Breeding Bandits

[retro mjm]

just would like to know whats best for breeding as sand could harbour disease and parasites but would the bottom of the tank make the chances of the adults spawning less?

Would just like some advice on wether to put sand in my breeding tank or no sand or just a little bit of sand?

ty
mitch

 

[mattlee]

i have sand, a couple of large pieces of wood and a cave in my breeding tank and it works great. the thing is the corys need to feel happy and secure (as well as broody) and a bare bottom tank with no places to hide etc may well scare them a bit. although they will get used to it eventually i guess....

the only advantage of having a bb tank is so you can get every little bit of wasted food and poo out to keep the water quality at its best but corys arent massive waste producers so a mature filter will be just fine. the bb tank is ideal for fish like discus that need feeding lots of times a day and all waste can be easily spotted and removed

happy mature corys in a species tank is really all you need, although they may well not spawn at all its just one of those things.......

 

[retro mjm]

thanks. Yer im hoping they will spawn though ive only ever seen true bandits (c.metae) in the lfs once and i bought 6 of them at £6.30 each which is redicculus and i would like more but would like to breed them as i have a full spare tank.

Has anybody else managed to breed bandits?

 

[Coryologist]

Has anybody else managed to breed bandits?

This species is routinely bred in the aquarium hobby. Cheers. - Frank

 

[alan3513]

I've just managed to get nine up to 12 weeks old, have kept three to go with my seven adults and took the others to the lfs. I lost some of the fry early on as they don't seem as hardy as the Trilineatus which were breeding at the same time.

 

[mattlee]

thanks. Yer im hoping they will spawn though ive only ever seen true bandits (c.metae) in the lfs once and i bought 6 of them at £6.30 each which is redicculus and i would like more but would like to breed them as i have a full spare tank.

Has anybody else managed to breed bandits?

the price of corys does seem to have reached a bit of a high recently.... it must be due to a growing fan base! ive seen black schultzei corys selling at £22 each and the same for peru gold stripes and both types were very small examples too.

 

[retro mjm]

Yer ridiculus ive been looking for more but cant find any and the shops are reluctant to order in 4 esspecially seeing as i would like 2 male and 2 females.

As far as i can tell i think i have 2 females and 4 males so would like a few more females but impossible to find.

Btw quick question what sort of age/size would they start to breed at?

I have quite a bit of activity but it tends to just peter out after a couple of minutes. Been feeding bloodworms and brineshrimp a couple times the last week and the week before that i was away and my housemate was feeding daphnia/bloodworm for the hole week.

I havent done a cold water change yet saving that for another day. Need to try and spread my water usage over 2 months as i have just last week filled up a 55g tank and will need to refill my breeding tank which is 25g (i took it down to clean it filter is running in 55g)

 

[mattlee]

its pretty impossible to state when corys will start spawning really. they may spawn when not sexually mature enough and the eggs will not be fertile but i would say maybe 8-12 months old is a good age to start as they should be adult/mature enough by then.

food like bloodworms with lots of protein are a good conditioning food for spawning it always gets mine in the right frame of mind....

cold water changes simulate the wet rainy season for corys as the temps drop in the wild but this isnt a certain way of getting them to spawn so dont be too alarmed if it doesnt work. dont get me wrong it works for many but your corys if happy will spawn in their own time and maybe without any kind of catalyst from you. mine first spawned and i hadnt changed any water for almost 2 weeks as i was away

 

[Harlequins]

I agree with matt,theres no hard & fast rule to starting spawning,if the corys are happy,well feed with the correct foods & with ideal water conditions they will do the bizz.

My tri's spawned mostly weekly from sept last year,i did nothing to trigger them,they're just happy to do it

good luck with yours

 

[retro mjm]

thanks 4 out of the 6 seem really happy one always hides with my albino rts and the other shoots around the plants. I dnt have a test kit but my tank is fully matured as i set my big filter up on my smaller tank to seed and mature it water is crystal clear which is always a good sign. I will keep ya posted on what happens