Cory Cat Help!!!

[BettaGal]

So, after asking what my cory cats were doing, and having a few people respond when I shared the most recent activities, it looks like I may soon be witnessing some cory cat love. They have lined up and paraded across the front of the tank back and forth and back and forth and etc. etc. Both last night and today they have Free Willy leaped and squeaked simultaneously, which had me scared to death and confused beyond confused. Scared to death was because it was the first time I heard it and it was 1 AM and I'm horribly sleep deprived. Spontaneous squeaking from a fish is quite scary when it's 1 AM, really dark outside, you're ready to fall asleep in the chair, and the room is dead silent except for the air bubbler.

So, the only fish I've ever bred was guppies, and we all know that guppies are notorious for being so hard to breed (sarcasm). All the work you have to do is put a male and a female in a tank and give them food.

I need all the advice I can get. I know absolutely nothing about cory cat eggs, breeding, fry care, or anything else there is to add. I cannot let my DG eat the cute little innocent babies that have no aggressive cell in their bodies. That's just cruel. Guppies are one thing. They multiply worse than tribbles (Star Trek reference). But c'mon. You can't justify letting these guys get eaten like that.

I have a 3-gal I can set up tomorrow evening, as the filter I had for that size tank decided to explode on me and I still can't find all of it. I will get a new filter and do my best to quick cycle that thing. I do have API Quickstart and I have a ton of fish food.

Anyone that can offer any advice at all is greatly appreciated. If I ask extremely stupid questions as it goes on, or if I question someone over something, please understand, it is because I am the ultimate newbie at breeding and not because I want to be rude or condoning. I wanted to breed at some point, but wasn't expecting it to happen a week after I said that. I was expecting more in say, a few years, not a week. Please help the poor little newbie that has no idea what she's doing on this topic.
Lol.

 

[BettaGal]

I'm going to set up what I can of the 3-gal here soon for a fry tank. I have to get a new filter for it, and will do what I can to cycle it pronto. I know literally nothing about cory cat fry and need lots of advise. I thought asking here would be the best place since most of you either have done it 800,000 times before or have at least some knowledge of this subject. Personally, I would rather get information here from people I know have experience and reliable knowledge on said subject than from a random internet page from anyone with a computer. Can anyone offer me anything to help me with my apparent new job as a fry mommy?

 

[Coursair]

Besides this site also check Planet Catfish for exact info.

 

[Teakwood]

Can you get a breeder box to keep in your min tank? Remove the eggs with your fingers (gently) or use a razor blade. Try to remove them on your own as much as you can, clusters can grow white fungus which will make them Unhatchable and you will need to remove the fungus eggs. Keep an air bubbler in with the eggs. They hatch in about 3 days. I ground flakes to feed them but there may be other options that are better. Just be careful with there foods. And keep the water warm google the exact temp.

 

[BettaGal]

Can you get a breeder box to keep in your min tank? Remove the eggs with your fingers (gently) or use a razor blade. Try to remove them on your own as much as you can, clusters can grow white fungus which will make them Unhatchable and you will need to remove the fungus eggs. Keep an air bubbler in with the eggs. They hatch in about 3 days. I ground flakes to feed them but there may be other options that are better. Just be careful with there foods. And keep the water warm google the exact temp.

A breeder box? I thought that was the 40 gal thing people talked about. Unless you're meaning the whatchamajigger you put the mommy guppy into that's like 4 inches square and the babies fall out the bottom. Or I'm way off track and am proving that I have not in fact bred fish before, and just so happen to be a good enough fish mom that they decided to breed.

I have so many fish flakes, I've lost track of how many containers of it I have. I bought some for my current tank, and later discovered I already had one, and then discovered I had another, and it goes on. I can use those to feed them.

So I need another airstone for the 3-gal. I have gravel in the 3-gal, but it's small gravel. Is this alright for them, or do I need to put some sand from the 10-gal into the 3-gal on top of it?

Will I be able to tell in those 3 days if anything is wrong with anyone, or will I have to wait until they hatch before anything funky becomes apparent? As crazy as it sounds, I had a guppy baby that I clever named Taz that would try to swim like the tasmanian devil from Looney Toons, you know how he would spin in a tornado to get around? Needless to say, he didn't make it.

Are they gonna be about the same size as guppy babies, or super tiny, or bigger?

Is this white fungus some kinda fuzzy stuff that grows on the eggs, like other fishy fungi are?

As stupid as this question will sound, am I gonna stick the eggs on the wall when I move them to the other tank, or drop them in, or some weird fish momma magic to put them in?

I will gladly share pictures here as the lovely adventure unfolds, since everyone here knows about it, and if I'm too new to see something wrong, it can be quickly corrected by someone that sees it. I'm sure everyone would enjoy seeing my little "grandkids" growing up.

 

[mudraker]

What type of corys do you have?

You can tell the females are going to lay when they start to get really fat all of a sudden.

It is best to remove the eggs as soon as the female smears them on the glass or where ever she lays them. It won't interfer with their spawning at all to remove the clutches as they are layed. If you have RCS, they keep cory eggs spotless of fungus. If not, an investment of a small amount of methyl blue is well worth the expense and will keep the eggs clean. Do as Teakwood said, and remove the eggs gently and put with RCS or methyl blue in the three gallon. You can use filter media from your main aquarium to instantly cycle the 3 gallon, which will have a tiny bioload of the fry after they hatch. Newly hatched artemia will give you the best growth for the fry once they are a few days old. They survive on their egg sacks for the first two or three days and require no feeding at first. If you can't hatch brine shrimp yourself, and investment in Golden Pearls (smallest microns you can get your hands on) will give you the best growth in the first weeks of life. Once they are a quarter inch or so in size, you should be able to grow them out in your main tank and start to rehome them.

 

[mudraker]

You can just plop them in. They will usually show "eyes" in 24 hours. You can tell the eggs hatched because they just disappear. The fry are almost microscopic when they first hatch and you can only see them (with my old eyes anyway) with a magnifying glass.

They make these super cool breeder boxes that hold about a gallon of water. They hang on the outside of the tank and you use an airpump to circulate the water from the main tank into it.

I have way better luck hatching cory eggs in a seperate aquarium than in breeder boxes.

 

[BettaGal]

So just drop them and get some shrimp for the 3-gal. And it's okay to just put the eggs in the 3-gal. Do the eggs disappear right away, or is it after they aren't using the yolk anymore? Do I need to worry about the gravel in the 3-gal for the babies?

 

[Teakwood]

So just drop them and get some shrimp for the 3-gal. And it's okay to just put the eggs in the 3-gal. Do the eggs disappear right away, or is it after they aren't using the yolk anymore? Do I need to worry about the gravel in the 3-gal for the babies?

No gravel would be easiest. I've heard some people say not to let them touch air so maybe roll them into a small shot glad or something similar under water then move them to the 3 gallon. I didn't use and air stone, just the air tube but sure either way is fine. I had one survive a couple months but he wasn't growing properly at a all. Stayed really small, I had one of the mesh breeder boxes you hand inside the main tank. I didn't like it because the small fry would hang out under the plastic frame between the net and plastic and I think some of mine died because the adult fish would bump them and maybe smush them into the plastic... Sad but that's what I think was happening. It's tricks but I just did my best with what I had available and the info I found online. Fry are very time consuming so I've opted to not try to raise any anytime soon. I just let nature take its course in the tank. Corys(my albinos at least) will eat the eggs as will mystery snails and most other fish.

 

[Aqualady40]

I am currently nurturing cory fry (1) 1 week old, 2 days old, and 3 are partially hatched (still eating sac)...I do believe it is best to place them in a separate container with bubbler....I feed 3-4 times with Hikari first bites leave it in for about 30 minutes then I do a water change to remove the food (half treated tap and half from main tank). And yes, they can be so small that u will want a magnifying glass to really see them and check on their development as they grow. My first couple fry didn't stay attached to their sacs so I fed immediately but these last 3 are taking advantage of the nutrients...Oh I have clean bottom so I can see them clearly...vital to me

 

[BettaGal]

Nobody is quite where I would say definitely they're getting fat yet, so I don't think I need to rush out in this frostbite-inducing weather. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow, and I like to feel my ears. Lol.

Should I change their feeding schedule now that someone is preparing for egg laying? I feed once in the morning. Everyone gets Tetra flakes. I have found it impossible to overfeed because whatever the DG doesn't attack, the cory cats do. Should I start more than once a day, or just leave it where it is?

I will be getting a filter and an airstone for the 3-gal tomorrow evening when it's not so cold you get ice in your bloodstream. I greatly dislike this weather.

So will gravel vacuuming be normal once the kids are in, or will I have to do something different when I vacuum?

 

[Aqualady40]

Nobody is quite where I would say definitely they're getting fat yet, so I don't think I need to rush out in this frostbite-inducing weather. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow, and I like to feel my ears. Lol.

Should I change their feeding schedule now that someone is preparing for egg laying? I feed once in the morning. Everyone gets Tetra flakes. I have found it impossible to overfeed because whatever the DG doesn't attack, the cory cats do. Should I start more than once a day, or just leave it where it is?

I will be getting a filter and an airstone for the 3-gal tomorrow evening when it's not so cold you get ice in your bloodstream. I greatly dislike this weather.

So will gravel vacuuming be normal once the kids are in, or will I have to do something different when I vacuum?

IMO..I would continue the same feeding and pwc schedule as is. With my cory's, I feed frozen bloodworms, daphnia, & brine shrimp, also, dried bloodworms, omega flakes, etc...1x daily and occasionally a treat....when I do water changes I do refill with 2 degrees cooler to trigger the spawn (for some reason, today, I didn't do a pwc and they were spawning).

 

[BettaGal]

I mean vacuuming the gravel in the fry tank. I have sand in the 10-gal. Do I need to modify how I vacuum, or just stick it in and suck all the nasties out?

 

[BettaGal]

My 3-gal has gravel in the bottom. When I gravel vac, which I assume will about have to be every day to keep the water super-dee-duper clean, will I have to do it a certain way to avoid harming the babies, or will I just stick the vacuum into the gravel as someone normally would? Like will it have to hover and only clean the top of the gravel? Or can I jam it down in there and get all the nasties out? Also, what kinds of decor would be recommended for them, or just leave it as gravel and a background on the tank? I hate plastic plants, as I have had several fish get stuck in them, including my guppy fry.

 

[Teakwood]

My 3-gal has gravel in the bottom. When I gravel vac, which I assume will about have to be every day to keep the water super-dee-duper clean, will I have to do it a certain way to avoid harming the babies, or will I just stick the vacuum into the gravel as someone normally would? Like will it have to hover and only clean the top of the gravel? Or can I jam it down in there and get all the nasties out? Also, what kinds of decor would be recommended for them, or just leave it as gravel and a background on the tank? I hate plastic plants, as I have had several fish get stuck in them, including my guppy fry.

It would be easiest to remove the gravel and go bare bottom. Get a piece if airline tubing and you can use that to syphon out old
Food on the bottom of the tank and if you accidentally suck up any fry just check the bowl you syphoned into before you dump it so you can move them back into the tank. You don't want to use a regular syphon, it would probably suck up most of the fry.

 

[sheilak]

cory fry

can cut a piece of old panty hose and rubber band it to the air hose to keep from sucking the fry out

 

[BettaGal]

Would that still let the food and poop go through though? One is starting to get fat now. How long will she keep getting bigger before she lays them?

 

[Teakwood]

Would that still let the food and poop go through though? One is starting to get fat now. How long will she keep getting bigger before she lays them?

Not sure on the panty hose, never tried it. In the wild Cory's lay during the rainy season so once she seems pretty big for a day or two you can do a water change with water a degree or two cooler then your tank and its may get her to lay, mine always lay after a water change.

 

[BettaGal]

I'm a little confused. I looked up the temp for cory cat fry, and got 70-79 degrees. Is it really that wide of a range? Or can someone be a little more specific? I'm leaving just a little gravel in to hold the airstone in. I just feel more comfortable with that than with just a tube. Just to give it what it needs to cycle, should I add a little food to the tank until I have eggs?

 

[BettaGal]

The tank is set up. I will most likely do some rearranging though. I probably will end up putting the airstone from the 10-gal into the 3-gal and putting what I bought for the 3-gal in the 10-gal. I got a 5 inch bubble stone, but for some reason, with a split T-way air tube attachment, it won't work. I'll try the littler one from the 10-gal and see what that does. I have two air pumps since they're on opposite sides of the room.