall for now.

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Which species of cory do you have?

It's important that the eggs and wrigglers, if any hatch, remain in the same tank water as the parents, at the same temp as that tank. I've even rigged a contraption of a small food container with some holes poked into it higher up, sitting inside a cleaned margarine container, to allow easy water changes by changing the water in the outer container, while the eggs and fry are safely inside the smaller one, the holes allowing some water exchange. The airstone sitting in the outer tub.

Use a credit card or even a stanley blade to carefully scrape the eggs off the tank walls, I also prop or hold a large fine fishnet below the eggs, to catch any that fall.

Oblio said:

I picked up a breeder box, but I'm concerned that any eggs will fit thru the slits. I'm also concerned that I may damage eggs by trying to remove them from the glass. I'll have to delay a WC (water params permitting) because some of the clusters are quite high on the tank walls. I'll wait a day and see if I can see any development.

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Most commercial breeder boxes have holes or slits that are way too big for cory fry I'm afraid! I haven't found any. They're mainly designed for livebearers, who have much larger/more developed fry, not for egg layers. I pinched a tip from elsewhere though. Already had a netted breeder box like this one;


But the netting is still far too large for cory fry. They really are tiny! So I bought an extra large pair of ladies tights, and stretched the leg over the box. Was tricky, but worked perfectly. Suctioned to parent tank, eliminated the need for tiny water changes like in the food containers, and ensures the fry are in the same water parameters from egg to baby fish. Once they're larger, can be transferred to another nursery tank.

My tacky, jerry-rigged emergency fry container;


Freshly hatched bronze cory wrigglers;



Newer improved set up, with ladies tights stretched over the frame of the breeder box


Growing fry in tight netted breeder box



Starting to look like proper cories! Was testing if they'd go for these wafers and which they might prefer. Don't leave too much food in there for long though. A turkey baster is fantastic both for sucking up and moving wrigglers when they're tiny, but also for cleaning out their container.



Same batch, now much bigger and able to live with adults

Thanks @AdoraBelle Dearheart, great tips, I'll see if I can snag some hose and modify my breeder box.

They are Corydoras Aneaus (Bronze Albino)

Oblio said:

Thanks @AdoraBelle Dearheart, great tips, I'll see if I can snag some hose and modify my breeder box.

They are Corydoras Aneaus (Bronze Albino)

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How are your eggs looking? They usually tend to hatch on day 3 or 4

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

How are your eggs looking? They usually tend to hatch on day 3 or 4

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They are all flattish, translucent, and appear empty
Any clue as to why?

Oblio said:

They are all flattish, translucent, and appear empty
Any clue as to why?

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As far as translucent, they do turn translucent as they develop. The ones who go bright white over the following days are the unfertilised ones.

If they appear flat and empty though, possible that they were eaten before you collected them. Or they hatched? N wrigglers in the container?

Don't despair even if you don't get babies this time. Once the adults have spawned once, they can spawn again! And there are some tips and tricks to help urge them to spawn too, so you can get all prepared first, then prepare them for spawning.

Oh I forgot to mention - any that look fuzzy are growing fungus, and need to be removed to reduce chances of it spreading to other eggs. If you have cherry shrimp, add a couple to the egg container - they're good at cleaning the eggs and don't harm healthy eggs.

Don't give up on them too fast. I was convinced I wasn't going to have any hatch with my first batch, and ended up with 18 wrigglers