Got a shoal of Sterbai today

[cmstwc]

Just want to share that I was very pleased with the quality and price of 11 XL WC sterbai that I got today from my LFS. They are about 2.5 inches in TL. I paid 147 bucks total after a little bargain. (originally 16 dollar each, and 2 for $30) They are very active and start to take food right after into my tank. So, my experienced sterbai breeder friends out there, do you think they are big enough to start spawn after I fattening them up? Thanks!!

[MatsP]

My captive bred ones aren't a full 2.5", and they have spawned about half a dozen [as far as I've observed - they may well have spawned more than that as I'm not watching the tank all day every day] times in the last year. So from a size standpoint, I'd say those are breeding size. Whether wild caught fish are that easy to spawn in captivity is a different question.

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Mats

[cmstwc]

Thanks MatsP! I am wondering how long should I condition them before my first spawn attempt. I am trying to feed them 4+times a day and early night

[MatsP]

Couldn't tell you. Mine are in a 400liter (approx 100 us gal) tank with a load of other fish, and they just spontaneously spawn.

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Mats

[cmstwc]

Thanks MatsP. My tank is US 55G, with 8 trilineatus, 5 brochis 7 aenenus and 11 sterbai on the bottom. There are also 3 adult discus and angel fish each. I guess I will wait for a least a month to give them a try in a separate 30G tank. Thanks!

[BevN]

Hi,

I've been lurking and saw your post about Sterbai. I got a group of 5 about 3 or 4 months ago. I lost two but ended up with a female and two males. They are about the size of yours and spawn after every water change. I didn't do a water change this week to give them a break. They are laying about 75-100 eggs every time. Needless to say I have Sterbai corys all over the place. I don't know if they are supposed to be easy or not to breed but they seem to be really easy.

Like I said I do weekly water changes. About 60% and add cold water. The ph is about 5.5 and the dh is about 1-2. I think the temp is around 78. I feed live food twice a day. They get black worms and bbs at every feeding. They don't eat the eggs or the fry as there are a ton of those in the tank I need to remove.

These are the only corys that have spawned for me so far. I have a few others but no luck so I'm thinking these must be the easier ones to breed.

Hope some of that helps.
Bev

[MatsP]

This is one of those eternal debates - that fact that quite a few people ARE spawning C. sterbai is definitely a sign that at least sometimes they are not hard to breed. But we've seen cases of even the easiest species to breed not breeding for some owners. It's a little bit of luck involved in getting the male(s) and female(s) that get along and give the right signals, and of course doing the right thing with regards to caring for them.

Captive bred C. sterbai have been available for a while now (at least three or so years), and by most accounts, captive bred species are generally easier to breed than those that have been captured from the wild. I have no idea why that is - perhaps growing up in captivity just means that they do not "know" that there is a better place to be & bring up young?

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Mats

[BevN]

Nothing at my house follows the norm. Some of the so-called easy fish are the hardest ones for me. Ian told me all you had to do to get the pygmy corys to spawn was shake a stick at them. Not at my house. I have all the dwarfs cories and not a fry in site. I know the other cories I have are more difficult as a rule. The orange and green lasers and I have black schultzi. The later are just about old enough so I'm hoping to be lucky with those.

The one thing I've learned as far as the norms in fishkeeping....there aren't any.

Bev

[apistomaster]

I don't have wild C. sterbai but those I have raised have been known to spawn at 2 inches and 8 months old. Their early spawns are not as fertile as those that are several years old. Tank raised C. sterbai have been the norm for well over five years in the PNW USA.
I quit raising them because they only sell for $5 to $7 retail. Their prices dropped from ~$15 in just 3 years. My breeders are over 4 years old and they get fed live black worms all the time. Fish shops say they can get them for $2.50 andd they eat that much in food to grow them to a marketable size. I gave a school to a buddy and my 82 year old mom and they both have C. sterbai breeding. I know my mom only feeds them prepared food and I am the aquarium maintenance guy for her about once a month. They are one I'd recommend for beginners. Their eggs and fry seem to be more sensitive than C. aeneus or C. paleatus which are definitely good beginners species.
My dozen or so always spawn after a water change. Mine do eat their eggs and fry so when I did want to raise many, I had to remove the breeders or the eggs. It is nice when one of the pretty species turns out to be so adaptable to captive breeding.
The Celestial Pearl Danios are a new fish in the hobby that proved quickly adaptable to captive breeding. They went down in price much faster than most everyone would have ever guessed possible. Then there are Neon Tetra. They are massed produced in fish farms but just try to breed them. Not hard to spawn but sure are hard to raise.

[TwoTankAmin]

Sterbais are one of myfavorite cories. I have had some size group or two for a number of years. My earliest were a gift of proven breeders which I then supplimented over the years. I found they, like many fish in my tanks, spawned pretty much on their own and often in community settings. As a result, any eggs or any surviving fry rarely lasted very long. I had to pull the eggs to hatch and raise them seperately to have any shot at sterbais.

Unlike other two corys I had spawn- paleatus and pandas- I could never get sterbai fry beyond 30 days. Right from going free swimming they would die a few at a time and eventually none were left. So for me the issue wasn't so much were they hard to spawn as it was were they hard to raise. Ultimately I did get a small spawn to about 3 months and then had them eaten by mistake. The only fry I have found harder to raise than them are my farlowellas.

I still have 10 huge sterbais- I have had them for 6 years and they were young adults when I got them.

[apistomaster]

Hi TTA,
How are you?
I raised about 1000 C. sterbai. I used large group methods. My survival rate to salable size was only about 25%. Pathetic. 25% wouldn't be bad if one just wanted some more but that is a poor result for a breeder.
I have this problem with many of the less common pretty Corydoras spp. I can see that the older fish are producing far more fertile eggs but I still don't know what I could do about increasing the survival rate. I know other breeders have far better results than I do.
Whatever it is that causes so many larvae to die, it is the same cause as the others I am had trouble with.
I will revisit this because it's just one of those things that will bother me until I learn how to overcome the problem.
I am only raising C. hastatus and C. habrosus just because I enjoy them. C. hastatus are more fun the more I have. I sold about 150 and have that many now. C. habrosus haven't been as prolific but they lay fewer but larger eggs. I have about 75 and never offered any for sale. Just raising them for the fun of seeing them in large schools. I started with 10 each and the more I had the more I had. The don't seem to bother their eggs and fry.
I am trying but I haven't been getting hardly any eggs to hatch from Aspidoras pauciradiatus an A. mendezi?. Soft water gets spawns but I haven't tried the low pH trick yet(below 7.0). That is about the only hope I have for improving the success rate.
At least C. sterbai lay so many eggs that a beginner should end up with an ever growing colony. They are pretty enough to make up for some of the discouraging results.

[skaskankerbr]

hmm 16$ a piece is high. I get my fish from either tfdfish.com (wholesaler) or from aquabid.com. Most of the time Tfd is cheaper. However aquabid almost always has a supply of cories in groups of 6-20. I see them often for under 8$ at that size.
found you a link to some for reference or for anyone else thinking of buying them. http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/ ... 1228617122

[bslindgren]

I'm jealous! I have two, and have been looking for another bunch for ages. The ones they get in are usually small, and quite expensive. The two I have (see my avatar) are definitely favourite corys!