Cory Cat Breeding Help

[Clownfishlover]

So this summer I have decided to breed some Cory cats. I will most likely get albino, but I'm not sure. I do have questions on how to get them to spawn and what to feed the fry? Will they accept fine crushed prepared foods (I have a secret recipe that works amazing for fry growth a d early color development) or do I need live/frozen foods. How many should I buy? How do you tell the difference between male and female? What should the tank setup be like?

[mattcham]

You can determine sex only if fish are well fed. Males are thinner than females when viewed from the side. Pet store Cory are starving so they all look like males. Breeding is easy. Feed them well for a month so that females become plump with eggs. They can breed when around 1.7 inches long including tail. To induce spawning, first keep fish at around 78 to 80 degrees warm water for a week or two. Dont warm up the water too fast as its stressful. Then unplug the heater and do a 50% or greater water change using cool 70 to 72 degree water. You can have a school of 6 to 8 fish and mixed gender they will spawn within 4 hours. If they do not spawn then plug the heater again and repeat the process after 2 or 3 days. Be careful not to let the water get too cold (below 70 degrees) because that is stressful too. Stressed fish will get Ill easily.

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[mattcham]

Females lay eggs on side glass or on floor. Best to use bare bottom tank. If you have sand or gravel you may not see the eggs. For reasons I don't understand, the Cory do not eat their eggs, unlike all other fish species which eat their eggs or young.

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[mattcham]

My Cory fish in two aquariums just spawned. All within 5 minutes of each other. They spawned at 6:05pm. I changed their water earlier today at 12 noon. Its like clockwork. I was not ready to breed them yet (no space to raise fry) so I made sure that the new water was warmer than their old water. But still it triggered a spawning. Old water was 74 degrees F and new water was 75 degrees F. Did a 70% water change due to rising ammonia.

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[BillD]

It depends on the species as to what the temps should be. If you are interested in albinos there are two different ones generally available. They arealibino versions of C. anaeus (bronze cory) and C.paleatus (salt and pepper cory). The latter are easy to sex as the males have tall dorsal fins. In general the males tend to be much smaller in both these species.

[DragonFish71]

Mine are in a sand/pea gravel mixed substrate tank. Heavily planted and a few pieces of cholla wood. I keep the tank about 77 degrees until time for their water change (every weekend) I refill with water that's about 70 degrees and feed them frozen blood worms. By Sunday morning, I have eggs stuck to the glass. During the week they get my homemade food, shrimp pellets and algae wafers.

[mattcham]

Note that females may lay eggs even in the absence of males. That's what happened to mine today.

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