Trying To Breed My Cories

[Harlequins]

Awww so sorry to hear you lost them

It is a downer when they dont make it, i went through the same things has a beginner,even up to the last batch i've had fry die,it is hard to rear them,keeping an eye on water quality,not overfeeding,keeping the sand clean. I've learnt over time several things on rearing fry with success, these being...

Keep temp quite low around 22 degrees.
Keep the sand clean and remove any surplus food after each feed.
Daily water changes - this encourages growth and keeps the water good, and using the water from the tank next to the fry tank,instead of adding fresh dechlorinated water,then add the fresh to the other tank,this will reduce the shock if the water is not match identically. - and my last batch seems to be proof of this,i haven't knowingly lost a single fry.(touch wood!!)

My Tri Log shows the stresses n strains i had losing batch after batch, and not knowing why...

Good luck with the next batch, dont give up and you'll get there in the end.

 

[FishFanatic04]

There seems to be a learning curve no matter what fish species you are attempting to rear. Don't be discouraged. I have been reading the Breeding my Discus thread by DevotedtoDiscus. It's on page 30 something and is full of failure after failure and he keeps a funny, positive and driven attitude and keeps trying.

Everytime you try, you will learn what no to do next time until you have it right By then maybe you'll be finding 50 eggs and will really have a good challenge.


I've learned a lot reading this. Hope you keep trying and good luck!

 

[Harlequins]

There seems to be a learning curve no matter what fish species you are attempting to rear. Don't be discouraged. I have been reading the Breeding my Discus thread by DevotedtoDiscus. It's on page 30 something and is full of failure after failure and he keeps a funny, positive and driven attitude and keeps trying.

Everytime you try, you will learn what no to do next time until you have it right By then maybe you'll be finding 50 eggs and will really have a good challenge.


I've learned a lot reading this. Hope you keep trying and good luck!

+1 - its actually easier raising a good size batch than just a few

 

[Akasha72]

thank you so much both Harlequins and FF4. It's a real comfort to read your words.

Without all the help I've had from all of you (and I can't name you all as it would be a long list!) I'd never of got as far as I did. I just got a bit cocky and thought it was gonna be as easy as rearing guppies and platies (of which I've reared hundreds and never lost a fry after the first 5 days of life).

I'm not giving up. For all the knock back I've taken today I'm not done yet.

Thanks for that list of tricks Harlequins! There's stuff on there that I'll do next time. The only thing being removing uneaten food ... how? Once it hits the sand I can't see it. Perhaps it's something I'm not thinking about. Maybe you can expand that a little as I'm pretty sure that was the main problem with the first batch.

I'll turn the heater down today as it's at about 24 (same as the main tank) My Dad's little filter seems to be a lot better than the Interpet PF mini. It's an old Ehiem. It's no bigger than the PF mini but at least you can turn the flow down - don't think the flow on the mini helped the cories - too vicious for their size.

I've had a good think about the tank aswell and I have decided to go with the 18x10x10 one at P@H. It will fit my spare stand without adjustments where as a 2ft would mean adjusting it again (Dad's sick of DIY now lol) as it's not wide enough to support a 24" tank and I'd have to cut another board and re-screw it and basicly go back to what I had before the Juwel arrived - it's a bit too much to mess around with right now - I'm re-decorating my bathroom aswell

I'll ask Dad if I can keep this Ehiem filter as it will be fine in an 18" - he had it in a 2ft when we were kids with no issues. I've put some old media in it and I'm hoping the platies will help to get it fully cycled before any more cories come along. I've added some King British Safe Water to it aswell - I've had good results with that stuff before so I'm trusting it to get the filter going.

Long story but the top and bottom of it is this next time I'll be better prepared

Right, now to go and real Harlequins log and see if I can learn even more

Thanks again everyone xx

 

[Harlequins]

Unfortunately raising corys is more complex than rearing livebearers, livebearers tend to thrive without having to do to much for them except feed & w/c's ,i suppose thats why theres so many of them around

Basically when i feed my fry,has mentioned earlier i use a turkey baster,normally aim to where the fry hang out,if they're hungry you will see them wiggling around where you've placed the food,after feeding i usually leave it an hour or so,i just get a jug i use for my tanks and a piece of airline and suck out where you've placed the food, i also stir the sand lightly, and spoiled food tends to clump on the sand making it easier to see. Using an airline as opposed to a hose is that your less likely to suck any fry up, but if you do you'll see it in the jug and using the faithful baster can pop it back in the tank
Hope this makes sense

And dont worry about using a turkey baster to suck up fry when they are small,i merrily use them to transfer fry

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks, just finished reading your thread. I was worried the turkey baster had harmed them in some way but that's just a silly thought ...

I'm about to give them their favourite meal (dried tubiflex block) maybe it'll put them in the mood again and I can have another go at rearing cories

 

[Akasha72]

fingers crossed for some more eggs today

And apologies for being a misrable cow yesterday

 

[Akasha72]

A quick question for Harlequins:

If I can take reasonably good pictures of my bronze cories would you be able to sex them?



I ask because they are confusing me. I've been watching them for an hour and one is still going to an amazon sword leaf and wriggling like mad on it over and over but there's no eggs at all. It doesn't make any sense why 'she' (I think) is doing it. It looks like egg laying but there's nothing there. I'm beginning to wonder if any of them are male at all or if I've got 5 females

 

[FishFanatic04]

Just trying to breed by themselves? lol

 

[Akasha72]

I don't know, it's really odd behaviour. From Harlequins video's it's egg laying but there's no eggs

I'd just be interested in other opinions of them as to whether they are male or female as they are so notoriously difficult to sex at the best of times.

They are chilled out at the moment so I'm going to grab my camara and see if they will let me get some half decent shots of them

 

[Akasha72]

This is the best picture they'd let me have!! They all go hide when the camara comes out

I'll keep trying to get a picture of all 5

 

[This Old Spouse]

Looks like girl, boy, girl to me. Most difficult to see with the one on the far right, but I'm pretty sure on the other two.

What the heck is that substrate??

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks this old spouse, I did look at the picture and think the one in the middle looked slimmer and smaller as was possibly male but I've got it wrong so many times that I lack confidence now.

The substrate is a mixture of small round bead type pebbles and a smooth larger pebble - both black. I keep thinking about changing to sand but I like the black background and substrate as I think it makes the fish and plants stand out. I'm worried sand would spoil the look that I like

 

[This Old Spouse]

They do make black sand ...

 

[Akasha72]

They do make black sand ...

Yeah, I've seen it just once a while back and it was really expensive. I've spent quite a bit on the pebbles already and I can't justify spending even more on black sand when really what I have is okay. It's soft so the cories don't suffer, they still dig around in it and shove their noses in it and all have intact barbels