cory eggs

[guppler]

My bronze cory has been sticking eggs on the sides of the tank. I wasn't expeting this right now, but I'd like to see babies. Pinki has to be the dad, unless they do this without fertilisation. BC did have a funny lump un her tummy, which I'm guessing has to do with sperm or fertized eggs. The 2 of them hsve been spending time together, and I don't know if bandit and pepper are even closely related enough.
Most of the eggs are on one end of the tank, and I think I could slip in some kind of divider to keep other fish away, but O've already seen snails crawling on them. will snails eat cory eggs? Betty betta looked interested too, and I know I don't trust her with babies once they hatch. I don't know if it matters if the cories are with the eggs or not, but I don't think i have enough free tank to move the danios and tetras and minnows. this is a 29 usgallon comunity tank, and I'm hinking my best idea is to put a divider about 3 inches from the end with most of the eggs. i imagine it would damage them to try to move the eggs. the heater happens to be in the space that I would give to the hatchlings Any thoughts on that?
Would it be good or bad to include a little extra space and the parents? does a standard tank divider allow enough circulation? I have a litle scuba diver ornament with bubles at the eggy end and the filter is at the opposite end.
How long do they take to hatch?
how likely is it I will really see babies?

 

[Erised]

First of all, congrats and good luck!
Second, all fish (including some corydoras) will eat the eggs. So best keeping All fish away from them. You can actually move the eggs into a different tank (doesnt have to be big, as long as it's got filtration & current). Once they've been laid, they need some time to harden up, and then (after a couple of hours) you can remove them by:
1. using a razorblade to scrape them off the glass and then put them in the new tank
2. syponing them off through an airtube

If you want to see any babys, I really think its best to find a small tank (around 5 gallons is enough for the first week, perhaps 2 ... then you'll need a grow out tank thats bigger. I myself use a 20G for that) to put the eggs in. This way other fish wont get near the eggs or the fry. I've never had problems with the snails actually, my hatching tank has loads in it ... but they never bothered the eggs. Though I cant say it Didnt affect them for sure. The eggs will hatch in about 4 days. Once hatched you'll have absolutely tiny fish, that take a very long time before you'll spot them Once you do though, it's like the sand is alive!

When that young, it's best to feed them on liquidfry 2 for a couple of days. Then after about 4 days you can start crunching up flake food really small and soak that so it falls to the bottom. They should start eating this as well. Baby brine shrimp are also pretty much a must, but my fry ignored them untill they were about a week old. Now they get fed (the youngest are about a month now, the biggest probably 2 or 3 months) flakes twice a day, bloodworms once a day and 4 small algae tablets broken into quarters.

From your post, I understand that mother and father are not from the same type of corydoras? That's probably not a good thing. I know that often people say you should kill fry that are not pure blood =/ I couldnt do that though. Give it a chance, you'll see what you get It is possible that (because its their first time) none of the eggs have gotten fertilised, and none will hatch.

In your tank right now, I think it's unlikely you'll see any fry. First of all, if any fish can still get to the eggs (including the parents) the eggs are likely to get eaten. Once the fry hatch, it can be anywhere from having 0 fry to 200 fry if you're very very lucky, they need quite a bit of room. Untill they're about a month old (perhaps older, depending on how fast they grow) they'll get eaten by anything and everything. Dont forget all the fry stay on the bottom, so you'll need quite a bit of space (at least a 10 gallon bottom area) for about 50 fry.

 

[guppler]

Thanks!
Mom just checked and there are still eggs on the glass.
first of all, although personally, i think hybrids are neat, I'm prety sure these are pure Corydoras aenus. Pinki just happens to be albino.
Based on what yoe told me, I'm thinking my best bet is to quickly set up my 2 gallon empty tank and transfer as many eggs as I can find with a turkey baster. I do have a 10 gallon tank on my desk that I've kept dry since it developed a small leak near the top along one corner. I think it will be fine if I don't fill it up al the way. the tiny fry guys probably don't want to swimup the whole thing to get air anyway. I guess I can keep it on sponge filters and maybe add a bubble wand until they are big enough to decide what to do next. I supose I could even skip the 2 gallon tank. The 10 gallon might be a little easier to clean anyway. Maybe if they get crowded before they're big enough to sell, i can let some live with guppies.
Well i don't know if I will really have babies, but I'm excited that I might. the only babies I've raised so far are guppies and snails.
Now I'd better get to work so I have time to rescue some eggs before I head out to davis for my art show.
I don't think I can heat the 10 gallon. I only have one heater and it't too big. If it was a little later in the year I wouldn't worry about that at all. My room gets quite warm in the summer. I wonder if there would be any benefit to trading the flourescent hood with one of the incandescent ones from the girl guppies. I don't know, but I'd better get to work before my mom comes home with yogurt and gets my sister up.
thanks again!

 

[Erised]

the 10 G sounds great for them!
The heater shouldnt be much of a problem, seeing as most corydoras like a temperature of around 24C anyway. Just make sure your room stays a fairly constant temperature.

Once the eggs hatch, they need to be fed liquidfry 3 till 4 times a day and need a water change once a day. How big this has to be depends on how many fry you got really. I think a 20% water change will be fine though

If some of the eggs start turning moudly btw, it's best to remove them. Chances are that they'll polute the water, + the fungus can spread onto the other eggs

Good luck again!

 

[guppler]

I got my old 10g almost alf full with H2O just so thesponge filter is pretty much submerged and put in a bubble wand.. decided to move the tank to the dresser next to the guppy guys/breeding tank so they can share the air pump, but ran out of valves on my gang valve. mom got me another litle t thing, but for now the yellow babies and gill and handy just get to go without extra bubbles in their treasure chest. (2 sponge filters, bubble wand, and the clam shell for the gold fish on 1 air pump) If the guppy tank was 1 inch wider, or the 10g 1 inch longer, they would not fit next to each other. (I wonder how long Sparkle and Sunny get to stay on the table down stairs... semms like they used to go next to frosty in my sister's room, but I think something else is there now. Well, just so Rosey doesn't decide to try pushing them around in the middle of the night and spill them. She loves Betas. If I move them to my desk where the 10g was they might be safer. Ember's smaller and not quite as enthusiastic about fish chasing and Rosey rarely comes in my room.)
just now I looked over and saw something moving at the srface in the catfry tank. Wondered for a few secs. Just bubbles from the wand.
S anyway, i tried slurping them off the walls with the turkey baster- probably smashed some a litle, probably missed some, some wouldn't come out of the turkey baster, so they get to keep it for a few days. Mom got me 2 new turkey pasters, forgeting she already got me a new one so I could use the black one on sick fish a while back. Ialways rinse them imediately anyway. I'l be happy if I get one baby catfish, pleaseantly surprized if more than 20, amazed if up to 30, based on the number of OK-looking eggs moved.

So, anyway, thanks again. so far they look cleaner than any other tank in the house, but I think I siphoned them a little snailypoo when trying to pull some out of the gravel.
I was talking to my brother in law about my art show, and when he was yelling at the kid to be carefull with a hot lamp, I thought of the catfish eggs, but about as soon as i mentioned spawning, he handed the phone to my sister. Mybe he wanted to deal with the kid/lamp situation personally, but mostly he just isn't into spawning talk. ( the kid wanted to talk to me about bugs)

 

[guppler]

ybe i should have started a new topic because i'm starting to fel like i'm talking to myself, but here's the update. IIt's been more than 4 days and I see no catfry. I have seen mould, well, white fuzzy stuff on and around some eggs, which I asumme is mould. I removed some, but couldn't get all of it. Actuually I put in some fungicide first, but I think it was too late. I'd feel better if I new they were never fertilized in the first place, but i'm pretty sure it's time to give up on this batch and consider it a learning experience that might help prepare me for another try later. I just need to decide what to do with the 10g tahts now half full of greenish water and a few tiny eggs. some were more clearish, but most had whitish spots inside. I never saw anything growing inside that looked like eyes or fish.. I imagune they can't be much smaller than newborn guppies.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi guppler

Actually cory fry are quite a bit smaller than guppy fry, and can't be raised together. You would be surprised how mean those tiny little guppies can be!

If you saw fuzzy stuff on the eggs it is fungus and usually means that the eggs are either damaged or infertile, or that there was not enough water circulation around them.

Since your corys just spawned, why not clean up the 10 gallon and condition them to breed again? If you do, this time you can be prepared and will probably be more successful with them.

 

[Erised]

Actually, it's likely you're simply not seeing them because you dont quite know what you're looking for yet. They are absolutely tiny when born, and are often near impossible to spot when not on a bare bottom.

I've been breeding corydoras for a couple of months now, and gave albino corydoras a try more than a week ago. I was convinced the eggs did not hatch, seeing as I couldnt see anything. Untill 2 days ago I saw 4 quite big corydoras (or well, I saw their stomach content ) ... they must have hatched at least a week ago! And it took me forever to see 1 ... and I did know what they looked like

Dont give up on that tank yet ... have you got liquidfry 1? If so, feed that 3 times a day (not quite sure how much, but it should say so on the bottle or paper that comes with it) and do a small water change every day. Dont clean the bottom, just take water out the top.

If within 2 weeks you still dont see anything, you can be pretty sure something went wrong. It will probably simply have been the fact that it was your corydoras their first time as well, and not many eggs got fertilized. Give it those 2 weeks however, you might simply not see anything untill they grow a bit

--Edit--

When I say tiny, I mean tiny ... the size of their head at this stage, will be no bigger than a dot ( . ) the tail is still pretty much impossible to see, unless you actually managed to see the head first. They're A Lot smaller than guppy fry.

 

[guppler]

Wow. I guess I can pretend like there could be i visible fish n there for a while, but I do have a bare botton in that tank. I don't have liquiry and i haven't even stated a batch of brine shroimp because i haven't found part of the kit. However I do have a powdered baby food that I use with guppyfry. I don't know if that would be as good for them or even if they can eat it if they are as tiny as they sound. Perhaps i ought to make a trip to petsmart on the way to school or something and give these guys a chance just in case I'm not seeing something. Then if I feel more prepared I can start over abd use the same tank for spawning. I had stopped using it because of the leak, but it reallis way up therevand prbably jut a tinygap in the sealant. I just didn't want to leave the goldfish iin it while camping right after discovering the leak and they needed a bigger tank anyway. Maybe I'll even go grab that powder and a turkey baster now. It can't hurt, but i'm not convinced there's realy anything but mould living in there, even though I do see some mould-free eggs.

 

[Erised]

your corydoras will need a break anyway, feed them up on bloodworms and they should be ready in no time though Untill then, it cant hurt to just keep checking and see if you can spot any fry.

I think the fry food you got will do, but not sure. What you can also do is hard boil an egg, once hard boiled let it cool. Then take out the egg yolk and put it in a plastic bag, crunch it up till it's loads of little pieces and then put it in the freezer. When you need food, you get a tiny lil bit of egg yolk, put it in a plastic bag and add some water. Mix it in by pressing on it with your finger untill you just got cloudy water. You can add a bit of this once or twice a day (if you use too much it will make your water go cloudy and need a water change though) ... cheap fry food

If you still cant find anything within a week, I'm afraid the batch simply wasnt fertilized. Around what temperature is your fry hatching tank? Mine is around 24C and has always done well. Might have something to do with it as well?

Your next batch will probably be better though ... youll have some experience, and so will your corydoras Good luck!

 

[guppler]

yeah, I'll wait a bit more and plan for the next time. I'm not in a hurry, but I did see Pinki and BC gettying a little frisky again.
I also have liquifry now. One reason I got the "First Bites" pwder instead was because it seemed like it might keep longer than a liquid, but i don't know if it really does. It also looks like the liquid might be easier for tinier mouths, but even the "First Bites" seems about as fine as powdered sugar.
The temperature currently looks like about 76 F. (no C. on this thermometer) . That's a pretty typical room temperature i think, but I can imagine eggs hatching more slowly or later in cool water than really warm water.
Thanks again for all your help.