My Corys Spawned - Hatching Now - With Pics

[MHunt]

I was so proud when the lights came on this morning to see my two cory cats spawning and leaving eggs liberally around the tank! I came in from work this evening to see several amason sword leaves, the filter and the glass of the aquarium with probably around 100ish eggs! My intention is to take some out, probably the ones attached to the plant for ease, and hatch them in a separate tank.

What I need to know is roughly how long to cory eggs take to hatch. I think i read 7 to 10 days somewhere, but can't really remember and want to be prepared. I need to have brine shrimp artemia ready to hatch a couple of days after the cory's hatch so they are ready when they start to feed. I will get a brineshrimp kit in the next couple of days and start that going.

I'm going to put the eggs into a small heated tank with an air stone till they hatch. When do i need to add a filter? I have a sponge filter that i used in a quarantine tank recently, so that should be fine. Do I need to worry about it being cycled straight away? The amount of waste produced by the fry to start with will be very small. Plus i'll be doing partial water changes every day or every other day so I think i'll be ok, what do you think?

Have i thought of everything i need for the short term?

I'll add some pictures as things progress!

 

[Sp00ky]

Firstly congrats on the spawning. What kind of corys are they out of interest?

I wouldnt feed artemia to start with (not that i personally feed it at all). I would feed microworm first when they are free swimming, which is usually 2 days after they hatch. Your looking at a period of 5 days before that happens as well, dependant on water temps.

If you have a sponge filter that is already up and running, just ensure that the water you place in the tank is treated tap water. If the filter isnt active and you have another tank, then clean the filter in that tank in a bucket of its own tank water, then wash the new sponge in that water to clone the good tank

DO NOT under any circumstances place a power filter in the tank. the fry are not very strong for quite some time and they will get sucked into it (i learnt this lesson the hard way with my first ever spwaning!!)

other than that, daily 80% water changes with treated tap water, feed twice a day to begin with microworm, then come see me in fortnight heheheh

 

[MHunt]

They are bronze cory's, C. Aeneus. I have the eggs still attached to the leaves in a small tank now, it has a heater and an air stone to agitate the water. You reckon i have 5 days before the eggs start to hatch. So i need to get some fry food sorted pretty quick then. Do most LFS's sell microworm culture? or even just micoworms!

I may be contacting you in a couple of weeks when i have more bronze cory's than i know what to do with. I wanted to get a couple more for the group in my main tank; i may get more than i bargained for now!!!!!!!

 

[Sp00ky]

They are bronze cory's, C. Aeneus. I have the eggs still attached to the leaves in a small tank now, it has a heater and an air stone to agitate the water. You reckon i have 5 days before the eggs start to hatch. So i need to get some fry food sorted pretty quick then. Do most LFS's sell microworm culture? or even just micoworms!

I may be contacting you in a couple of weeks when i have more bronze cory's than i know what to do with. I wanted to get a couple more for the group in my main tank; i may get more than i bargained for now!!!!!!!

u will be hard pressed to find mworms for sale in LFS's. ebay is your best bet. BigC on here sells it, but hes tied up with family business at the moment so you may not get any in time.

Get some from ebay and get the culture going. Nip to the LFS and get some Liquifry for egg layers to keep them ticking over until the mworm culture starts kicking in

 

[MHunt]

I've seen other foods mentioned such as the yolk of hard boiled eggs, or really crushed flake food as an alternative that might be OK if i can't get any microworms. Any other suggestions?

A few of the eggs have gone white, or should i say haven't gone dark like the others. Should i pick them off with tweezers, or just leave them and take them out with the other eggs when they have hatched. I should only have about 4 days to wait now!

Edit - I have probably saved more than 150 eggs, plus there are around another 50 still in the tank on the glass which if they survive all well and good, but i won't be particularly trying to save them. There are plenty of hiding space in the community tank, so if the eggs survive, the fry might get big enough to avoid being eaten!

 

[Sp00ky]

I've seen other foods mentioned such as the yolk of hard boiled eggs, or really crushed flake food as an alternative that might be OK if i can't get any microworms. Any other suggestions?

A few of the eggs have gone white, or should i say haven't gone dark like the others. Should i pick them off with tweezers, or just leave them and take them out with the other eggs when they have hatched. I should only have about 4 days to wait now!

Edit - I have probably saved more than 150 eggs, plus there are around another 50 still in the tank on the glass which if they survive all well and good, but i won't be particularly trying to save them. There are plenty of hiding space in the community tank, so if the eggs survive, the fry might get big enough to avoid being eaten!

Never heard of the boiled egg thing. However, if your going to use flake, make sure its crushed REALLY well and pre-soak it before adding it to the tank.

If they have gone pure white, they have probably gone fungused. Best to carfefully remove them if you can

 

[MHunt]

I've got some artemia culture now, so I'll try that. I spoke to the lfs I got the artemia from and he mentioned several methods of making infusoria, hard boiled egg yolk being one of them, another was banana leaves soaked in water. He did have some very nice Oscar babies from a pair that spawned in the shop too so i guess he knows what he's talking about.

 

[MHunt]

The've started to hatch. Almost three days exactly since they were laid, and i saw 3 or 4 fry starting to swim around in my hatching tank. How long would you leave the eggs in before taking them out. It could take up to 5 days from being laid for them all to hatch but i don't want the hatched egg shells to start polluting the water.

How long before i start to feed them on ifusoria. They're tiny, too small for baby brine shrinp. The brine shrimp may be bigger then the fry!!!!! I haven't been able to get micro worms, so any other thoughts?

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Congrats

Spawning, hatching and raising cory fry is a lot of fun and very rewarding.

I generally just leave the egg shells. When you do your daily water changes, you'll probably remove a lot of the shells. It could take all day and even tomorrow before all the eggs hatch.

Have you tried eBay for microworm culture?? They really are the best first food for the fry. It's best to start feeding them, very small amounts at about 2-3 days after they've hatched. I normally feed small amounts, 3 times a day. They can only eat so much and over feeding just pollutes the water.

Have you got any Liquifry for egg layers?? A few drops of that would be fine too.

How many eggs did you end up with?? Look forward to some pics of your new babies!!

 

[MHunt]

I think i got about 75 to 100 viable eggs from this hatching. They laid mainly on amason sword so i just removed the leaves to a small tank to hatch them. When they have all hatched i'll transfer them to a bigger tank and start a small sponge filter, doing water changes every day once i start feeding them.

I'll get some pics up possibly tonight but they really are tiny!!!

 

[NEONCORY]

I had used yolk from the hard boiled egg before. After all that is the main ingredient of the store sold fry food. It works since the size would be small for any tiny fry even tetra fry can take it as soon as it hit the water it crumbled however it will foul water if it stay in the water too long. So unless you are ready to do water change daily or good sponge filter, you need to use carefully.
Yes, microworms or walterworms would be ideal for cory frys. Or even the green water or established filter sludge or vinegar eels(I use this more for the non-bottom fish frys). And I know live food is better because it stay fresh longer as well as the movement that trigger the instinct of frys.
But for emergency, you can use yolk from the hard-boiled egg or grinded up flakes(I use pepper grinder, of course no pepper!) I share my hard boiled egg with my fish and even adult(Tetras and Corys) love to eat. So whatever the omnivious fish, they will accept this high protain food. Of course, I don't feed this everyday. They get maybe once in 2weeks or so. Whenever I feel like to eat hardboiled egg.
Anyway, egg would work for even small fry that can't take BBS yet. But microworms or walterworms or green water is better. I used it when I didn't have live culture but now I pretty much use walterworms exclusively.

 

[MHunt]

I've started them on liquifry no 1, there were about 6 or 7 fry hatched when i got in tonight, but there are alot of dark eggs still, i can almost see the eyes either side of the eggs, it's great!!!!

edit - make that 9!

 

[Sp00ky]

LOL, bless ya!

get some mworm from ebay mate. chrisuk2006 has good mworm, i have bought from him before

dont worry about the shells, just concentrate on doing 60%+ water changes every day when they have all hatched. You dont really need to feed until they are free swimming (thats when they have used up the yolk sac)

 

[MHunt]

Well I got in tonight and checked the fry tank, unfortuantely most that had hatched yesterday appear to have died, i only have about 4 ish left. They seem healthy enough at the moment.

I am still just running an air stone at the moment, and doing large water changes daily. I'll add the filter tomorrow evening as long as all or some are still alive. I have removed most of the eggs now, all appear to have hatched or become contaminated with fungus apart from a few on the last leaf which doesn't look too bad, and the eggs are still very dark so may hatch out yet.

Any other suggestions would be helpful. I still haven't managed to get a microworm culture, i'm feeding with liquifry 3-4 times daily. Will start on very crushed fry food in the next couple of days. Then brineshrimp napauli at about a week i think. I'll see how it goes!

 

[MHunt]

Well i'm down to three fry, and only one of them appears to be progressing well, the other two do move a bit, but not as much as i would like.

I did have alot hatch, but i think my problam was fungus. I do keep the tank as clean as possible, syphoning out any detrius when i see it, but alot of the eggs in the tank had fungus on them in the end, and this probably contaminated most of the fry as they hatched.

Is there any medication that can be added to stop or reduce fungus on the eggs? I think i had heard malchalite green or methelene blue being used. I also think i'll be sure to pick out any dead white eggs too, as these will have rotted first, contaminating the good ones. But hey, as long as this three survive i'll be quite happy. Three more cory's for free (apart from the cost of the other foods to raise them!)

EDIT - It's amasing how my expectations of being overwhealmed by corys has ended up not happening. From 100+ eggs to 3 fry!