Corydoras

[Regen311]

I woke up this morning to seeing something I have not seen in 4 years of keeping these fish: 2 of my corydoras doing the mating dance! I watched for about a half an hour, hoping for eggs, and finally, there were eggs. I managed to rescue a few before they got eaten (55 gal. community tank, eggs and fry don't last long...), but the best I have for now is a 1 gallon glass fishbowl. I'm really short on $$$ right now, but I'd love to have a couple of these grow up. I don't have access to any live foods, and everything I read says to feed the babies live food. Is there anything I can do to have a chance of seeing a couple of these eggs turn into adult fish? Without spending a ton of money... I could spare 20-30 dollars...

 

[neilanh]

Can't hurt to give it a try. All the fry I've ever had I've started on Hikari First Bites fish food and have yet to have any problems with that.

 

[black hills tj]

Several months ago someone posted about having their cories spawn and they didn't even know it. Their name slips my mind right now, but they were cleaning out there small, planted tank and found a few baby panda cories!

 

[FiveSix]

there's also "liquifry" food

 

[Regen311]

Awesome! Any ideas where I can find this stuff? I actually went out and bought a 10 gallon, an air stone/pump, a heater and some anti-fungal stuff. So... I'm giving that a try. Should be a few days now...

 

[Regen311]

And today... there are babies! I have some of the aquadine food left over from a free sample. It was basically a pellet type food (hard flat discs) that broke up into tiny tiny pieces (almost dust) so I dropped some of the "dust" in and let it sink. I figure it's going to be hard to make sure they have food without overfeeding, so I'll just do daily water changes and monitor ammonia, nitrites/nitrates. The food should definitely be small enough for them to eat. I see 4 babies so far, and a few eggs that still look unhatched, so hopefully I'll have more than that I have a thin layer of black sand as the substrate, so I can see them pretty well. I am ECSTATIC. The babies are so little! It is absolutely incredible.

 

[meegosh]

Congrats! May I ask how long you've had the cories (4 years?), how many and what kind? Thanks for sharing your experiences, always a good suprise!

 

[Regen311]

Well... these specific ones I've had at least 3 years. I originally had all of the same type, and over time it's turned into a big mixed group of cories. The mom was an albino, and the dad was a green cory though. I just counted, and it looks like every single egg has hatched. I'm amazed. There are at least 11 little babies swimming around in the 10 gallon tank right now An awesome surprise. I've had baby platies, mollies and guppies before (who has had these fish and not had babies though...) and I've had enough of live bearers (I've had enough of them for about 2 years). I can't believe how tiny these babies are! It's just amazing to me. Thanks for all the help and advice everyone. I tried to take some pictures, but they're so small, it's almost impossible to get a good picture.

 

[Regen311]

Got some

Next to a bottle of dip nitrogen test strips to show the size

And the tank the eggs were rescued from:

And here's a link to the other ones...
Picasa Web Albums - TaiyedDreamland - Baby Cory Cat...

 

[CatatonicBug]

Nice tank! I love the rock work!

 

[meegosh]

Wow, those are some small little buggers! Congrats again on your new additions!!

 

[black hills tj]

Dear lord those are small! Excellent job on a succesful hatch!

 

[Regen311]

It amazed me too on how tiny they are! That's why I wanted to get the pictures so badly. It's just unbelievable. Now I'm just excited to see how fast they grow. I got the "first bites" fish food for them. I'm very excited that they all hatched! I was hoping for one or two and was just amazed to see all the little guys in there.

 

[black hills tj]

Keep up on water changes and be sure to feed them adequately, but not too often. I would test params pretty often.

 

[Regen311]

Yeah. I figure since it's in a 10 gallon tank, with essentially 0 bioload, it'll take a lot for the parameters to change too much. I'm going to put some of the live plants from the big tank in to help with the water quality. I'm not going to get a filter for now, just the airstone. I'll be doing daily small water changes for a while, without a gravel vac because I'm terrified to suck one of them up, and I'll be checking the parameters daily.

 

[MisticX]

having babies (even if not your own) is always a satisfaction.

i sugest not to put any filter in as they might get sucked in.

congrats with the successful hatch


keep us fed with pics

 

[Regen311]

2 week birthday pictures They were born 14 days ago. I can't believe it's been that long. All 11 of the eggs I had have hatched, and all 11 of the babies are alive and doing well

 

[meegosh]

Wow I can't believe its been that long either! They grow fast!!!! Excellent pictures, thanks for the update

 

[Regen311]

Yeah - me either. They are hard to photograph, that's for sure! I wish they'd keep that coloration, the dots and things, but... I know they're going to end up being just green corys. Still exciting though!

 

[zenkatydid]

if the albino is actually a pepper (or something else - there are a few different albino strains), you might have hybrids...