Cory Eggs?!?

[Sara]

It certainly been an exciting week in our tank! Here's the story...

On Monday night we discovered *one* egg that was on one of the (fake) plants in our tank. I took a pic of it but haven't managed to load it onto the computer yet. For reference in the mean time, it looks like the eggs in this thread: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=27643. But we only found one egg, not a cluster of them.

I think we ruled out the Neons and the Black Phantoms (I read that they are both egg scatterers), so that left our two remaining panda cories. However, on Tuesday we came home and the egg almost looked like it was covered in fungus...kind of like another layer had grown around it. We left it there, just because we didn't have time to pull out the plant and scrape it off.

So this morning, we woke up to discover that the egg is gone. Did someone have a snack or is there one lone baby cory scurrying around our tank?!?

What's going on?

And for future reference, what do we do if this happens again? I'd love to raise some cory fry!

[madasafish]

It's most likely that one of the other fish ate the egg.

Sorry to burst the bubble!

Fish eat even their own eggs readily--heck, they're a good source of protein! I think you'll find that the cories will lay again if they've laid once. So, keep your eyes out in a few weeks (I don't know, off hand, how long the eggs take to develop).

[Sara]

I figured that's what happened

So what do we do next time we spot an egg???

[madasafish]

Next time you spot an egg, have a QT tank ready for them! A smaller tank with a bubbler is idea, as not having a filter on the tank will prevent the babies from being sucked into the impellor.

So, I'd recommend you start conditioning this tank soon. Take some of your filter media from your main tank and move it into the other tank. Add one of your hardier fish and keep the tank as stable as you can.

Your other option, a lot simpler one, is to purchase a tank divider, and make sure the eggs are sequestered away from the other fish when they hatch. Plumb an air line into the sequestered area to make sure that the eggs get plenty of oxygen. And pray!

You'll prob want to buy brine shrimp and even hatch some brine shrimp eggs for the fry.

[Sara]

Thanks for all of the help, Madasafish! I have a few more questions, if anyone cares to humour me...

(1) Would the traditional 'seed a filter sponge in the main tank for the QT and then fill it with tank water' approach work? The problem is that *none* of our fish are particularly hardy, so I'm not sure that we'd have one to add to keep the QT stable... Perhaps it's time to buy that tank divider...

(2) Would eggs/fry have any special environmental requirements? A bubbler and food we can do (I think), but would they do better in bare-bottom v. gravel, higher v. lower temp, etc., etc.?

(3) Can somebody point me the in the direction of a good website (or even give me the quick version) so I can find out how to hatch brine shrimp? I have a feeling this may be a little out of my league, but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot...

TIA!