Notes on Spawning of Corydoras Kanei (LIVE ACTION)

[bamboosticks]

My pair is spawning as I type; so far I've seen 17 eggs and my female is still quite fat; there should be plenty more. Last time they spawned (this is their second with me) they laid about 60 eggs.

4 eggs were laid on the wall, 9 were laid on the tank floor (surrounded with a few pebbles) and 4 in some spawning mops that I let sink to the floor.

About 1 to 2 hours before the spawn, there was a brief shower of rain.

The female is by far more active than the male; she's swimming around the tank and seemingly cleaning its walls. I turned down the air pump so that it might be easier for her to lay eggs in a place where there's water movement.

Eggs appear to have been laid in clumps of 4-5.


I don't think that mass cold water changes are totally essential: I do recall having done a large scale water change with cold water, but that was at least four days ago. I didn't measure the water temperature at the time of spawning; last time they spawned for me it was in April 2009.

In terms of feeding: last night I fed them Daphnia; they get a pretty varied diet including Bloodworms, Spirulina flakes, King British flakes and Hikari sinking wafers, not to mention generic Tetra food. Oh, and dried tubifex worms, dried bloodworms, and generic catfish pellets from my LBS.

Yesterday, the female was swimming around very actively; I find that these fish are generally quite shy, so that was a possible indication.

I bought them as Atropersonatus, but I'm pretty sure that they're Kanei, because the spots are much denser and they have tail markings. I also think there might be sexual dimorphism: the male's spots extend to his nose, while the female's nose is quite smudged.

Overall, I think they just need to be 'ready' - in other words, a nice environment (although for my first spawn all they had were two terracotta plant pots) and lots of food.

From my first spawning, I have 9 fish left, who live with some Weitzmani I got in an auction and some unidentified whiptail. They're about 2 inches, including tail length.

My female has caught the attention of my Seussi quartet, their neighbours (in my split tank); they try to follow her but are separated by the laws of physics - i.e., the glass partition. In fact, I'm sure that one of my Seussi is a female and looks quite gravid; not as obviously fat (in a sort of Christmas turkey way) as the Kanei, but noticeably chunky. Has anyone bred Seussi yet?

[wrasse]

Congrats, its a beautiful cory.
A few years ago I bought 2 males that were by-catch (can't remember what they came in with) and I still have one. He shares a tank with a female C91 (again by-catch) and some trilineatus plus other fish. They are all frisky with each other.
I hunted for ages looking for a female C Kanei and eventually gave up. More recently several shops seem to have them.

[bamboosticks]

Thanks for your words.

Now, we're up to 20+ eggs.

Edit: DAMN, C091?? They sell for 18 quid each at Wildwoods, how much did you get yours for?

Edit at half past 7 o' clock - about 40 eggs.

[bamboosticks]

LOL, I woke up this morning to find them still at it! There are probably 70-80 eggs. Last time I made the mistake of taking them out prematurely - lesson learned! I probably won't take them out at all. Methylene blue added.

Edit: Quarter to 9, they're still at it - no eggs have been eaten yet. Some are tannish, some are slightly white, one has burst; none are fully white. Last count, over 160 eggs.

[bamboosticks]

Well, a lot of eggs have gone missing. But there's more to it than that. On the tank floor, I noticed trios of eggs here and there when previously there were quartets or quintets. All of them were fertile. The only possible conclusion - the parents had eaten all the infertile eggs, leaving the fertile eggs well alone. I am so very proud of them. The eggs should hatch soon; the fertile ones are definitely tanned/brown and one is looking very dark. A bit disappointing that not that many eggs were fertile, but I should do comfortably better than my last hatch count of about 20-30.

Next: the Seussis! Surely, with all those hormones in the water, they might spawn...but as I said earlier, my 'alpha' female isn't looking quite as gravid as I might hope. Does anyone know which Corydoras are closely related to the Seussi? You know, like how nanus and napoensis are closely related to elegans.

And no one say Gossei...