Breding Corydoras Elegans

[andywg]

Ok, after having absolutely no luck with trying to find any more Elegans at a reasonable price near me - and having watched the corys mate and lay eggs in the community tank I came up with an idea: setup a breeding tank. Soooo....

I've moved the three elegans (I believe 1 male and two females) to about a 5 gallon tank with a sand bottom, some live plants and a cave made of alfagrog.

I've lowered the temperature a little from the main tank (they seemed to spawn at least twice following large coldwater water changes - unfortunately the eggs were eaten of the rocks, cave and glass). The temp is currently at around 21C. Should this be ok?

Is there anything else I need to do other than a few cold water changes a week to try and induce breeding from these guys?

Andy

 

[WILDER]

This might help.
http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/breeding/#Characins

 

[andywg]

Ok, They have been very busy and I now have around 20-50 eggs. Once it looks like they have finished laying, should I remove the parents straight away or will they not take too much interest in the eggs.

 

[OohFeeshy]

I'd remove them. Even if they don't eat eggs, they don't look after the fry so your better off without them in there.

 

[andywg]

Ok. When I'm sure they've finished laying I'll move them.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi andywg

I'm so glad to know that one of our members has gotten the lovely elegans to spawn!

It will take 3 to 4 days for the eggs to hatch, and if the corys aren't eating the eggs (they usually don't) there is no hurry to remove them. They will inspect them and clean them and remove any that might be infertile and about to fungus.

Do be sure to have excellent water circulation around the eggs, whatever else you do. This is important to keep them from getting fungus on them, which is the very worst thing that can happen.

Do you plan to empty out the tank? I usually do, because it is much easier to keep the tank clean if it is bare bottomed.

Good luck with them. Please let me know how they do.

 

[andywg]

For this first attempt I'm just leaving it as it is, I'll probably temporarily move the parents to the betta tank tonight (took ages to remove them from the community). I just wanted to give the eggs a chance after seeing them being laid in the big community (though they were eaten quite swiftly in there).

They seem to keep spawning every couple of weeks or so. Also, a number of the eggs are on the sand so I don't want to destroy them. When I get home tonight I'll try and put some pics up of the eggs.

I love the elegans, and I have been searching for more at a reasonable price (I can't justify £7 per fish) for around 6 months now. However this may answer my problems!

Wish me luck peeps.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi andywg

Corys can certainly be unpredictable!

This is the first time I heard of them spawning on the sand. I usually put a layer of gravel down to keep them from laying their eggs on the bare bottom of the tank. It's more work to clean out, but I tried without and they spawned on the glass bottom. Then they sat on them which, of course. crushed them.

 

[andywg]

Well, I was a disapointed tonight, a number of eggs have dissapeared, however there's still a few left. The tank should be flowing nice, it has a Fluval 1plus and an air driven sponge filter (for a tank around 5 gallons). Sorry no pictures, been doing water changes on 3 other tanks (decided to leave the cory tank as so many of the eggs are high up) as well as re-installing the home made LED moonlights on the Betta tank. The pictures were taken, just not on the computer yet.

Some of the eggs look a little like there's a halo all around, this may be fungus starting, but this is the first time I've attempted to actually breed something (Guppies don't count ) and to be honest, I only orignally wanted 3 so if I were to get any more than that come up the I'd probably offer them to TFF members nearby.

I'll probably update around Wed or Thur with (please God, please! news of hatchings.

Catch you on the flipside!

Andy

 

[Inchworm]

Hi andywg

I'm glad to hear from you and look forward to seeing pictures soon.

Don't worry if you lose some of the eggs. It's natural and beyond your control. Corys lay many eggs as natures way of insuring that even if some don't hatch, others will.

The ones that have fungused are probably due to one of two reasons. First, they might be infertile. It's usually recommended to have 2 males per spawning female to have the best rate of fertilization. With only one male, you should expect that there will be some that are not fertilized.

Second the water circulation around the eggs. It sounds like yours is good, and as long as the water is flowing over them rather than standing still, you have done all you can.

Don't worry about removing the eggs that develop fungus. Unless they are actually touching good eggs, leave them until after the hatching is finished and wipe then away after that time. You will only increase the chances of damaging the good ones if you poke around in there too soon.

As time goes by, don't be surprised to find that the eggs change color somewhat. This is natural and nothing to worry about.

Good luck. I hope you will get many fry!

 

[andywg]

Well, it didn't look too good today when I came downstairs. all the eggs that appear to have a "fungussy" halo around themn are the only ones left. All the good looking ones on the glass have dissapeared

I'll wait and see what happens, if not I'll try other things when they spawn again.