My Cory Eggs Have Hatched! :)

[flumpit2]

hi ey2006,unfortunatly alot of the fry do seem to die off in the first few weeks.think its a case of survival of the fittest like it is in the wild.sometimes people lose a whole batch of the fry for no apparent reason because there so delicate.i found week four the worst as i lost 4 fry with in an hour or so for no reason (which is alot considering i only had 16 fry to start wth).

when i used the liquid fry food for the first week i used 2 drops and left it in the water for about half an hour before using a turey baster to suck it up off the bottom.i also did (and still do) 1 water change a day between 30% & 50% depending how dirty the water is.

the next stage food is like a really fine powder and doesnt make as much mess in the water as the liquid one.i wouldnt advise using adult flake & pellets as the ones designed for fry have a higher protein content which helps alot with there growth.like i said,alot of people use baby brine shrimp and i suppose you could also try daphnia (the tiny ones that come in the bag with the adults),dont know if this will work tho but you could always feed them to your other fish if not.i sure your LFS will have the next stage food tho for them.

my fry are still quite tiny really considering there nearly 7 weeks old but as you can see from the pic i posted they look like minature corys now.did you get a magnifying glass?if so and you take a close look at them you might notice that theyv changed in appearance rather than size,there body seems to develop in width etc and they grow there fins properly first.they seem to start growig in length all of a sudden.like i said,youl wake up one morning and think "im sure theyv grown abit over night",lol.

but it is really important you get them the next food up asap as the liquid one is only made for the first week and might not be providing them with enough nutrients to grow & this could be why they dont seem to of grown much.start by adding a small amount of the new food and the old food together for a few days to get them use to the new food before you stop the liquid one completely.

let me know how the hunt for the new food goes.goodluck!!
shaz

 

[Womby]

the first time i had fry i had no idea what to do only being new to the hobbie but i fed then on flakes from the start and they where fine with it.

i got it to a very fine powder by using a morter&pestal to grind it down

dont know if it would work for you but it worked for me

 

[ey2006]

hi shaz, its hard to prevent the fry from dying, but the remaining ones do seem to be very fit and strong. i'm lucky that i started off with so many fry, so hopefully by the time they grow big enough to go into the main tank, i will have at least a few of them still surviving.

how many times a day did you feed your fry? i feed mine 3-4 times, as I read that with fry, its better to feed them more times and less quantity each time so it helps with their digestion and absorb the nutrients. i change the water 2-3 times a day, each time i change 50-70% of the water, i know its a lot, but the reason is because the liquid food really pollutes the water.

i've tried feeding them a very fine powder food, but it still seems to be too big for them to eat...maybe i should try crushing them even smaller?

perhaps they sell a greater variety of fish food in the uk, but here in australia, i still havent seen any LFS selling baby brine shrimp or daphnia.

i asked the LFS, and they said the next stage of food for the fry is to feed them with the tiny fine powder, but maybe i should gradually change the food for the fry as they may not be used to the new food.

your fry definitely looks way bigger than any of my fry! haha..maybe you are right, in that the first few weeks, they grow more in their appearance (body and fins etc) and after that, thats when the real growth in size begins! as long as i stop losing any more fry, i am happy to watch them grow, i was only worried that they were growing too slowly and that i was doing something wrong.

another thing i just remember that could be stunting their growth is the container they are kept in. i dont have space for another tank (albeit a small one) and am still keeping the fry in the small little container. hopefully they would still be able to grow in the container.

i'll try with the powder again and see how they go, otherwise i'll go and check with the LFS.

 

[ey2006]

the first time i had fry i had no idea what to do only being new to the hobbie but i fed then on flakes from the start and they where fine with it.

i got it to a very fine powder by using a morter&pestal to grind it down

dont know if it would work for you but it worked for me

Thanks for that Womby, I'm finding it hard feeding them crushed powder, but I'll give the crushed flakes a try if it doesn't work. Cheers

 

[flumpit2]

hi ey2006,i feed my fry 4 times a day (still do).know what you mean about the liquid food polluting the water and no doubt its made worse by the fact that there in a small container.try and find the biggest container you can (or even a bucket)and move the fry into there.then every water change gradualy add abit more water than you take out til its almost full.this will make it easier for you to keep the water clean & maybe then youd only have to do one water change a day,as alot of water changes can stress the fry out.plus if you keep them in that small container then all the waste products from the fish will build up alot quicker which will put all your fry at risk.

the 2nd stage food i went onto was a really fine powder,infact it was almost like dust!so you could always try crushing the powder a bit more with the back of a spoon to make it smaller,then gradualy wean them off the liquid food and onto it (by slowly addig less liquid and more powder),it will pollute the water alot less.

omg,cant believe lfs in australia dont sell daphnia!!!all they are is water flea type things.there found in alot of pools of water etc in the uk.to do baby brine shrimp you have to set up a hatchery & hatch the eggs etc,always seems like a lot of hard work to me but some people swear by them!!

honestly,the fry do seem to grow really slow to start with and i think that cus there so tiny to start with its harder to notice when they have grown.

my fry are bound to be bigger than yours, .theres 5 weeks difference in the age of them.i bet if i seen some 12 week old fry they would look massive compared to mine,lol.yours will soon grow,dont worry!!!

seriously tho,try & get some sort of bigger container for them as they do like lots of room to swim around & love shooting to the top in typical cory fashion.plus mine love swimming into the air stone bubbles & being pushed upto the surface.theyl soon develop there own little personalities.ive got 4 fry that love to swim under where im pouring the water in during a water change(the other fry huddle in the far corner out the way).obviously the current carries them away to the other side of the tank,then they fight the current & swim right back til they get swept away again.its soooo funny to watch.so you def need a bigger container!!!

keep us up to date on how it all goes!
shaz

 

[ey2006]

hi shaz, thanks for the reply.

i've been keeping up with the feeding, 4 times daily but find it hard keeping the water clean! the fry are still prefering the liquid food over the crushed powder, so I'm feeding both at the same time.

Its been 2 weeks and 5 days since the first batch of cory fry hatched, and i'm surprised that, despite them having grown, they are still very tiny! maybe they are slow growers to start off with like you mentioned, so i'll keep a close eye on them in the coming weeks.

have you moved your fry into the community tank now or are they still in the fry tank?

i've moved them to a larger container, so hopefully that can house them until their big enough for the community tank!

yeah, i think the range of aquaria products are more limited in australian compared to the uk, but i might be wrong!

hows your fry going?

 

[flumpit2]

hi ey2006,my fry are doin fine ta.there coming up 8 weeks old now,its gone sooo fast.there still in the fry tank at the mo as iv got 4 quite large gold fish in with my adult corys & they would swallow the fry whole.the goldies are going to the brother in laws pond in a few weeks time (once the weathers abit warmer) then i can put my white cloud mountain minows in with the adult corys.think il hold off til the end of may before i put the babys in with the adults tho as they still look so small & delicate to me.think im an over protective mum,lol!

i bet your fry have grown quite abit since they were born,its just hard to remember how tiny they were to start with.cus when you think back,they are really really tiny when they first hatch aint they!just think how small the eggs were.dont forget that cory are small fish anyway so will appear to grow at a slower rate than say a goldfish fry would.a millimeter in growth to a cory is alot where as to a goldfish it isnt even noticable,if you understand what i mean.like i said above,mine still look quite tiny compared to the adults ive got.

try feeding them less liquid food & more powdered food now,its like you have to gradualy wean them off it like you do with a baby & its milk,lol.once there on purely the powdered food youl find it much easier to keep the water clean as it collects in piles on the bottom & its much easier to remove any thats uneaten.

glad you moved them to a bigger container,im sure there much happier with more room!in another week or so they'l start developing there personalities then youl find there a few that are right little sods and get in your way at water changes etc.there so funny!!

post some more pics when you get a chance as i think cory fry are the cutest little things going!!!

keep us updated!

shaz