Whose My Daddy?

[Tolak]

So here's the deal; 4 cory species in a bare tank, aeneus, metae, panda, & pygmaeus. There's 5 or 6 of each species, well fed & fat with my usual water change schedule, 50% to 75% weekly. There's a few silk plants, some lying on their side. This is in a 20-gallon tank, now is when you get to flame me for my stocking.

A couple weeks back I did a major fishroom rearrangement, this tank was drained down to about 3/4" of water, we lifted the whole rack & moved it over 18". The water got to cool down a good 5F during the move, and then got refilled with fresh. A few days later I noticed around a dozen eggs on the glass, being in the middle of breaking down, moving, & setting up tanks I ignored them, no place to put them at the time. Moving a dozen tanks is trying to say the least.

So last Thursday I do my usual water changes. Saturday night I have a good 60 eggs on the glass. Sunday night gives me 50 or 60 more. Eggs on the glass, plants, filter intakes, in groups of around 10 to 25. I had a buddy of mine check out the spawn on Saturday, he's guessing aeneus, but could be metae. Too small for pygmys, and panda's mop spawn a couple eggs at a time. Usually.

So I roll these eggs into a 2.5 to hatch with a little meth blue. Half hatch yesterday, Tuesday, half hatch today, and get transferred to another 20 gallon.

Some of the swimmers are dark colored, could be aeneus, the ones I have are bronze. Some are light colored, could be an albino gene with the aeneus? Metae?

So, who wants to play Who's my Daddy? These guys are too small for bbs, probably about a week away from that. I gave them a couple drops of liquifry, wondering if anyone has any opinions on vinegar eels. This buddy of mine swears by them, he's been breeding corys for the last 20 years. He said don't count anything out; he's seen stranger things happen.

The best part is I didn't even plan on breeding them; the plan was to distribute them among tanks as cleanup crews once I got done rearranging.

 

[jollysue]

Congratulations, Tolak. Don't see a problem with the stocking at all. Not a dirty fish. Only watch the pandas with the larger cories. They can be tempermental.

Love cory spawns. JUst did a major water chang in the cory tanks and of course the aeneus have made whoopi on every thing. It so inspired the peppers in the community tank that They have contributed. And I think the pandas did some dancing too, but they are less accessable to check on.

My only cory babies are almost accidental. They get some fry powder in the cory tank a few days after hatching, and then they are on their own. lol But Inchworm and most who are serious breeders on this board swear by microworms.

Glad I'm not the only wall to wall tanker on the forum. No place to put fry and grow out tanks, atm, so fry just have to survive. Although I have been tempted to put a mop in the panda tank. I plan to attempt to breed my long fin albino peppers when they mature.

I have no doubt that the aeneus are at the least contributers.

 

[Barracuda518]

With that amount of eggs, I agree that its most likely the Bronze C. Aeneus. They can lay from 200-300 eggs in one spawn, especially if they are full grown. They will even spawn with no encouragement if they are comfortable and the water conditions are good. Mine do it all the time.

I also agree about the microworms. Those things work great. They can stay in the water a lot longer and not spoil. Also, when they die, they usually will clump up on the bottom for eazy removal. You can get a culture thats ready to be fed to the fry off of aquabid.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Tolak

I think it's probably the C. aeneus too. If they have been well fed, with plenty of bloodworms or blackworms in their diet, they will spawn big and often.

Since the bronze and albino C. aeneus are the same species, and they do spawn together readily, it's possible you have some albino history in your bronze's family tree. That might account for the lighter corys. I wouldn't rule out the possibility that some of them could be metae, but it's not as likely. Pandas will give you small groups of eggs, on a regular basis, but not big batches all at once. It's the bronze that will do that.

I rarely hear of anyone feeding vinegar eels, but if you have them, they will probably be good for the fry when they are big enough to eat them. They sound like they are more trouble to raise and I suspect that's why the microworms are more popular.

Good luck with them, Tolak. I'm sure you'll have no trouble selling all of them you can raise.

 

[Tolak]

Well the little buggers spawned again today, probably 40 or so eggs, same spawn pattern. The first batch is growing nicely, Most all brownish, but a few lighter colored ones.

I noticed a large bronze female rooting around at the top near the filter intake, same place they spawned last time. Good chance they are bronze fry, I'll have to post some pics of the parents & fry once I get around to it. I didn't even notice the eggs, their tank is at the far end of the room, I was at the other end of the room tranferring angels from a 10 to a 29, making room for another angel spawn. That's when I saw the female swimming around at the top. Two spawns in one night, I'm gonna have to set up more tanks this weekend!

 

[Barracuda518]

Well the little buggers spawned again today, probably 40 or so eggs, same spawn pattern. The first batch is growing nicely, Most all brownish, but a few lighter colored ones.

I noticed a large bronze female rooting around at the top near the filter intake, same place they spawned last time. Good chance they are bronze fry, I'll have to post some pics of the parents & fry once I get around to it. I didn't even notice the eggs, their tank is at the far end of the room, I was at the other end of the room tranferring angels from a 10 to a 29, making room for another angel spawn. That's when I saw the female swimming around at the top. Two spawns in one night, I'm gonna have to set up more tanks this weekend!

You better set up a lot of tanks, the bronze cories will probably spawn for you at least one time a week, maybe more