breeding corys....can anyone help?

[pcam86]

Hi, i currently have 3 peppered corys and one panda cory in my 180 litre tank. today i got rid of my young platies and guppies from my 63 litre tank so i was wondering about giving breeding a go with my corys.

First off can anyone help me out with what i need to do to my 63 litre tank to get them to spawn such as water ph, softness etc. is it beneficial to add peat to my filter in this tank?

last question may sound a bit doumb but i was just wondering if its possible for peppered corys to breed with pandas or not? thanks for any help!

 

[yvez9]

peppered will not breed with pandas.

I'm not sure how easily panda cories will breed, but peppered cories breed pretty easily. Mine have laid eggs every 2 days for about 3 weeks last spring, so have my pigmy cories. I never did unusual except make a water change with cooler water. This recreates the springtime for them as snow melts and cools the rvers in a short period of time.

They usually lay eggs on glass and big leaves. To make sure the cories won't eat the eggs or the fry coming out, put the eggs in a breeding net with an airstone so they don't get fungus.

Then feed the fry

 

[pcam86]

ok i may try this, any idea how i know if my corys are mature enough to breed?

 

[Teelie]

Around 1.5" to 2" or so. Males are smaller than females. Females are rounder, "fatter" looking.

 

[BettaUK]

Hi pcam86,

If you are intending to breed your Corydoras, you would be better off if you can to set up another seperate breeding tank! You can then transfer your corys over to the breeding tank, once you have managed to get them to spawn it is easier to remove the adult than to move the eggs, much better rate of success with youngsters when reared seperate as adults often eat some there eggs.

If you do decide to breed, be prepaired for water changes on a daily basis or at least every other day once you have young fry..

Do you know what sexes you have, and est age of the corys?


Good Luck

BettaUK

 

[dwarfgourami]

Also, feed them lots of live food (or frozen bloodworm or TetraDelica) to put them in the mood. Since they come from the tropics it's not the springtime but the onset of the rainy season you want to emulate, cooler rainwater washing down lots of newly-hatched mosquito larvae into the water. Give them live stuff for a week and then do a partial water change with slightly cooler water, that should give them the idea. Always assuming that you have both males and females of course....
Oh and definitely aim for a set-up where you can remove either eggs or parents. Mine spawned willingly and then ate the eggs. Good ventilation is another must. The few eggs I rescued got fungus.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi pcam86

You have received lots of good advice so far! C. paleatus or peppered corys are among the easy corys when it comes to getting them to spawn. They are frequently egg eaters though, and if yours turn out to be that way you will have to move the eggs to a separate tank for hatching and rearing the fry. Since C. pandas are fond of eggs too, I would suggest that you remove him from the spawning tank.

The hardest part of breeding these fish is not the spawning but the rearing of the fry. Since they come from eggs they are much smaller than live bearer fry at the start. They require tiny food such as microworms, which you can culture yourself and it will be necessary to keep their tank and water clean at all times to avoid disease.

Lots of luck to you!

 

[pcam86]

ok i'm just moving my peppered corys to my breeding tank but i've left the panda cory in my main tank.

Shall i do a cooler water change right now once they're in there?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi pcam86

I would take a week or two to let them get used to the tank and to feed them lots of good blackworms, tubifex worms or frozen bloodworms to get them in condition. This will fatten them up and help the females develop lots of eggs.

If you just maintain your tank the way you normally would I wouldn't be surprised if they spawned on there own. If not, try giving the tank a normal water change and leaving the heater off overnight. This is often all it takes to get them to spawn within a few days.

It's always best, I've found, to do the simple things first. If this fails to produce results you can always try more aggressive measures later.

 

[pcam86]

ok last week in my big tank i fed one block of frozen food every day for a week so i guess i'll just try doing the same in this breeding tank and see if that makes any difference. I hope so!!!

How much frozen food should i feed 3 corys with? half a block?

Will my panda cory be ok on his own in my big tank?

P.S: i have a tropical quintet frozen food with: bloodworm, daphnia, black mosquito lavae, white mosquito lavae and Artemia. are there any i should skip feeding them on for conditioning? I've also heard beefheart is good for them and i've got forzen chiclid mix with mixed beefheart, mysis, fishmeat in it. should i use that?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi pcam86

I like to feed my corys as much as they will eat, several times a day, when I am conditioning them. I usually prefer live to frozen foods since if a few worms escape into the gravel there is no harm done. They will live there and the corys will find them as snacks. Frozen food, on the other hand, can spoil quickly and pollute the water which you want to avoid.

It would be good to give them what you guess they will eat and keep an eye on them. If they lose interest before it is all gone, remove the left overs and feed less next time. I never use the other foods you mention, so I don't know what to tell you about them. Perhaps some other member will comment.

I think it would be good to get a few more pandas as companions for your little guy, if you have the room. He'll surely enjoy being with them even when your others rejoin him in your main tank.

 

[pcam86]

Guys! I came home from work today and noticed my female was being followed a lot by one of the male corys in my tank. i then looked and saw her ventral fins clamped together and she was holding eggs. I then finally noticed some eggs stuck on the glass of my tank. So far i've counted 80 eggs.

What should i do now? how do i stop them from fungusing etc?

 

[ral]

You can add some meth blue... but I would move the parents out first.

 

[pcam86]

ok whats best out of meth blue or melafix?

Also do i NEED to put them in a breeding net or can they stay in the main tank? its just i have a fluval 2+ filter so maybe it would suck them in???

 

[Inchworm]

Hi pcam86

Congratulations! That didn't take very long, did it?

Let me tell you what I do when I have corys spawn and you can see how it sounds for your corys.

After the corys are finished spawning, I move them out of the tank and remove the sand or gravel, plants and anything else that might be in there. The fry will spend their early days in a bare bottomed tank. I use box filters in my spawning tanks, and I just remove them and put airstones on the airlines. These I position directly under the eggs to cause a strong current to flow over the eggs. This, in my opinion, is the best fungus preventative. Methylene blue can be used too, but it will not replace flowing water and is a nuisance to remove once the fry have hatched. Do not use Melafix for this purpose.

You might want to move your filter to another tank to save the beneficial bacteria since you won't need it in the fry tank. There you can do daily partial water changes to keep the tank clean and sanitary. The fry (being so tiny) produce little waste and it will be removed by the water changes.

Once the fry have hatched, I add a sponge filter and remove any egg fragments from the glass. As the fish grow, it will develop it's own beneficial bacteria and when the fry need the tank to be cycled, it will be.

If your filter can take a sponge pre-filter on the intake tube, you could probably use it, but it will not cause enough water flow to prevent fungus of the eggs.

What will you be feeding the little fellows?