Breeding corys in high ph?

[yaya16]

Hi All, new member here

I am starting a very exciting project of breeding fish for a living. I have been dreaming about this for a long time and decided to give this a serious try. I am starting relatively small with a fish room containing about 50 aquariums of about 100 liters each and decided to start with Corydoras catfish. I have most things setup and waiting for fish to arrive next week. I have a lot of experience with growing some ornamental and edible fish in closed systems so I know a lot of the basics and I have also bred gouramis and bettas in the past. I could really use your help with some tips on breeding corys, I have read a lot on the subject and watched a lot of youtube vids but there is nothing like the help of experienced fish lovers to help with specific issues.

Starting with the common bronze/albino corys (C. aeneus)

So..my questions is this: The water I use is soft (5 german degrees which is about 90 ppm CaCo3). To my understanding this is good for corys. however.. the ph is about 8 which to my understanding is way too high. Can I breed this species in that ph? That would of course be the best as tampering with ph is not easy but I am assuming this will be a problem. I know about RO, Peat moss, driftwood etc.. but this is not an option right now due to budget issues (RO for this kind of volume is too expensive for me and I would have to wait for ages for the other stuff to arrive). I am looking for cheap and easy ways to lower the ph, I don't have fish in my tanks yet so I am happy to experiment with anything. I've read that vinegar could be a solution? Any other ideas or thoughts? Would greatly appreciate your advice especially from those who tried it out. Thank you!

[ghyti]

I have C. aeneus albino in pH 8.3 water with DH & KH above 300 ppm and they breed consistently. Some other species spawn but the eggs do not hatch in the hard water, they need some rainwater in there to hatch consistently.

[yaya16]

Thanks! This sounds promising. The water I use is soft (but ph is high) so I am wondering if eggs from other species will also hatch, not sure at all what the role of ph is in breeding. Maybe if I transfer the eggs into lower ph water (which is much easier due to small water volume) it could help. in any case I will go ahead and try to breed them as is. Will be very happy for more comments. Thank you.

[yaya16]

Just to update corys have laid eggs and doing well. After a few attempts I was able to raise the fry. So as you said ph not an issue at least for this species. Thanks

[Delapool]

Great news - congrats!

[ghyti]

Good to hear they are doing OK. I was going to caution about putting eggs in lower PH water. There is such a thing as ph shock and a large sudden change in ph can cause problems for fish, not sure about eggs but I suspect it is the same for them.