Permanent Dwarf cory breeding set up

[Vess]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping on a little advice. I have limited success in the past with breeding various cory types and I have never got my dwarf species to breed - hence wanting this to be my next project.

I have a spare 48x12x12 sitting around and was hoping to make a permanent breeding colony for pygmy and habrosus. (currently around a year old)

Tank will hold around 140l of water

Ph 6.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10

Gh and KH - been a while but Edinburgh water is made of marshmallows - uber soft.

So the questions.

1) I was thinking around 26-28 degrees would be optimal, is this correct?

2) Filtration mainly from air driven sponge filters and a small external (with cover on intake)

3) Do I need to use a base - would silica sand do?

4) Feeding will be mainly live - white/banana/ microworms topped with frozen bbs -anything need to be added?

5) water changes - is it better to do little daily or larger every 2-3 days?

6) Tank mates - I was thinking shrimp as a clean up crew. Also my bristlnoses are breeding like crazy could I add a few?

Any further advise would be fantastic, thanks all for looking

Lee

[pleco_breeder]

I'm not sure about habrosus and pygmaeus, but have finally managed to start getting moderate numbers from a permanent hastatus colony. All that stats you list seem to be about the same I'm keeping mine in with exception of water change.

I think part of my early problem was doing changes too often. I was doing changes weekly and getting an ungodly number of eggs, but no fry. Once I finally got tired of fighting with them and cut the changes back to 50% monthly in conjunction with filter cleaning in tank water, just enjoying having them without all the fuss, I started seeing fry appear slowly. I may only see 5-10 new fry each month, but that's a lot better than what I was getting.

Larry

[mummymonkey]

Pygmaeus will breed rather easily in my experience and a colony can be maintained without much effort in a tank as small as 18". Habrosus require a little more work but I would still class them as easy.

I wouldn't feed white worm to pygmaeus - it's too big for them. Small amounts might be okay once or twice a week to larger habrosus. Live newly hatched brine shrimp, sinking pellets such as Tetra tabimin, pre-soaked crushed flake and small amounts of grindal and microworms are fine.

A sponge filter is okay and a thin layer of sand is ideal. Java fern and moss will ensure a regular supply of food for fry.

Pygmaeus will spawn more or les continuously. Habrosus may require a trigger such as a cold water change and I could only get them to spawn when there was lots of cover in the form of Java fern in the tank. You can get well over 100 fry from one spawn though.

I don't think the pH and hardness are that important to these species, just avoid extremes. Habrosus seemd to like the heat more than pygmaeus. I think 24 - 25 C would be fine.

Hastatus is perhaps the trickiest of the three but isn't too hard really. Again can be self maintained in a smallish tank if there is enough cover and food for the fry.

I kept a colony of shrimp with the hastatus for a while but they are quite messy so got rid of them eventually. You can't suck up the mulm the shrimp create without hoovering up catfish fry.

I still have a wee hastatus colony on the go - every so often I remove about a dozen for auctions or whatever. I also use the tank for bringing on small rasboras and tetras.

[Vess]

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!!

As the tank is a little larger I was thinking about adding a couple of other small species to it, Dicrossus Filamentosis and Otocinclus spring to mind - does anyone see these as a problem.

Again thanks for the help

Lee

[Coryman]

A 48" tank is a bit of an over kill for pygmy Corys, with a tank that size going spare I would put 2 dividers in making 3 equal divisions and then set up for breeding all three species of pygmy Corys. A fine sand substrate with a sponge filter and a potted Java fern in each chamber would set the scene. I would certainly not add any other tank mates that are larger than themselves, especially Cichlids or other Catfish, these guys will eat any Cory eggs they find. The only additions fish wise I would make would be, micro Rasbora's or small pencil fish.

Ian

[Vess]

Ian, thank you for taking the time to post

If I was going to leave it as just dwarf cory species, would I need to divide the tank? As in couldnt I have all 3 roaming around the whole area?

[jp11biod]

I have what I thought were good setups for C pygmaeus and C habrosus but neither have spawned that I am aware of. Would the presence of ramshorns mess things up?

[joe323]

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated!!
As the tank is a little larger I was thinking about adding a couple of other small species to it, Dicrossus Filamentosis and Otocinclus spring to mind - does anyone see these as a problem.

I'd have to say a firm no to the Dicrossus but I see no reason at all why otos would be detrimental to the colony. They are not egg eaters as many pencilfish are and they enjoy the exact same parameters as the dwarfs. Also, I have read of people using two different species of dwarf cories in the same aquarium in order to induce spawning. This technique was used because the initial colony of the target species was not large enough, so a second species of the 3 was added for company. Both species were successfully spawned.


Joe

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Have a look a these posts, "Food for Corydoras pygmaeus fry": <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=35069> & "Corydoras hastatus fry": <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=28130>.

One thing in a permanent set up you need to control Planaria numbers very carefully, as they will eat the eggs, and quickly can build up in number without you realising. as they are mainly nocturnal.

Personally I would add cherry shrimps, Ramshorns and MTS, they are all egg & fry safe. I'd "dither" with an Otocinclus sp. Otocinclus spawning often occurs in tanks with breeding Corydoras present.

cheers Darrel

[Vess]

Thanks Darrel, duely noted.