Could He Be Sterile?

[AlexAndCarmen]

We have two adult bronze cory's, one male one female and recently sold our male and female adult albino's because we got 5 panda cory's. Our bronze used to breed regularly, almost every 9 days, but haven't had a batch of eggs since we got rid of the albino's. She tries to get the bronze male in the mood, but he just isn't interested, EVER About a 10 days ago she lay eggs at the back and ate them, about 4 times. I did manage to get some out into my baby tank, but they weren't fertilized. She has started doing it again. She gets the male to chase her, but he just settles somewhere and won't allow her to T him. Could he be sterile or is he just not interested in her ??? We had him about 6 months before getting her as a juvenile, so he is old enough.

The cory's in the good old days, before the albino couple left.

Our poor female, full of eggs

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Alex'sandCarmen'stank

I know that your cory's situation must worry you because I have 3 fat female C. nattereri and only one male who is simply not interested, and it makes me very sad too.

The first thing to check out is that your tank is in good shape and that he is in good health. If so, I suspect that he is either finished spawning for awhile, since this is a cyclical thing in nature, or he is somewhat put off by the loss of his tankmates. I suspect it's the absence of what was the rest of the school that has him upset and perhaps made him shy.

It's been my observation that pandas like to keep to themselves and not school with the bigger fish. A school of only 2 C. aeneus is very small. The albinos were the same species as your bronze and are probably missed. I would suggest that you replace them and see what happens. At the very least, try adding another male who will either fertilize the eggs or make your current male feel more secure.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Thanks inchworm
We did get 2 smaller bronze cory's from the LFS just over a week ago, and there are two baby bronzes from a previous bath in the tank, about 6 weeks old. Hopefully he is just finished spawning for a while. We did actually see her spawn with the albino and not ever with the bronze. Not really realising this till now. Thanks again