Breeding Cories for the first time

[rmc]

Hello all I'm new to the forum. I have read the article "so you want to breed corys" and think I am ready. I have 6 Cory paleatus I got from a friend that said he has already bred this group, so they are mature, and definitely of both sexes. I have a 10 gallon tank that I plan to set up with 3/8" silica sand as a substrate, use a large sponge filter for filtration, and use no heater, as the temp of the heaterless tanks in my fishroom stays at 72-75 degrees fahrenheit. I am going to put a couple floating dark green yarn spawning mops in the tank,and I plan to do cool water changes at least 10%, at least 3 times a week. I was planning to feed black worms at morning and night with maybe some sinking pellets mid day. Now the questions, for you experienced cory breeders out there,

Is the 10 gallon tank too small?
Should I include live plants?
Would java moss be better than spawning mops?
What about feeding regimen should I add or subtract anything?
Any recommendations on the sinking foods?

Sorry to ask so many questions, i just want to have some success with this. I hope to eventually be able to contribute as much knowledge as I learn to the forum in the future. Thank you in advance to anyone helping out a cory breeding noob!

[MatsP]

Sounds like your plan is reasonable. I would run your plan for a bit and see what happens.

I use JBL NovoTabs. Tetra Tabimin is similar, and also a good food for corys. Tetra Prima (aka Tetra Color Bits) is another good food that corys seem to like.

The corys I've bred (C. sterbai & C. metae) have laid their eggs on the glass.

--
Mats

[rmc]

I've read C. paleatus lays eggs on the glass as well, but they like to do so behind plants or mops I guess. I've got 4 C. sterbai. Great fish! Congrats on breeding that one! What size aquaria did you use to breed the C. sterbai and C. metae? How many fish in the breeding groups?

[MatsP]

I keep my corys in rather large tanks (around 200-300 liter, or 50-75g), as a community fish. I collect eggs and put them in a small container when they are laid.

--
Mats

[rmc]

Wow, as a community tank? What else do you keep in there that doesn't immediately eat their eggs? I've found the tetras/danios/barbs that I keep with corys don't leave any egg lying around too long! they love caviar! lol.

[MatsP]

I have collected eggs in my large RIO400 tank, where I had my original group of C. sterbai, and every now and again, I'd get 10-20 eggs, of which a few made it to adulthood.

Currently my C. sterbai are in a tank with

Lemon tetra

,

Prionobrama filigera

(glass bloodfin) and

Leporacanthicus triactis

. And yes, they do eat some eggs. But I rescue a few at a time, and some hathc. I'm never going to be rich from it, but I'm also not going to have hundreds of fry that I don't know what to do with ...

--
Mats

[jeff@zina.com]

In almost every community tank I've had with basic cories, I've ended up with fry that lived to adulthood. Granted, never in the hundreds of fish category like when I purposely raised them.

That said, when you're starting out, getting past the eggs/wigglers stage is the hard part. Once you get the basic feed down, you're pretty well on your way. Don't get discouraged if it takes a while, even what seems like a long while. I used a 10 gallon tank starting out, collected eggs with a drinking straw (probably killed a million or so that way...) and put them in a 2.5 gallon to hatch. Took a few months to get them past the hatching/yolk sac/first feeding stage without polluting the water or fungusing (Meth Blue and H2O2 solved that). After that it seemed normal.

The various guides here will give you everything you need. Conditioning the breeders with live worms was the way to easy production for me but most basic cories do fine with just lots of good food and lots of good clean water.

Jeff

[rmc]

Well about 2 weeks ago I finally got down to business and set up a 10 gallon as a breeding tank. After about 2 or 3 days the 5 paleatus were producing eggs. I collected 19 after 24 hours and placed them in a quart container with tank water, meth blue and a bubbler with slow aeration. Nothing hatched out of that bunch, but then they started laying eggs on the glass, in large numbers. I have about 75-80 eggs on the glass right now, and I pulled the parents out. I'll give an update in a few days. Thanks to everyone that posted with helpful advice!

[Sweety]

Good look RMC, I've had Bronze cory's that have laid in my old community tank but as my fry tanks were full I had to leave the eggs. I was very shocked when a week later I saw a couple of cory fry swimming around in the tank & 3 even made it to become adults. Now this might not sound such a big deal but I had 2 dozen tetras & 3 breeding pairs of angle fish in the tank

[MatsP]

Yes, best of luck with bringing the fry on!

--
Mats

[rmc]

2 little hatchlings so far! They look like tadpoles. Very cool! I can't wait to try with some of my other cories! Thanks for all the comments, it's my birthday today, and this is a great present! I've read to leave them be (without food) a couple days before feeding then try baby brine shrimp and microworms, what do you all think?

[catmandave]

I add some plant material, usually a small clump of java moss and a ramshorn snail to the hatching container. This adds microscopic first foods - follow this with micro worms and you should be off to a good start. Wishing you luck

[rmc]

Will do. I've got at least 12 now, and I've been adding bbs and microworms daily. Some of the big ones have orange bellies so I know they're eating some bbs. What about paramecium? I have a few cultures that I feed many of my smaller fry like tetras and danios, would they take that?

[catmandave]

Now that they're are taking microworms and bbs there's no need for paramecium.Make frequent water changes and watch em grow.

[rmc]

Made a small WC today and added a sponge filter. Can't wait til they're big enough to move so I can try the next species!