cories and spawning

[superjalami30]

I've had 3 albino, 3 bronze and 3 peppered cories housed in one of my tanks for close to two yrs now.
I have no idea if I have even one female out of the 9.
How do I sex them?
And if I have females why havent they spawned?
What do I need to do in order to get them to spawn?
I've read I need to do a water change in the morning with cooler water, is this true?
If it isnt that would be why mine havent spawned.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi superjalami30

With nine corys, and especially with six of them of the same species, I would be very surprised if the haven't actually spawned. I think it's probably more likely that the eggs were eaten or that they were hidden and when they hatched, the fry were eaten.

It's not difficult to tell which corys are males and which are females once you know what to look for. In both the species of corys you have, the female is considerably larger than the male and is wider and more rounded in the body shape. If you view them from above it's easy to see the difference.

Here's a picture of my black C. aeneus:

Here's another. I bet you won't have any trouble finding the two females and three males in there.

These are mature fish that have spawned a number of times, are fully grown and are typical of their species.

Now, please take a look at your corys and let me know how many of each gender you have.

 

[superjalami30]

Heya inchworm, just realised I had forgotten 'bout this post.

I think I have 1 female albino, 1 female peppered, and one female bronze.
The rest are males I think, based on size.
All the cories I have are mature, so this should be correct.

I really have no idea if they've spawned, if they did, they didnt lay eggs on the glass anyways.

Awhile back I noticed one of the albino's had gotten very large around the belly, I figured it was the female and was full of eggs, but I never did see them.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get 'em to spawn and get the eggs before another fish eats them?

 

[trace1]

i have heard if you do a water change with slightly cooler water think this is supposed to work, either that or just wait. mine spawned for the first time yesterday only noticed cos 1 of the smaller 1's looked like he/she was trying to suck anything that swam past anyway found some eggs on back of filter. worse thing is don't even know if any of them are males as not sure if they all mature yet , hth
trace

 

[dwarfgourami]

I conditioned mine by feeding them lots of bloodworm and they spawned after about a week. The eggs got eaten, so I think I would have needed an extra tank to move the adults to after spawning. Oh, and keeping a big goofy platy in the spawning tank was possibly not the ideal recipe for success.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to get 'em to spawn and get the eggs before another fish eats them?

[snapback]906531[/snapback]​

 

[Inchworm]

Hi superjalami30

I would definitely suggest setting up a spawning tank for them. You could use a 10 gallon tank and either the bronze or albino corys. The peppered corys are more likely to eat their eggs, so my recommendation would be to hold off on them until next time.

Two males to each female is perfect. This will ensure that there is enough sperm to fertilize all/most of the female's eggs.

To set up a spawning tank, I use a 10 gallon tank with just a thin layer of gravel or sand on the bottom. For filtration I use an air pump with a box filter. When I set this up, I take a bit of filter floss from my AquaClear filter. You could also run the box filter in your main tank for a few weeks to seed it with beneficial bacteria.

Once the fish are in their tank I feed them heavily on live blackworms or tubifex worms. Frozen bloodworms are good too. I give them all they can eat.

With the bronze and albinos, you might find that they spawn spontaneously after a few weeks of being pampered this way. If not, try doing a big water change with slightly cooler water and leaving the heater off overnight. If they are ready, this will often bring results within a few days time.

 

[superjalami30]

Cool, I think I may eventually give that a try

thanks guys