Breeding Corydoras metae

All posts regarding the care and breeding of these catfishes from South America.
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ZeroZ
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Breeding Corydoras metae

Post by ZeroZ »

Has anyone bred this fish, if, how did you do?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Silurus »

It's all in Ian's book (another shameless plug for the book).
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

I don't want to buy that book yet, so I ask again: Has anyone bred the Coryoras Matea?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Coryman »

HH,

Thanks for the plug :wink:

ZeroZ,

In a word Yes :D


http://www.corydoras.myby.co.uk/spawning_log_08.htm

Ian 8)
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

I have readed that one, have you written it?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

When you put them in the tank, did you change water (50%) every day whit cooler water? Did you feed them whit frozen mosqitoworms when changing water? After how long time in the tank did they spawn?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by madattiver »

i have breed c. metae in the past.. and the key to breeding them is conditioning.. make sure you feed them alot of "meaty" foods over a period of 2 weeks.. i usually feed bloodworms in the morning.. brine shrimp in the evening... and once you notice the female to become "ripe" or plump with eggs i would recomend doing the cooler water change.. i usually drop the temp from around 76 degrees F to 70 degrees F and that does the trick. if they are in a tank by themselves u should see eggs first thing in the morning.. and if they don't spawn the first try.. keep the feeding up and try it again in a few days after that.

if they are in a comunity tank.. that is another set of problems with that. the eggs will be eaten by any other fish in the tank.. and if you aren't there watching the spawn and removing the eggs as they place them.. there isn't much of a chance that u will see any of the eggs at all

most everything is in the spawning log ian wrote.. he is "the man" when it comes to spawning cory's.. so read careful.. take everything in.. and try to duplicate everything he does
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

Hello again, i got a 37L aquarium that i can breed in. The fishes are quite new bought so it is best waiting a wile.
Should I feed them in the big aquarium and later when i think they're ready move them to the smaller and then do water changes?
This is my setup:

¤ Tetra Spong filter
¤ Gravel 0.8-1.2mm
¤ One little root whit much Javamoss
¤ Floating Javamoss?
¤ One cave
¤ and???

After how long time will they spawn?

Thank you for helping me !
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Coryman »

ZeroZ,

OK. It's been more than twenty years since I first bred C. metae buy I can still recall the event vividly because I spent hours perched on top of step ladders with camera poised, ( the C. matae were in one of the tanks on the top row) just to get the mating shot you see in the spawning log.

They do take a bit of encouragement to get them started, but first you have to get them in the best possible condition first and this intails plenty of good quality food, I had a good supply of Daphnia at thhat time so all my fish recieved this at least three if not four times a week, on the other days they recieved either bloodworm, white worm, tubifex or chopped earth worm. All live foods were fed in the evening, in the mornings everything was fed either soaked flake or Tetra tabimin.

At that time I was in the habit of changing water once a week in all my tanks, each one having 30% -50% of the water changed and replaced with water of the same temperature within a few degrees. It is only when it looks like the females are ready to spawn that I will give them a cold water change, then I will use water that is 10 to 15 degrees F cooler (7.5 deg C) Water changes were made at least a couple of hours before the evening feed.

My group of C. metae consisted of two males and two females and when the time was right for them to spawn the two males chassed and pestered the larger of the two females, then when she was ready see picked on one male to mate with and totally ignored the other one, staying true to the one she picked. In fact the none spawning pair stayed well away from the spawning pair untill the spawning session was over.

Your 37 L tank is plenty large enough to house a group of 6 C. metae (2 females - 4 males) and the furnishings are OK but I would use a large sponge filter, I am not sure of the size of the Tetra sponge filter. To speed things up in the 37 L I would start it off by using water from your large tank, this will mature the sponge filter quicker.

Hope all this helps

Ian
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

thx
Last edited by ZeroZ on 03 Sep 2003, 16:46, edited 2 times in total.
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Coryman »

ZeroZ,

The length of the project to me is imaterial, its all what you do to achieve the end result that counts and you should keep notes recording all that you do, even the things that go wrong. You can then refer to your notes at a later date. This is what I do for everything that I breed and that is how I am able to give you the information that I am. Memory is fine but it distorts with time.

The sponge filter in my opinion is not large enough for a 37 L tank. It needs something at least tree times as big.

Ian
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

Hi again! I think i'll buy a PowerHead to make the water move around:
Image

Do you think it works then?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Coryman »

ZeroZ,

All you need to do is get a larger sponge filter. A power head will not help at all.

Ian
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Post by ZeroZ »

Why do I need a larger one? I just thought that i was needing to get the water move? On the SpongFilter pagage it says "For aquariums up to 50L."

I found a pictures of tetra billi filter: Image
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Coryman »

You the water movement yes but you also need it filtered efficiently, power heads push the water through to fast and that's no good, you need a steady flow that alows the bacteria to do its job.

Ian
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Post by ZeroZ »

I think I allready got the biggest Tetra Billi filter! Damn I want to breed this creatures, but now I can't... :cry:
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by Coryman »

Bio foam do a double sponge filter one of these would do fine. If you cannot get one then you can always make your own, its not hard to see how they work .

Ian
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

Hello again Coryman! Thank you for taking your time at this post, very friendly of you!

Do I need this one :
Image

Can my Elite 799 drive it?

I've got some questions that i think you forgot to answer about:

Did you feed them in the same aquarium that you breed in?
Do you think that I can feed them whit live Brine Shrimps and frozen Mosqitoworms, to condition them up?

Is it good using a "large" leafed plastic plant, and Javamoss? Or should i bought any other "real" plants?
I think I got 2 Females and 3 Males, I have feeded the quite alot whit TetraMin, Hikari Tropical Algae Wafers and Frozen Mosqitoworms. 2 of the 5 fishes got a little bump on the stomach, and I think that is roe.


I have painted a pictures of my Corydoras how they look right now: Image
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Coryman
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Post by Coryman »

The twin sponge will do fine but it will take a little while to mature the sponges, it would help if you set it up and run it in a mature tank for at laest a week.

Forget the algae wafers, Cory's are not natural algae eaters.

I have never used artifical plants, I don't like the look of them.

Feeding! If your fish eat what you give them straight away it is good. The choise of what you give them is yours. But any live foods are benificial.

If you have read the 14 spawning logs on my site and the variuos articles that are there then you should have found the answers to most if not all of your questions.

Ian
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

thx
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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ZeroZ
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...

Post by ZeroZ »

I have feeded them now for one month, and i know that atleast one of them is a female, because i have looked from above and the whole boddy is much broader. She's not so fat, but when i feed them she becomes very ripe and plump, but after a hour she becomes normal again. It's so hard seeing if it's ready... you got any tips?

How fat does a Corydoras Female become?!?!?!??!
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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Post by pturley »

How fat does a Corydoras Female become?!?!?!??!
You'd be amazed!

Sincerely,
Paul E. Turley
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ZeroZ
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Post by ZeroZ »

Urm... some species got more fater than others, how is the metae, is it a species that got very fat?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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ZeroZ
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... help!

Post by ZeroZ »

Anyone?
/Mathias Dahlin

Corydoras aeneus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras leucomelas
Corydoras metae
Corydoras napoensis
Corydoras zygatus
Corydoras davidsandsi
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