C. sterbai and C. hastatus tank

[aquachromis]

I have 10 sterbai and 10 hastatus coming in next week. While they're in quarantine I'm planning on setting up a tank/tanks for them. I've read that both species are fairly easy to breed. So, I'm wondering if I could keep them both on a 40 gallon breeder tank and have them both successfully reproduce? I'm willing to give them each their own tank if necessary, but I have a 40 breeder currently sitting empty.

[Joost]

I have 4 breeding groups together in one tank, and that works out just fine. They all spawn regularly

[apistomaster]

C. sterbai are likely to eat most of the C. hastatus eggs since they like to eat their own eggs.
I recommend starting your 10 C. hastatus out in a 10 gal tank with a good growth of Hornwort.
Feed them mainly newly hatch brine shrimp at least 2 times a day. Both the adults and the fry eat baby brine shrimp(bbs). Keep this C. hastatus colony confined to the 10 gal tank until you have accumulated about 40 fish. Then move the colony to a tank similar to a 20 US gal long style. I find I get much better hatches from C. hastatus when I keep them in soft water. I try to keep the TDS between 40 and 75 ppm. The pH is usually 6.6 to 7.0. Immediately after every water change they will enter a spawning frenzy. I change about half their water each week until the colony becomes about 100 plus. Once I have more than 100 I make a 75% water changes every 4 or 5 days. A 20 long can hold up to 200 C. hastatus counting all the adults, juveniles and larvae which tend to hang out among the Hornwort spikes. I supplement their diet with live black worms and earth worm sticks but I mainly rely on bbs(about 80% of their diet). I keep mine at 82 to 84*F. To support so many I run a 160 gph Power head attached to a sponge filter, an AquaClear 50 with a broad surface area prefilter over the inlet and an air stone bubbling vigorously. This combo provides a filtration turn over rate close to 260 gph for a 20 gal long. I often keep a colony of Cherry Shrimp along with my C. hastatus colonies.

I don't recomend trying to keep C. hastatus with C. sterbai. The C. sterbai require a different approach to breeding them in any numbers. I use mainly a diet of live worms for Corydoras sterbai breeders. Here are a couple photos of how I set up my Corydoras hastatus breeding tanks. I add the pile of hollow ceramic bio-media to provide the newly hatch larvae more hiding places.

[Joost]

I remove the eggs and hatch them in another tank

[aquachromis]

Thanks for the replies. The C. hastatus will be going into a 10 gallon when I get them anyway so that works. I'll just need to find some hornwort or similar plant. The C. sterbai will go into a 20 gallon long. I'll probably keep them there until the 40 gallon breeder is set up, then transfer them there, and eventually move the C. hastatus to the 20 gallon long.

I read a post yesterday about breeding C. sterbai so I assume I'll have to remove their eggs when I find them anyway. Any suggestions on what other Cory species would make good tank mates for the C. sterbai? I was thinking of stocking 2 or 3 corydoras species in the 40 breeder. Along with some otocinclus and maybe one species of tetra?

[apistomaster]

You can keep the Corydoras sterbai with other Corydoras or in a community tank indefinitely. However, prior to breeding them isolating the breeders and the sexes for a couple weeks before placing them in the actual breeding tank will increase the yield of eggs. The fry can take bbs as their first foods and once they have made the transition from larvae to fry I use mostly live bbs. They soon grow to a large enough size where feeding the fry both live worms and bbs will promote rapid growth with the fry reaching 3/4' within about 4 months. Permanent breeding colony set ups do not work well with C. sterbai as they do with C. hastatus. Using moderately soft water will increase the numbers of fry which are produced and survive.

[Teddifish]

Would anyone happen to have a small school (6 - 9) hastatus for sale? I keep hoping . . .

[apistomaster]

Would anyone happen to have a small school (6 - 9) hastatus for sale? I keep hoping . . .

I may be able to help you out later this summer and by then we can use cheap Priority Mail.
I have also seen C. hastatus for sale by www.thewetspotropicalfish.com/fish but only once or twice a year.
www.corysrus.com and anubiasdesign@yahoo.com also occasionally list them.
Corydoras hastatus remain fairly rare in the trade because there are few exporters of fish from Brazil's Pantanal area, the largest fresh water wetlands in the world. It is a big disease ridden swamp with only a few uniquely endemic and desirable species of tropical fish.
I tried for nearly 4 decades to get true Corydoras hastatus. For most of those years wholesalers marketed C. pygmeus as C. hastatus and many books perpetuated the error. Now we are much better informed so distributors no longer can so easily pass off C. pygmeus as C. hastatus.

[Teddifish]

Thanks so much

I'll have even more algae for them to munch on as the summer progresses, so I will keep crossing my fingers