Omg Cory Eggs!

[Harlequins]

Don't get dis-heartened, i lost a lot of my tri fry in the beginning due to inexperience and hassles with the filter...

TBH your wee fry will be fine in your milk carton you had them in,along with an airstone,as long as you keep it clean and replace the water in their daily after each feed,with a wee bit of sand in the bottom,they'll do fine for the first week or so until you have time to set up a tank and get everything running ok

Make sure you use the parent tank water for w/c's otherwise the fresh water might shock them too much,especially if the temp is slightly out for the delicate fry.

Good luck with them, keep an eye out for eggs still,mine laid every 4-6 days once they started

 

[CezzaXV]

Yeah, it's definitely a learning experience.

I tried doing a water change this morning, removing the water a little bit at a time and checking the jug for babies as I went, but I eventually got to the point where I emptied the whole tank without finding any babies. I like to think that had they been alive and moving I'd have spotted them.

Circumstances and things happening meant this spawning was so ridiculously stressful. I think I'm just gonna try again in a few days time and hopefully it'll go better a third time around.

I was a numpty and stood on my airstone so I need to get another one of those before I get more eggs.

I've also ordered a breeding net to put my dwarf gourami in for a little while if my cories do spawn again. I'd probably have had twice the amount of eggs I did this time if it wasn't for him.

 

[Akasha72]

aww no

Third time lucky Cezza

 

[CezzaXV]

Woke up to what looked like a massive cory spawning, so many eggs!

It later turned out they were a load of baby apple snails. I hadn't even known they'd laid eggs. Not sure whether to be excited or disappointed.

 

[FishFanatic04]

lol. well you got babies!

 

[CezzaXV]

Brief update: I'm once again trying to condition my cories to breed. The last time was so horribly stressful due to several reasons that it put me off for a little while, but now I'm back in the swing.

I've fed frozen bloodworm for the past three days now and my cories are good at finding it (they know I'm gonna drop it in a certain place when I turn the moonlight on and most of them swarm around there).

They seemed very active this morning and I wonder if there's a small chance I might come home to eggs tonight. If not, I plan to do a cold water change on Monday and I'll hopefully see something happen then.

 

[Akasha72]

keep me posted (just so I can get jealous if nothing more lol)

I've given up on mine. They go so far then get bored and give up!

 

[CezzaXV]

Did a cold water change on Monday. Nothing happened.

 

[Akasha72]

Boo ... tell em they're not getting anymore bloodworms if they don't get on with it

It's what I keep telling mine but they appear to be deaf aswell as frigid

 

[CezzaXV]

I'm bumping this thread because I've got more babies! Been a long, long time, but I discovered a new semi-local fish shop a few weeks back and their live bloodworm was really cheap so I thought I'd buy some and have another crack at breeding my cories and it worked!

Did all the usual stuff - fed live bloodworm for four days then did a big cold water change, I even butchered an ice cream tub that sort of worked at simulating rainfall. Nothing happened, but then out of nowhere a few days later (after I'd kinda given up) they started spawning. Ended up with 7 eggs, one of which went white and I discarded. After 4 days I ended up with three live babies and one which appeared to have been born and then died.

I've called them my baby Popcorns (I asked my sis online what to call them, then she randomly stated popcorn. She hurriedly said she was eating popcorn and not to call them that, but I've named every pet I've ever had the first random name that comes into my head, so Popcorns it is).

I'm making an effort to take a photo of them every day which I havent done before. Also, what I'm doing differently this time is keeping them in my suspended bottle bottom for longer, as it's so much easier to find the little guys and I do water changes with a syringe.

Below are the photos so far.

Newborn photo:

I dont know what's up with these guys. When I look back at photos of my original cory fry newborn, they looked kinda different. The egg sac was much bigger and the bodies were much smaller. I'm sure they're cory fry though, as I saw them spawning and I even saw one of the eggs as it got laid.

2 days old:

I got a new 155L tank on this day, and in the changeover the water dropped to ~20/21C (from 24.5). They're still alive at the moment so hopefully they're okay. I'd be more worried if it got colder than that.

3 days old:


I guess I'm gonna have to start feeding them now. I've still got the liquifry and Hikari first bites from last time.

I'll probably move them from the small coke bottle to a bigger milk bottle bottom soon. I know my original fry died because I had water quality issues. I know water quality becomes more difficult with smaller amounts of water, but it's so easy for me to do a water change on a little bottle floating in my tank. I do have a 15L tank ready for when they get a bit bigger though.

 

[snazy]

I'm bumping this thread because I've got more babies! Been a long, long time, but I discovered a new semi-local fish shop a few weeks back and their live bloodworm was really cheap so I thought I'd buy some and have another crack at breeding my cories and it worked!

Did all the usual stuff - fed live bloodworm for four days then did a big cold water change, I even butchered an ice cream tub that sort of worked at simulating rainfall. Nothing happened, but then out of nowhere a few days later (after I'd kinda given up) they started spawning. Ended up with 7 eggs, one of which went white and I discarded. After 4 days I ended up with three live babies and one which appeared to have been born and then died.

I've called them my baby Popcorns (I asked my sis online what to call them, then she randomly stated popcorn. She hurriedly said she was eating popcorn and not to call them that, but I've named every pet I've ever had the first random name that comes into my head, so Popcorns it is).

I'm making an effort to take a photo of them every day which I havent done before. Also, what I'm doing differently this time is keeping them in my suspended bottle bottom for longer, as it's so much easier to find the little guys and I do water changes with a syringe.

Below are the photos so far.

Newborn photo:

I dont know what's up with these guys. When I look back at photos of my original cory fry newborn, they looked kinda different. The egg sac was much bigger and the bodies were much smaller. I'm sure they're cory fry though, as I saw them spawning and I even saw one of the eggs as it got laid.

2 days old:

I got a new 155L tank on this day, and in the changeover the water dropped to ~20/21C (from 24.5). They're still alive at the moment so hopefully they're okay. I'd be more worried if it got colder than that.

3 days old:


I guess I'm gonna have to start feeding them now. I've still got the liquifry and Hikari first bites from last time.

I'll probably move them from the small coke bottle to a bigger milk bottle bottom soon. I know my original fry died because I had water quality issues. I know water quality becomes more difficult with smaller amounts of water, but it's so easy for me to do a water change on a little bottle floating in my tank. I do have a 15L tank ready for when they get a bit bigger though.

It would be very interesting to read the progress. And it's nice you didn't give up. I have newborn babies today too. I don't have that much experience with raising the corys because mine got eaten by guppies once and then by clown loaches the last time, except one still growing but I did raise the only 1 hatched egg-1 cory earlier this year(100% survival rate ) in a small breeder box, covered in sand at the bottom, moss ball and a few floating plants to provide a shade. I only siphoned bits of food left over with a syringe a couple of times a day and maybe cleaned the box a tiny bit better once a week but it didn't look super clean or anything, just no rotting food. I only used to pour some tank water every day into the breeder box, sometimes a few times a day as I doubt it those tiny holes on them do much circulation themselves and the baby grew very well. At a month and a half it went into the big tank and has been doing great ever since.
I think those sterile enviroments are a lot worse as the moment you expose your little wigglers to something else it will have no immune against it. And putting the fry in a a non-cycled enviroment relying on water changes is 50/50. They just can't survive the minium of toxins. Also, all the stress to the babies of fiddling around with the bottle to do water changes and so. I've got a 2 week old one and the moment I approach the tank, it runs the opposite direction. You wouldn't believe that little thing can see you. I was taking pictures of the ones born today and they did the same, ran to the other side. You can make up a tiny breeder box out of a plastic box with holes not big enough for the babies to escape, clip it to the tank and decorate with with sand and plants from your tank which will also provide snacks for them. I even connected an air tube from the hood filter into the little box and there's water flowing all the time into it now, slow enough not to overflow and drain through the small holes on time but it should be healthier and even provide some micro creatures as snacks.

Edit: How do they get oxygen in this bottle?

Good luck with the babies and hope we see updated thread and pictures with their progress

 

[CezzaXV]

Thanks for the input snazy. Some good points to think about there.

I woke up this morning and sadly one of them had died. The other two are still alive at the moment though. I did do a test of the water parameters in the bottle and there was no ammonia or nitrite, though I have started feeding Hikari first bites now so I'll have to make sure I keep on top of that with the cleaning and stuff.

Silly me, I hadn't really thought about oxygen! However, I have now moved them into a large milk bottle with the airstone running and a marimo moss ball. I will consider poking some very small holes in the sides of the bottle to hopefully allow tank water in and out. I'm wary of doing it at the moment because I've just got a new tank with a different filter, and although I transferred all the media over, it was sitting in an unpowered filter for maybe an hour or two. So far no signs of ammonia or nitrite in my main tank though, so I think I've avoided a mini-cycle.

 

[snazy]

An hour or two shouldn't cause any issues with the filter if the media was wet. Try making some tiny holes with a needle in the bottle, smaller than the corys and if you have java moss or similar soft leafed plant, put it in for them to hide and nibble on the small micro creatures that hang out on them.
One of my 5 babies was actually dead, so I am left with 4 newborns and the 2 week old one that is growing quickly.

 

[CezzaXV]

Bah, another baby died. I'm down to one now.

I'd feel better about it if I knew what was causing it.

 

[snazy]

Bah, another baby died. I'm down to one now.

I'd feel better about it if I knew what was causing it.

My guess would be tiny amounts of ammonia or nitrItes if there's no water circulation and also the oxygen question. How did you manage oxygenating the bottle? The small corys need access to water surface too so if you've kept them too deep they maybe suffocating.
Try with a plastic container with small holes for water circulation with the top open as I suggested earlier. Cover the bottom with a thin layer of sand from the tank itself, put the moss ball and some other floating plants and feed 2-3 times a day tiny amounts of baby powder food(don't put that liquid stuff as it pollutes the water)I only push the box up and down two or three times a day carefully not to let the corys run out through the holes or top, and barely siphon anything with a syringe because that also goes out with the "water changes" Careful moving or pushing the moss ball down as it appears their favourite hiding place