More Than I Bargined For At Feeding Time!

[timmystood]

Morning all!

Just went to feed my tropical tank as with every-morning and noticed one of my albino Cory cat's, pinned up against the glass between a plant. I put my hand to free it, thinking it was stuck!

Anyway, I put the food in and noticed it ate like everyone else in the tank.. then all of a sudden I noticed it had an egg-sac, full of eggs hanging from it's under-belly!! My friend stayed over mine last night and also takes an interest in fish so for us to see a Cory, with a full egg-sac hanging from it was brilliant.... but it didn't stop there!! Next thing I know she's swimming up and down the glass dropping eggs off, followed closely by some Platty that were eating the eggs as soon as they were laid! Even the platty fry had a go (too big and sticky for them though ). There was one pile, of about 12 eggs left next to the thermometer, so I acted! I put my finger in and warned off any Platty that attempted to eat 'my babies!'. I was left with only one option. I've gently got the eggs out with my finger and put them on-top of my filter in my hospital tank, which contains 1 kissing gourami (eggs are out of his reach).

So, will the eggs be OK? Do they need any special attention or care? Should the parents be in the tank with them?

Any help is very much appreciated!
Cheers
TIMMYSTOOD

 

[sleepy smurf]

No advice sorry, but that's pretty exciting!

I got a shock a couple of weeks ago when I saw cory eggs all around my tank ... no time/tank to look after them, so they were eaten a few days later.

 

[Arfie]

I think if they left the water when you transferred them, they won't survive, at least thats what I was told when mine were at it.

Post in the cory section and they'll tell you all you need to know, Inchworm in particular was very helpful with me.

Good luck, but don't worry, mine were at it every 7 or 8 days once they started, but my plec ate the lot every time oddly though they stopped laying when the plec died

Arfie

 

[Coomon10]

Think they need to be near heater and air pump but have read loads about this in the cories section

Nice work!

 

[flumpit2]

hi timmystood,congratulations on the eggs!!!!my suggestion is to put the eggs in a small tak on there own with an air stone right next to them,this stops fungus forming on them.when they hatch your gourmai will have a nice snack unless you seperate them befoe hand.

when my peppers laid eggs i removed them into a breeding trap because thats all i had handy(then before they hatched i put them in a small tank,trap & all),they didnt suffer any ill efects from being briefly exposed to the air.

they take between 3 & 5 days to hatch depending on the temperature.once hatched they dont need feeding for about 24-48 hours until theyv used up there egg sacks.the best food for them after is microworms.i fed mine 4 times a day & used a turkey baster to remove any uneaten food.the bottom of the tank has to be kept spotlessly clean or they will get bacterial infections.i also done 15% water changes daily.

when they hatch they are really,really tiny & delicate so do not need a sponge filter for atleast a month (i never used a filter with mine,just done water changes daily & kept the air stone in with them).

anyway,good luck with the eggs & keep us informed of how it all goes.if youv got any questions,dont hesitate to ask in the cory section.everyones really friendly & helpful in there!!! shaz

 

[timmystood]

Thanks for the advice guys! She's carried on lying even more in the main tank, so i'll leave them in there! Meaning there are eggs in two tanks! She's laid about 40-60 as a rough guess, there might even be two girls at it! There's loads! So, odds are some will survive! I'll stick some info in the Cory section and see what advice they can give me!

Cheers Guys and Gals!

 

[Erised]

Just a very silly question,
Do you have a male corydoras in the tank? And did they do the standard T position to fertilise the eggs? If not, the eggs will grow fungus within 3 days and just polute the water.

If they did fertilise however, you should be just fine. I don't know who told you that eggs don't hatch if they have been exposed to air Arfie, but mine (all 4 or 5 batches of them) hatched just fine after they'd been taken out by hand and had been exposed to air while traveling from tank to tank.

I think Flumpit2 has given you all the information needed already. Only thing I'd add is that you can feed them on boiled and crushed up eggyolk as well (and liquidfry), but ofcourse microworms are better for them. After a couple of weeks it can't hurt to break up an algea tablet in a couple of small pieces and put that in too for them to nibble at.

Congrats =D Hope all goes well!

PS. If some of the eggs do grow fungus remove those as soon as possible, because the fungus can and usually will spread onto the good eggs spoiling them as well.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi timmystood

What happy news! You will probably find too, that once the albinos have started spawning, they will continue to lay eggs on a regular basis.

If you would like to raise some corys, I'd suggest setting up a small tank and moving them there. Then, once they have put a good sized batch on the glass, move then back to the main than and leave the eggs there to hatch and begin growing up by themselves.

What you might have thought of as an egg sac was probably the female carrying some eggs between her fins:

If you do decide to raise a batch, you will probably be able to find a local Independent lfs who will be happy to buy them.

 

[timmystood]

I have a little 20 litre tank, could I move the eggs she's already laid there by hand?

 

[jayjay]

Yeah you could move them to the 20 litre

 

[timmystood]

It won't harm them me getting them off glass/plants and transferring them to 20 litre if i'm gentle?

 

[Bex]

I'm so jealous! I want my cory's to spawn!!!

 

[Erised]

It won't harm them as long as you're careful.
An option that we've found works better though, is to syphon them off the glass and plants using an airline. It only lets through a tiny little bit of water but the eggs seem to go through quite easily.

 

[timmystood]

It won't harm them as long as you're careful.
An option that we've found works better though, is to syphon them off the glass and plants using an airline. It only lets through a tiny little bit of water but the eggs seem to go through quite easily.

Brilliant Thanks Erised.. I'll do that now!

EDIT - About 30-40 eggs transferred into a 40 litre tank that is now resting on top of my tropical tank (the help keep the temp up in the fry tank!), i've also got an airstone running in the fry tank but it's so noisy it's the equivilant of a Jumbo Jet taking off, so it won't be on all the time!

 

[Erised]

EDIT - About 30-40 eggs transferred into a 40 litre tank that is now resting on top of my tropical tank (the help keep the temp up in the fry tank!), i've also got an airstone running in the fry tank but it's so noisy it's the equivilant of a Jumbo Jet taking off, so it won't be on all the time!

Do you have a filter that you could put in the tank to keep the water moving? If not I'm afraid that you'll need to keep the airstone on if you want the eggs to hatch. They need constant water flow over them, else they'll grow fungus. Most people achieve this by running an airstone right next to the eggs 24/7 untill they hatch, but I think you'll be able to use a filter outlet as well (as long as it doesn't blow them all over the place).