Have you heard of anyone succeeded in breeding C-140?

[mona o]

Have you heard of anyone succeeded in breeding C-140?

Well, I'm very curious right now. And that's why I ask here, and hopefully people from all parts of the world will read it

Reason for asking is that I can't find a word about it anywhere on the internet. Not by Google searching in english, anyway.

Today, when I turned on the lights in my fish room, I discovered plenty of eggs on the java ferns in a species-only tank containing eight adult C-140's

I have seen "suspicious" behaviour in that tank several times, seeming like they were about to start spawning. But I thought that would be it and that nothing would really happen. I mean, I haven't heard about or read about anyone else with spawning C-140's or anyone breeding them. So there was no reason why it should happen here either, I thought.

I'm so excited
Some places the eggs were piled up in clumps on plant leaves, even an egg-pile on the wood:-) Eggs measured 2 mm in size.

I've collected the eggs today and placed them in a separate hatching tank. So now all I can do is wait... are they fertile? Will they hatch? And how will the hatching rate be?
Exciting:-)
I have a hatching tank with C. weitzmani eggs going right now as well, so this can be some interesting weeks ahead



[img:490:490]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... 40egg2.jpg[/img]

[img:500:460]http://akvaforum.no/images/forum/11069_ ... 1403_1.jpg[/img]

[pleco_breeder]

Congratulations!

Seeing as I am out of practice with cory ID's, and the catelog doesn't show any pics of C140, any chance of seeing a photo of the parents?

Larry Vires

[MatsP]

I'd also like to extend congratulations - I have no idea if they have been bred before or not, but even if they have, it's worth a congratulations - even breeding guppies is worth congratulations when it's the first time for that person.

Also, it looks like you can take decent photos, so you may want to send Jools some photos of parents and fry. The e-mail address is webmaster (at) planetcatfish (dot) com.

Make sure you put your name and the fish-name in the e-mail.

--
Mats

[mona o]

On demand, pictures of the adults

I have 8 adult C-140's, wild caught, and I bought them in february. 5-6 months ago in other words.

Unfortunately they are extremely timid and shy, never out in the open when I'm present in the room. If they detect any movements, they dart for cover like lightning.

This is why I have very few photos of them, it's a very rare occasion if I get a chance to take a clear photo. Not any really good ones I'm afraid.

But here are a few. The last one's from yesterday, the other two from february right after I got them.



[IMG:500:375]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... EBILDE.jpg[/img]

Here they are in their usual place; hidden under the wood in the tank. That's why the picture is so dark, I'm afraid.
[IMG:400:299]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... bilde2.jpg[/img]

[mona o]

And they have spawned again:)
As far as I can detect, I've got 5 females and 3 males in my group of 8 adults.

Today I found a new batch of eggs, it must be at least 200, maybe 300 eggs.

This could be interesting
I'll be sure to document and photograph all stages of the development of the fry.

This time most of the eggs were placed on the front glass, but also a 2 or 3 places amongst the plants.

The last photo of these 4 pics, shows some of the eggs that were laid 2 days ago. Development looks good, all of them's looking fertile and healthy.



[IMG:400:275]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... 40egg3.jpg[/img]

[IMG:370:472]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... 40egg2.jpg[/img]

[IMG:500:312]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... gamle1.jpg[/img]

[Daragh]

They are beautiful looking fish and great photos, if they are not good I would love to see what you think is good and congrats on the second spawning too, great news.


Daragh

[Jools]

As far as I know this is the first spawning of this "species". That I say "species" is that I am really not sure of the difference between C140, Corydoras crypticus and Corydoras amandajanea, all from the Rio Negro.

The descriptions of these two species mentions the fact that these are variably marked species and there are intraspecies variations but doesn't go into detail and I can't personally discern any great difference in shape.

Inadequate literature shouldn't however take away from the achievement, well done.

Jools

PS Email me some pics and I'll add them to the site if you like.

[mona o]

Yesterday I saw the first fry. That was quick! And during the night, more fry has emerged and the hatching is still going on. But lots of eggs has fungused as well, but when I removed some of them and squirted them in to a bucket of water, I saw fry coming out of the fungused mass of eggs... So, I better leave them were they are, obviously there's fry in the eggs anyway.
I've added some oak leaves to the hatching tank, in an attempt to hold the fungus down for just a little while so that more fry can hatch. The fry also appreciates a little cover, as soon as they hatch they do what all Cory fry do; dart for cover

I tried to take som pictures this morning, but the hatching tank has a brownish tint in the plastic which makes it difficult to take clear photos.
I'll try again later to day and see if I can get some better pictures.

This is what I've got so far.

This is the hatching tank.


Some newly hatched fry hiding under the oak leaves.
[IMG:500:276]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... yngel1.jpg[/img]

And if you have sharp eyes, you can detect the small and almost invisible fry here Surprisingly small fry, coming from such a large Corydoras, I mean.
[IMG:567:420]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h30/m ... yngel2.jpg[/img]

[mona o]

Here's some of the fry from the first C-140 spawn Even though a lot of eggs fungused, I was left with my fair share of fry.

Picture is taken from above (to day).

[Carmencatfish]

Oh my goodness. That is amazing. Those are gorgeous cories and your pics are incredible. Congrats on all the babies. They are lovely. Looks like you're going to be overrun with fry at this rate.

Have your C. weitzmani hatched yet? Got any pics of those??

[mona o]

Time for an update!

Now the C140 youngsters are 7 months old, but only 5 survived. I lost almost all of them a few weeks after hatching, but these five survived because I moved them to a tank with low pH.
Now and then I get questions if I would like to sell them, but the answer is always NO

The photos were taken in the beginning of january, so they were about five months then.

C140 youngster together with C. weitzmani youngster in my grow-out tank

[apistomaster]

There seems to be several Corydoras species which are problematic in either obtaining a decent hatch rate or as in your experience you get many larvae but there is a high mortality rate before they under go final metamorphosis.
For me these include C. duplicareous and C-121 which share some resemblances with your fish.
Sure would like to find a way around the high loss rates.

[Troender]

I didn't know you were in here too, Mona!
I haven't even had eggs on my C-140 yet (for all the others of you, I bought the rest of the C-140s that was left in the shop after Mona had been there. So they've been tank mates ). But that's probably because they are in one of my tanks where I keep many different cory species. I haven't actually tried to make them spawn. If I remember it right, yours spawned during the summer? Maybe I will give them a try in my spawning tank when the summer comes. I wouldn't think I would have luck with any of the other species I keep at that time of the year.

[bevans]

apistomaster said: There seems to be several Corydoras species which are problematic in either obtaining a decent hatch rate or as in your experience you get many larvae but there is a high mortality rate before they under go final metamorphosis.
For me these include C. duplicareous

Ack! What seems to be the problem? Mine are about to hatch and I'd like them to do well. Do people feed them too early? Or is it that the babies don't eat very well when they're old enough (like I hear the adolfoi do?)?

I am also very interested in the parameters the OP has for his weitzmanis, since I have a wild-caught trio (2 males, I female), that I would very much like to breed.

[mona o]

There seems to be several Corydoras species which are problematic in either obtaining a decent hatch rate or as in your experience you get many larvae but there is a high mortality rate before they under go final metamorphosis.
For me these include C. duplicareous and C-121 which share some resemblances with your fish.
Sure would like to find a way around the high loss rates.

I have been breeding both C121 and C. adolfoi as well, and succeeded well with those two species. But I think these species are sensetive to bacteria attacks. Keeping them in tanks with a very low ph seems to help since there are few bacteria that survives in such low pH.

The survival C140-youngsters was moved from pH 7.0 to a tank with only 5.5 in pH... they survived.

Regarding C. adolfoi, C.duplicareus and C121, they are all species living in areas near the mighty Rio Negro, and I think the fry does best in water with low pH. The adults seem to adapt well to higher pH, but I do believe it's more important to keep pH down with the fry and younger ones.

[mona o]

The C140 group is spawning again today! First time since last summer!
They started around 09.30 (norwegian time, 08.30 english time) this morning, and they're still spawning "as we speak"

And the female(s) sure carry a lot of eggs in each load, I can tell you that! At one point, she decided to place them on a spot where it was easy for me to see. She had previously filled one side of a plant leaf with eggs, and she obviously wanted to use the same plant leaf again, so she started to fill the other side of the same leaf as well. There was no eggs on that side right then, so when she finished up and left, I went over to count how many eggs she had deposited in one go. There was at about 20 eggs, maybe 22 ! In one go! That's a lot of eggs to carry around between the pelvic fins...

I can see there's only one or maybe two females (out of five) participating in the spawning, but all 3 males are in. They're absolutely nuts. I can't tell for sure if the female choose the same male every time or if she prefers to take whoever is closest at the time she's ready for a new T-position, but I can definitely say that not all females are in. Only one or two. The other females has either hidden under the wood. Or if they're out in the open, they bury their noses in the sand whenever a male tries to convince her to spawn, to make her nose unavailable for him when he tries to position himself in front of her. Smart!

Out of the 3 males, one of them has a noticeable change of colour. Maybe this is the leading male? The other two looks more or less the same as before, but this one has a kind of greenish-grey shine all over his body, and the black parts of his pattern has turned kind of pale. Especially his face, but also the back stripe.

The females have been looking quite heavy with eggs for some time, so I guess someone's feeling kind of reliefed tonight!

And lucky me.... just like the first three times they spawned, they don't seem to be interested in the eggs afterwards, not even the ones that's not involved in the spawning. They seem to leave the eggs alone (so far).

I'm going to be very busy this afternoon, collecting lots of eggs!
I wonder if I should spread the eggs to two different hatching containers, in order to minimize the risk of loosing all if something goes wrong...?

I'm tempted to photograph while they're busy spawning, but I think I will leave them alone - I don't want to disturb them and maybe cut them off.

[bevans]

My duplicareus fry are about a week old now. I started with about 40 eggs. Lost about four to fungus right off the start, then several fungused towards the end, though one hatched a live fry.

I had a lot who died while absorbing the yolk sac and a few that are still alive but spinning around on their sides crookedly. I've seen six viable good ones and I might have a couple more hiding under the base of the sponge filter. I don't know if this is a good yield or not.

My PH is 7.0. They're currently in a little 1 gallon and I do 25% water changes twice a day. The ones that have straightened out and are swimming seem to be doing well-I've seen them eating. I'm open to suggestions about using a buffer in the future if I get another spawn. Does the leaf thing work for people?

[apistomaster]

bevan,
Now you have had the same results as mine.
The differences are, I used RO water adjusted to pH 5.5 and TDS 30 ppm.
I have bred very many species of Corydoras and raised them in the thousands. So I know how to do it in general.
We all do things a little differently and I have raised many species of fish most consider difficult and yet have had difficulties with some species many would consider easy. We may get very scientific about breeding and raising tropical fish but it is also an art.
It is not reasonable to expect to be able to to all things well but it is possible to make progress where one finds difficulties.
Many of the SA black water species are difficult. Just try breeding Cardinals, Rummy Nose or most of the pencil fish.
Corydoras will seem much easier.
Good luck.

[bevans]

Thanks for the encouragement, apistomaster!

Moved the sponge filter last night to do a good cleaning and my yield is better than I thought-I've got 10-12.

I definitely intend to try the oak leaves or something like that in the future, though I'm scared to change what I'm doing with this bunch since they seem to be OK. Have you or anyone else tried that Kent Blackwater stuff? It says it creates conditions like the Amazon region and I wondered if it might be good.

[mona o]

3 weeks old now and doing fine.
Really cute too!

[mona o]

It's been a while since last update, but all youngsters are doing well and I haven't lost a single one since my last post in this thread
They have been counted, and there's 175 of them...guess I will be supplying this species to the whole of Scandinavia!

Here's a few of them at feeding time...

C140 youngsters, aquarium bred

[mona o]

Second picture

[mona o]

I noticed today on C140's fish profile here on Planet Catfish, that under "Breeding" it said "Unreported".
Is it possible for me to ask for a change there, send an email to someone for instance, and change the text to "Has been bred under aquarium conditions" instead?
I know of one other person here in Norway that bred them, so it's absolutely possible.

[Jools]

Some of Mona's pics added to the catelog today! I'd be delighted to add any information on care and breeding. Speak to a data team member, or just post the info here and I am sure one of us will capture it and submit it.

The youngsters look in excellent condition BTW.

Cheers,

Jools

[MatsP]

I noticed today on C140's fish profile here on Planet Catfish, that under "Breeding" it said "Unreported".
Is it possible for me to ask for a change there, send an email to someone for instance, and change the text to "Has been bred under aquarium conditions" instead?
I know of one other person here in Norway that bred them, so it's absolutely possible.

I can certainly make the above change, but if we can give a bit more information (such as temperature, pH, hardness, and any other information that you think can help), that would make the whole thing a bit better in helping others to breed the fish.

--
Mats

[mona o]

The water parameters at the time of spawning this year was about the same as last year. We have fairly soft tap water in Norway.

Ph 6.8
Gh 1 - 2
Kh 2
Temperature 26°C

The spawning took place after a period of 3 weeks were I did cool water changes every other or every third day. The water temperature usually fell to about 20 - 21 °C each time.

The fish (8 adults) were fed 2 or 3 times daily in this period.
The amount of water changed at each water-change was 30-40% of the water volume.

[MatsP]

I have added your information to the Cat-eLog with some minor changes (mostly removing first person references and such). Should appear in the next few days.

--
Mats

[MatsP]

I tell a lie, it didn't go through. I will try to fix it up and hopefully post later.

--
Mats

[Troender]

I just have to comment those wonderful fishes. I've bought Mona's group (I alread had a small group, but they were too few). They have now had a new spawning, and they delivered more than 300 eggs! So they haven't forgotten about their old habits. The eggs haven't hatched yet, but so far they look good. Not a single egg is white, so if they don't go bad, I will have more fry than I am comfortable with trying to care for. Those cories are really some egg producers!

[追风大人]

Second picture

4 aug08 C140 feeding caos2.JPG

it is wonderful