My pygmys have Spawned!!!

[corycrazy]

I moved my 10 pygmy cories from a 55 gal to a 30L planted tank a week ago,with a mature filter(the tank had been used to raise hundreds of livebearer fry )
At first i was worried i had made a bad move,has after the first day of shoaling they took to hiding amongst the plants...

Anyhows after feeding them on bbs and doing a 10% cold w/c,they started spawning,i was quite surprised to find a 3 eggs stuck to the glass,that was thursday,then finding they spawned again friday,i managed to find around 25 eggs,lost a few in the tank,i think there's probably a few more in there has they are stuck to all the plants,i didn't want to disturb the tank too much.

Here's a pic of the eggs,i saved my trilineatus eggs in a catching net and have it over an airstone until they hatch,so i have done the same with the pygmy eggs,(there's 5 tri eggs in there from yesterday also)

[corybrummie2010]

Congrats on your pygmys spawning .

[Richard B]

Well done - pygmaeus are a super little species

[apistomaster]

I have found the easiest way to breed and raise any of the pygmy Corydoras, C. pygmeus, C hastatus and C. habrosus is to set them up in species tank with a heavy growth of fine leaved plants. I use Tropical Hornwort, Ceratophyllum demersum, but Java moss, Limnophila indica, Myriopyllum, or Cabomba will all work so choose the species which does best in your tanks.
I think Ceratophyllum is the most useful.

In such a set up, you may leave the eggs, larvae and fry in the tank with the breeders.
I feed Artemia nauplii daily supplemented with frozen blood worms, live black worms and earth worm sticks. You could also use Mikroworms as a supplemental food for the fry but all the fish are able to do well on mostly Artemia nauplii. Keeping a grindal worm culture is better than bothering with live black worms. When you harvest them you always get a wide range of sizes from young to old worms which will feed many different stages of the fry's growth.
This method of breeding pygmy Corydoras species is much easier than trying to raise the fry separately. For ever egg you find and remove you are probably missing 3 or 4 others.

I also culture Cherry Shrimp in the breeding tank. They will not harm any eggs or larvae. It allows me to use one tank to produce two animals which are both easily sold or traded.

[corycrazy]

Thanks

Apistomaster-thanks for the info,the tank has 2 huge bushy cabomba,along with amazon swords and fern type plant(sorry don't know the name ),they laid mainly on the cabomba & fern,with a few on the glass,i wasn't sure if they would eat the eggs so i removed them.but i might try leaving the eggs if they spawn again
The only other fish in with them is two 10 wk old cory trilineanus juvi's.

[apistomaster]

Their other Corydoras fry tank mates will be fine but if you want to raise many more C. pygmeus then eventually just dedicate a tank to them as a permanent breeding colony. The more their numbers climb the more interesting the display, especially if you follow my advice to double up and raise Cherry Shrimp along with them. The Cherry Shrimp help add color and activity to make the tank more interesting to watch than if you only keep the C. pygmeus.

[unotim123]

Larry,can we feed fry and adults in same tank?Adults eat fry?

[apistomaster]

Larry,can we feed fry and adults in same tank?Adults eat fry?

Use Hornwort for the egg placement and larvae cover then it also helps if there is some extra cover on the bottom. I use a "rubble pile" made out of hollow ceramic filter media. Many larvae hide inside these tubes. Once the metamorphose into miniatures of the adults they soon join the school. The Pygmy Cats do not eat their eggs, larvae or young fry. I feed mine mostly Artemia nauplii which is good for the youngest fry to the oldest adults. I harvest all my brine shrimp each day at one time then store them in brine in the refrigerator. This stops further development which preserves their maximum nutritive value, simplifies feeding twice a day and slows them down so plenty of the nauplii penetrates the hiding places of the larvae and smallest fry.
Here is a view of a Corydoras hastatus breeding set up. Most of the Hornwort is floating just under the water line but the growth is dense. Note the presence of Cherry Shrimp. This was taken early in the life of this particular breeding set up which ran continuously for almost 3 years. I began with 10 wild caught C. hastatus and sold about 250 over the duration of the set up. I allowed the population to drop while storing the 100 or so I kept for breeding until now. Now I have set up a new permanent breeding tank with about 35 specimens. C. hastatus are usually hard to find so I can't afford to let them die out. I should have another 150 or so by this fall.

[corycrazy]

Wow sounds fab with raising your habrosus

Well i have fry 4 eggs have hatched so far,and i seen 2 dart around in the tank

Just a daft question...When it comes to w/c and such forth,do you still turn the sand in a breeding tank? ,knowing me i'll probably suck up any tiny fry

[apistomaster]

Those are Corydoras hastatus in the photo and are what I discussed. They are more prolific than C. habrosus although they are much rarer than C. habrosus or C. pygmeus the method described works well on all three.
There is only enough substrate to barely cover the bottom glass so it really doesn't get vacuumed. I provide so much current that dirt can't settle much.
I have a 160 gph power head attached to a sponge filter. an air stone and an AquaClear HOB filter which has a special net intake to prevent fry from getting sucked into the filter.
I use a RV water hose which has some PVC fittings and made so I can use different lengths of PVC pipe so I can exchange them so they remove about 70% of the water from any given tank. The siphon intake is a clear plastic jar w/lid cut then covered with nylon fly screen to minimize any loss of small fish fry or shrimp. The same hose is used to refill the tanks. I have an adapter on my faucet which accepts Garden Hose Thread(GHT) fittings.
I just add the right amount of SeaChem prime and then refill the tank using the mixing faucet adjusted to match the temperature of my aquariums.

[corycrazy]

Sorry my mistake i meant to type hastatus

Fab idea and set up

Well i have 17 little fry,who appears to be growing well,and spotted a few fry zipping around the tank,so hopefully they'll be ok

The adults have spawned again,i can see 6 eggs on the plants,but no doubt there are more,i will leave them and see how they fair

[apistomaster]

I always figure there are about 9 hidden eggs among the plants for every one I happen to notice in a thriving Corydoras hastatus colony. I haven't worked with Corydoras pygmeus very much but one time I had segregated a fat, large female C. pygmeus away from the three males I intended to use in a breeding attempt. Before I could combine them the isolated female laid about 70 eggs all over a nearly bare tank. Maybe C, pygmeus produce more eggs per spawning episode whereas C, hastatus appear to spawn almost continuously, laying a dozen or two eggs per day? Much like egg hanging Killiefish.
I was surprised how large C. pygmeus eggs were compared to C. hastatus, Corydoras habrosus has never been as prolific for me as C. hastatus but their eggs are also relatively large compared to C. hastatus.

[corycrazy]

Here's pics of pygmy fry

spotted one of the fry in main tank so grab the camera


Here's the 17 during a net clean

[corycrazy]

Little update
I lost a fair few of the wee fry in the net,so i have put them in the fry tank,and they seem to be doing ok

Heres's 2 pics of the pygmy fry that came out of hiding

Pygmy fry in fry tank

Pygmy fry in adult tank- this wee one keeps avoiding capture

[apistomaster]

The adult Corydoras pygmeus will not eat their own larvae and fry. That is why colony breeding can be so successful and it eliminates the need of doing anything special with the eggs, larvae or fry. The adults eat Artemia nauplii and so do the fry. If you fed them newly hatched brine shrimp twice a day in a colony breeding tank you would have 100 fish in a matter of months. You will eventually have so many that you must remove and sell the surplus to prevent over crowding.

[corycrazy]

The adult Corydoras pygmeus will not eat their own larvae and fry. That is why colony breeding can be so successful and it eliminates the need of doing anything special with the eggs, larvae or fry. The adults eat Artemia nauplii and so do the fry. If you fed them newly hatched brine shrimp twice a day in a colony breeding tank you would have 100 fish in a matter of months. You will eventually have so many that you must remove and sell the surplus to prevent over crowding.

Thanks

i have left all the eggs where they are since this first lot,and hoping they're hatching,i have seen a few darting around

[corycrazy]

Update

My pygmys are still breeding,and i do believe my habrosus are also.
The other day i done a small clean up of the bottom using an airline hose,on checking the tub for any fry,i found 16 eggs,so rescued them,they did hatch out and whereas the pygmy fry are noticeable with their stripes,there were smaller fry,with no black stripes but with a line going down their spine.
Anyone know what habrosus fry look like when first hatched out?

Here's pics of fry,the larger 4 wks old.
And heres 3 of the wee fry hiding out in the pygmy tank



And heres the fry that hatched out from the eggs i saved.

[URL=http://pets.webshots.com/photo/22726583 ... 1178gkgLrp][/URL

[apistomaster]

Corydoras habrosus fry look much like other pygmy Corydoras fry initially but as they develop they soon take on the same appearance as the adults. This will occur by the time they are about 1/4 inch long. About one month after hatching.

[corycrazy]

Thanks apistomaster

My adults don't seem to realise they're not suppose to eat their fry after many eggs hatching and plenty of hidey holes,there only appear to be 4 juvi's in the main tank and no sightings of new fry.
I decided to tidy up their plants in the tank,so had a good look around,i ended sucking up around 30 eggs,which are now in a net close to hatching, there's a sponge over the filter intake,so still not sure whether the adults are munchers or not...

[6275 Wilson]

Hi All,
Last weekend after having my 20L setup for 3 weeks I decided to find some pygmies after finding this post and researching them during that time.
I had found some pygmaeus at a LFS so went back to find them.They had them for $2.25 each.After looking around in various tanks I found a label that said "C.hastatus $1.50"
After looking in the tanks full of Java Moss discovered they were actually pygmaeus.
I found the owner and he said they get their fish from two different suppliers.He honored the cheaper price so I ended up bringing home 8 of the pygmaeus.
They are doing great and are alot of fun to watch.Yesterday I picked up a brine shrimp hatching kit and am going to starts feeding them those thanks to this post.
They are in the tank by themselves so I am excited to see if I can get them spawning.
Thanks to everyone for helping get me going thru reading this post !!!
Mark Wilson

[taheton]

Hi apystomaster I have like 8 pygmy corys ina 130 L tank with some ancistrus chery shrimp plantas and logs but they had never breed Iam shure about males and females present because size diferences can you sugest me a permanent breeding setup for them?
Also Ive got like 25 panda corys in another tank that bred on moss and walls every now and then but refuse to breed on an breeding tank(they live alone with moss and shrimp too) can you sugest me a breeding tank for them too?

I made sponge pvc airflow filters, got many 10,40 liter tanks also

[apistomaster]

Pygmy Corydoras often choose the glass sides and that is perfect for a BN pleco to eat them.

I only bred Corydoras panda for awhile. Mine were wild caught and they preferred to place their eggs in hair algae, Java Moss or acrylic yarn mops. I found very few eggs attached to the glass but I am sure that some eggs end up on the glass. I generally would not recommend keeping any plecos in a Corydoras breeding tank and very few other types of fish. I only use a couple tiny BN in a Discus breeding tank which are too small to scare Discus away from their eggs. Can't keep bushy nose in Apistogramma breeding set ups since both use caves and plecos always run the female off and eat her eggs.

[taheton]

And what would be an ideal setup for the pygmy?

[siluriphil]

@apistomaster:

abolutely great what your are doing with your C.hastatus. You bring me to think about to change my stocking.

But I have one question, which size have your tank?


Mathias