How would you breed these Corydoras

[GaryE]

Let's try something. A guy I know has had a group of Corydoras fowleri for a couple of years. They produced their first eggs last week, but the eggs were infertile. He has both sexes. He asked me how I would proceed, as he really wants young. And since I know him, I really want him to have fry too so we can do some trading there. It's such a nice Cory.

I've told him how I would do things, but I have huge respect for the expertise here, and maybe some other voices could help out, if people don't mind. I may be set in my ways.

So here is my call out to experienced Cory breeders on the forum. Most of our threads seem to collapse into chatting. Can I ask people to answer my questions, and keep their commentary to their answers. Let's see what diverse opinions we can hear from Cory breeders. What would YOU tell my friend to do about:

tank size and set up;

water:

temperature:

diet:

spawning triggers:

handling of eggs:

handling of larvae:

raising fry:


If breeders with experience can share some tricks, it might be stimulating reading for some of the newer fishkeepers coming here to check things out. What's cuter than baby Corys?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have bred a few corys and just got some black Schultzei to try and spawn. I have mostly been doing plecos for a number of years and corys were only in display tanks. BTW, planetcatfish.com is your friend here.

tank size and set up;
Cannot answer w/o knowing how many fish, This cort gets a bit over 2 inch max.

water:
This fish is found in the upper Amazon in Peru. and the water ranges from somewhat acid (6.0) to a bit above neutral (7.2) pH.

temperature: It is also on the coolish side ranging from about 70 to 75F. Warmer temps my prevent spawning.

diet: It is not a fussy eater and can be fed commercial foods or live worms etc. A typical cory diet. Frozen worms would be fine. I cannot stress how important it is to feed quality food when breeding fish.

spawning triggers: Usually corys are eager to spawn. Proper feeding matters and is one of the things we can easily control. As a way to condition them Repashy Spawn & Grow should help. If they are being stubborn, they should respond to condition and then a big water change which drops the temp to the lower end of the range to coincide with the arrival of a rain or snow storm.

handling of eggs: As one would handle any cory eggs if you have to pull them. There are different methods which I could not pull off so I use a small hose (often airline) and I suck them off of where they laid when that is the glass. If they put the eggs on plants I may pull a leaf with the eggs on them. Another option would be an egg tumbler.

handling of larvae: If pulling eggs to a hatching environement then fungus is the main issue. Adding an anti-fungal helps. But this should be removed form the water when you see wigglers. Also any non-viable eggs must be removed. First foods need to be microscopic. I used to heep java moss covered rocks in a number of tanks and I would move one onto the fry tank as soon as I though I was close to having free swimmers. After that I feed more meaty foods.

raising fry: They need clean water and good food simple as that.

While I have worked with corys, never with these. However, on planet catfish there are 3 breeding reports which document how they were done. You must be a registered member of and logged onto the site to read them. https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/my_fbws_species_detail.php?mode=blog&species_id=135

 

[Back in the fold]

The very limited experience I have with Corydoras spawnings , all being surprise spawnings , is that the eggs seemed to fungus easily. I think water more on the acid side might be best.

 

[Sgooosh]

I have successfully made Cories spawn fertile eggs, but I have failed to raise the eggs.
I used Anaeus cories, and i just did a large water change that lowered water temperature for a while, and cleaned the filter so the water flow was bigger.
the cories were very happy for a while, and then i found eggs

 

[DoubleDutch]

It is not that strange that first spawnings of young parents are infertile. Certainly longsnouts aren't that easy to breed.

I personally would feed these wildcaught fish living foods to prepare them. Corys often spawn in fresh / cooler (rain)water.
This is when the rainy season starts (cool rainshowers), river overflow, and watercurrent increases. So waterchanges with cooler water (preverably when airpressure drops) and a way to copy the current (an airpump will do) often will induce spawning.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I am not entirely sure why but I seem to have no problems getting Bronze Cories to breed and actually produce good eggs that turn into little wigglers.

They certainly don't need any help from me to get going...just a water change usually triggers it. I do wonder if it boils down to the fact that I do not use tapwater or any additives...but then again...I have no idea, maybe the bottled water is more like their natural setting than what comes from the tap with additives in it.

I have two new to me Cory types now....Panda in the 29 and Rabauti in the 53.....both sets are still very juvenile and too small/young to be reproducing yet. That said, the Rabauti are already going through the motions and getting into practice for when they are mature enough.

It will be interesting to see if the Rabauti and Panda start reproducing like the Bronze always did....and they reproduced like rabbits.

 

[jonny-5]

I simply do nothing & always have eggs somewhere........ infertile or not i do not know, I usually just leave them to be eaten. I had tried egg care on 1 occasion before, The eggs developed fungus so i gave up but a few weeks ago i was successful & have Albino/Bronze fry right now(pics are in 1 of my posts)

 

[Aqua67]

A water change as a rainstorm is rolling in seems to be the trigger for my bronze cories. Use cooler water for the water change.

Spawning behavior was the smaller male (sometimes two males) would follow the female and pushing against her to make a t-shape. You would also see them going up and down the glass, cleaning an area for their eggs.

The tank was a 46 gallon bow front, heavily planted with driftwood and caves. With temps in the mid-70s. The babies found shelter amongst the plants. When I noticed I had babies in the aquarium I started paying attention to making sure some food make it down to them.

They were fed a large variety of commercial foods (flakes, gels, pellets), frozen food (blood worm, shrimp), zucchini slices, and there were a lot of amphipods in the tank. There were a dozen adult cories and a some tetras. When the cory babies got closer to an inch long I caught 60 to take to the local fish store. I don’t recall water parameters but it was just city water straight from the tap with a water conditioner.

I left the eggs on the glass. I did nothing special with the eggs.

 

[DoubleDutch]

There are only 3 registered breedingcases of C.fowleri on Planet catfish so, as said, this isn't as easy as the tankbredvariaties I think.

The conditions should be optimal for this (ad other) species.

 

[GaryE]

What I was hoping was to get the questions answered from a variety of sources. I immediately checked corydorasworld and other sources when I was asked, as I haven't kept fowleri. I was more curious to see if, with the wealth of experience here, I could send more than just my advice to my friend. Every once in a while in fish breeding, someone has 'outlier ideas' that are of interest. It's been a good thread so far, and one that if newcomers find it, can be useful.