I got EGGS!!!

[EliWhitney314]

My wild corydoras adolfoi are breeding and I have eggs. What do I do? I have a a few smaller tanks, but I have plenty of cover in my 75. How do I feed them, etc? Please help. haha

[MatsP]

There is a sticky on "raising fry from corydoras" at the top of this forum.

--
Mats

[EliWhitney314]

Yeah I just read it. Great stuff. I can't believe they are breeding, I figured it would be impossible since they are wild.

[L number Banana]

Congrats!
Don't forget to snap pics if you can. Baby corys are sooo cute!

I used a razor blade to gently scrape the eggs off the glass and sucked them up with a turkey baster to go into the floating fry tank. Worked like a charm. I also used the same turkey baster to keep up with the frequent water changes in the fry tank. The unfertilized eggs turned white quite quickly so it was easy to take them out.

Cheers

[EliWhitney314]

Well I got them in a small container floating at the top of my tank, with an airstone, and I put 2 drops of anti fungal in there. Cross your fingers.

I have 3 eggs and they are all fertile, hopefully it stays that way. I will get some pictures for sure.

[EliWhitney314]

Isn't hard to breed wild corydoras?

[MatsP]

One of the tricky things about breeding fish in general is that it's very easy and very hard at the same time. You have obviously done a good job getting the fish into breeding condition and keeping the tank in good order is part of that. But the other part is that often all it takes is "doing that right thing" - and even experienced breeders don't always know why one species (or one tank with a certain species) breeds when another species or tank doesn't. Unless you can under controlled circumstances change only one thing (lighting, feeding [frequency/amount, types of food], water parameters [which there are many of, such as pH, conductivity, temperature, etc], fish stock) it is almost impossible to say what, if any, of these parameters have to be right to make the fish spawn. Subtle changes that we don't know/understand may be what it takes to make/break a spawn.

Some fish that one person finds easy to spawn are almost impossible for someone else - it may be just ONE tiny detail that is different that makes one persons
spawn the fish, and another fails.

I'm not trying to take anything away from you, I'm just saying that it's very hard to predict before you spawn a species if it's going to be hard or easy. Once you have spawned a species, it's usually easy to reproduce it. The real challenge is to spawn fish "on demand" - that is, you can with some certainty predict that "if I do this, and that to tank #3, fish X will spawn within N days". That's when you have it sorted. But I'm sure even the more experienced cory breeders have got/had species that they have bred the odd occasion, but can not reproduce "on demand".

Again, well done for spawning the fish, and good luck with hatching the fry. It's ALWAYS an achievement to spawn a fish first time for you - it doesn't really matter if they are EASY or HARD in a general view.

--
Mats

[EliWhitney314]

The waiting is terrible

[L number Banana]

The waiting is terrible

Agreed but it makes the excitement last longer. Get a magnifying glass so you can see the development inside the egg. Very cool and you'll have something new to look at each day. I think the first things I could make out was the eyes and the spine bit.

And there may be more eggs to harvest, keep checking the tank. My C. paleatus usually lay over about 5 days.

[EliWhitney314]

I will check every day. The only problem is there are so many places they could lay their eggs that I can't get to.

[andywoolloo]

congrats! my cories lay eggs all the time, I have yet to see any fry. Good luck!

[L number Banana]

EliWhitney314 wrote:

I will check every day. The only problem is there are so many places they could lay their eggs that I can't get to.

I have the same issue with a heavily planted part of the tank that two of my twig catfish like to hang out in. I've seen eggs there before that I couldn't get to at all. Some of them may have been eaten but so far I've had four survive with no intervention by me. The babies seem to be very good at hiding from a night wandering pleco, one yoyo loach and the glowlight tetras. I thought at first it was a small piece of black gravel - then it swam away! Next time I saw it, it was bigger, etc etc. Those ones are now about 1/4 inch long and eat with the rest of the crew. So it is possible to have them do it all on their own just don't vacuum where you can't see for a while

[EliWhitney314]

Oh crap. haha, yeah I won't vacuum where I can't see.

Well it seems that 1 egg is doing A ok for sure, the other two I am not positive with.

[L number Banana]

What's up with the other two? Going white? I usually put a snail - tiny common pond snail, into the tank with the eggs. I was told that the snails keep the eggs clean but don't eat them. So far that's proven true.

Don't give up on the happy egg, you must be doing something right

[EliWhitney314]

Actually it looks like 2 for sure. They are kind of amber looking and still look healthy. I'm guessing they might hatch by saturday?

[EliWhitney314]

We have a fry! But I am worried because I was trying to get rid of a bad egg with a turkey baster and sucked up the fry on accident. I guess time will tell. Wish me luck.

[EliWhitney314]

Anyone know any good sites for fish fry food? All the stuff on ebay seems that I have to hatch the food?

[EliWhitney314]

He seems to be doing fine

[L number Banana]

We have a fry! But I am worried because I was trying to get rid of a bad egg with a turkey baster and sucked up the fry on accident. I guess time will tell. Wish me luck.

Yippee! I did that with the turkey baster a few times too and the little guys were fine.
You won't need to feed until the egg sac is absorbed. For food I did three things: threw in a leaf from the main tank because I figured it would have microscopic goodies on it. I took a tiny shaving off a spirulina tab and a shrimp pellet. Another member here used a tiny pinch of a dried egg yolk - very tiny because the high protein makes the water yucky. The fish store near me puts algae covered rocks in the tank - maybe for the tiny critters in the algae? I could never find micro worms or live brine shrimp but that's best if your local fish store has it. I'm wondering if you can use live black worm that has been smushed up? That should be available too.

Can you shave some tiny bits from your regular cory food? Mine do well with that and freeze-dried brine shrimp that's been mushed up and pre-soaked.

Anyone have any ideas about the live blackworm idea??

Also I don't know if it matters but I always float a leaf in the fry tank to provide some 'shade' because the floating tank sits right under the bright light.