Cory and other catfish breeding....

[enchanted]

My main tank is now well into the cycling process. A fluke caused both myself and my LFS to think it was almost done.

Either or, once it is complete I want to first try my hand at Cory's then, if all goes well, get some of the rarer Plecos and give a go at that.

So here are my questions.

First which tank:
10G
29G
30G Long
45G Long

Second, how to set it up. What equipment, substrate (if any), etc....

Next, how to sex corys?

And finally, how to get them to breed.

Thanks for all info.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi ddreams

The corys you have are easy.

Once they are mature, just do this. Pick any tank. Put all the corys in it. Feed them a lot of blackworms or tubifex worms for a week or so. Do a big water change and unplug the heater overnight. Plug it back in the next afternoon. Within a few days you will have some cory eggs, maybe more than one kind.

That's all there is to it with C. aeneus and C. paleatus.





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After that, take the fish back out and put them into the main tank. Take out all the gravel and everything else, but leave an airstone going. If you want, add methy blue at the rate of 1 drop per gallon of water. They will hatch in 3-4 days.

 

[enchanted]

All the corys? Also, how do I tell if they are mature and how do I tell male from female?

Thanks

 

[Inchworm]

Hi ddreams

Both of the corys you have will spawn before they are fully grown, so they will be smaller than the maximum size you see in their description. With a group of 4, there is a good chance you have at least one female and 3 males or vice versa. Either way will work, but it's better to have extra males since that will insure that all the eggs get fertilized.

To tell the sex, look at them as a group, from above. you will see that some are wider and generally more robust than others. These are the females. If they are still very young, however, you might be seeing both older and younger fish, so until they are grown, you can't be 100% sure.

I have a group of about 20 young C. paleatus and the females seem to be a lot bigger than the males of that batch. They are old enough to be starting to spawn, and the difference between the size of the females and males is considerable.

Since corys are schooling fish, you don't have to seperate them at spawning time. They like to stay together, and the female will be fertilized by many males if they are available. Unless your particular fish turn out to be egg eaters, (more often a problem with individual fish rather than an entire species) the other females might take great interest in things, sometimes swimming over the newly laid eggs and inspecting them closely.

 

[enchanted]

Ok. How many is good to do this? 4, 6, etc...?

 

[Inchworm]

Hi ddreams

It doesn't matter how many there are. Just put all of the ones you have in there. If you would like, and have an extra tank, separate them by species. If you don't, they won't cross breed; they know who is who.

If you are thinking about buying additional corys to increase the size of your schools, it's a matter of the more the merrier. I have about a dozen bronze corys in their tank and the 20 C. paleatus (in another tank) and like I said earlier, it all works out fine.

Sometimes I find that one female will spawn one morning and another the next morning, so there is no hurry to move them. I have heard that the first spawning can release hormones in the water that will stimulate the others to spawn. It could also be that nature has a way to insure the best fertilization of eggs by not exhausting the males all at the same time. If you have a large school, there can be more than one female spawning each time.

I like to remove the adults from the eggs just before they hatch so I can clean the tank and raise them with a bare bottom. It makes it much easier to keep the fry tank clean. Fry of different species can be raised together successfully, but I do find it easier to raise them in the tank where they were spawned and move the adults rather than to move the eggs which are quite delicate.

 

[enchanted]

Okay, what is a good length to figure they are at "Sexual Maturity" and also, you said move gravel, well my substrate isn't gravel, it's sand..

 

[Inchworm]

Hi ddreams

You are going to put them into another tank, aren't you?

Since they won't be in the breeding tank long, the substrate is not that important. I just use something so that they do not spawn on the bottom. I tried breeding some without it, but they laid some eggs on the bottom and they ended up being crushed when they big corys sat on them.

The only real way to tell if they are sexually mature is to see eggs. Believe me, when they are ready they will spawn, although there might not be very many the first time.

 

[enchanted]

Okay. I have 5 days to a week before my tank is fully cycled the way it looks right now, based of what I have read here.

I have Freeze Dried Tubifex worms, is that good enough?

I guess I will empty the gravel (all but a little) from the 30L and use it.

Is a 10" airstone going to be to big? all I have is a 10" and then those little UGF type ones.

 

[enchanted]

I never did get an answer to whether freeze dried foods will work or if I need live/frozen foods.

 

[MissClaire]

Very Informative thread guys!
Inchworm - out of curiosity will my corys ever breed just on their own accord in the main tank (without feeding bloodworms/heater off overnight/seperate tank) or is that extremely rare? Ive heard they tend to spawn after a water change....fingers crossed!

 

[Inchworm]

...Inchworm - out of curiosity will my corys ever breed just on their own accord in the main tank (without feeding bloodworms/heater off overnight/seperate tank) or is that extremely rare? Ive heard they tend to spawn after a water change....fingers crossed!

Hi MissClaire

While I do know of someone who had sterbai spawn spontaneously in their discus tank, I wouldn't count on it. Sometimes just a good water change will set them off, but usually it will take a little drop in temperature too, which is something you want to avoid for the sake of the discus.

If you want to breed them, I would strongly advise moving them to a separate tank to condition them and then stimulate them to spawn. Once this has happened and the parents are removed, this tank will also provide a safe, well controlled environment for the fry to be raised in.

 

[Inchworm]

I never did get an answer to whether freeze dried foods will work or if I need live/frozen foods.

Hi ddreams

Sorry I took so long to answer your question. I saw it and then lost it again. )

I use the freeze dried worms as a staple to supplement their diet that usually contains some live tubifex or blackworms. When I condition them to breed, however, I prefer to use the live ones only. Other people prefer frozen, but either way there seems to be something special about using fresh food.

While it's not always necessary, if you condition them for a week or two on lots of live or frozen foods, it will cause them to produce many more eggs than they would otherwise, and so make the effort you go to to breed them more worthwhile.