Gold laser and albino corys interbreeding!!!

[Corycory]

I've got my albino corys for over a year and all the previous batches turned out albino corys.
Then I got baby gold lasers in March and now several months later I noticed there were a couple of cory fry with black eyes. I know albinos can throw bronze corys but since mine never did before I was a bit surprised. Then I noticed the gold laser males chasing albino females. Finally I caught them on camera and you can see a video below of albino mama and gold laser dady in a T-position and then the albino dropping the eggs between her fins.
Isn't that amazing? They are indeed from the same species after all?



Here are a couple of pictures of offspring that hatched a couple of weeks ago. From 30 eggs only 5 hatched but all were black eyed ones. One was dead or I don't know I killed it while transfering form the net and I killed another one by accident myself a week later taking it out of the water with the moss, stupid me. But I still have 3 of them doing fine:





And here todays spawn transferred to another tank. It took me two hours to manage to save these from hungry clown loaches, platies and guppies!!!




Thought I'd mention it because at first I was told the eggs and fry couldn't be lasers because they weren't orange. They indeed weren't orange, looked like normal albino eggs, slightly yellowish/beige when hatched. The babys yolk sac was greenish/yellowish colour, not orange. I'll leave them to you guys to see if the fry I already have are bronze corys or gold lasers but they were definately an alibno mama/gold laser daddy spawn. This is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago right after the T-position but I was too late to catch it on video:

[Corycory]

Also, there are 3 pygmy corys in the tank with the eggs. I moved them only a couple of days ago to try to breed them but my other corys spawned first. Should I remove the pygmys? Will they eat the hatched aeneus fry?

[Richard B]

They are indeed from the same species after all?

I believe these are different species albeit closely related. What you have are hybrid corys.

[Corycory]

I guess hybrids are forbidden
I can't wait to see how they turn out. I can't get them very well on picture with my camera, but the 3 fry I have so far are brownish and have two darker lines on both sides of the head starting from the eyes and leading towards their mouth similar to otocinclus or pygmy corys if you've looked at them straight in their face.

I took a bit better picture and you can see the lines on the head:

[Suckermouth]

Since the albinism trait is recessive and therefore will not be expressed, we can predict that they will look like some sort of gold laser x aeneus cross. What that looks like I don't know...

[Corycory]

I guess I will find out. Hopefully I don'g jinx it somehow as I do want these to grow up to adulthood. These 3 are in a breeder box in the main tank. The new batch has a cycled tank to themselves should they decide to hatch.
Will my 3 pygmys eat newborn cory fry or should I move the pygmys out of the fry tank just in case? Any experience anyone? I've read pygmys don't eat fry but then again who knows.
There are also 3 red rili shrimp in there but they are only juvis so I guess these are safe.

[ColleenT]

Congrats and good luck. I don't know if pygmies will eat them. my own pygmies are quite small so i would guess not, but if you have another tank, maybe it's safer to move them.

[Corycory]

Thank you.
I was wondering, hasn't anyone kept a record of gold lasers breeding as I am struggling to find pictures or videos of gold laser fry on the net anywhere? I looked at some bronze fry and they are similar looking to mine so we'll see what comes out of these guys. But then again I can't compare to gold laser fry.

[donpetty]

Hi CoryCory,
I had a similar experience with my Orange (gold) lasers and Green (normal) Aeneus, I used the Aeneus to stimulate my Orange into spawning but it backfired and I got a batch of hybrids, they are nice fish but; its frowned upon greatly and after much consideration I decided to make them full-time (for life) community fish and not cull them as was suggested. I have them in a community tank now to keep them from furthering the line so to speak.
They will not be used or housed in any of my breeding groups.
Nice looking fish tho~
Here is the post from that exchange: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=35973
Take care!
Don

[Corycory]

Yeah, it's not desirable, then again half the fish we keep in aquariums are selectively bred and inbred for colours or even hybridized. Generally, I don't see a reason why someone won't like a bit better looking bronze corys and probably healthier too When I had albinos only in the tank all the hatches were albinos so the parents I bought must have been inbred so much as to erase any bronze genes out of them. How good is that? Before I got the laser corys, my initial research didn't find any matches for them interbreeding so I thought they don't. I am wondering, if it's possible for these species to interbreed in aquariums maybe it has happened in the wild too? I can't cull healthy fish so as far as I am concerned these will live.
I'll keep the offspring for my own pleasure. The problem is todays spawn produced over 100 eggs.
All of them had albino mama and some of them spawned with albino dads, some with laser dads so I'll have to see what and how many come out. The laser males are so much faster getting to a female .I think I've got two laser females as well but they haven't spawned yet and weren't interested at all today either. Since the albino females started spawning with the laser males, the hatch rate is super low. Only a handful don't turn white by the next morning and I think the eggs are just infertile because they are hard to the touch where eggs with fungus I've had before are kind of soft, so I might just have enough survivors for a nice big shoal
I've had 3 batches of spawns so far with lasers. From 15-ish eggs the first time only 5 survived. They were 4 albinos and 1 black eyed. All bar one albino got sucked out through the tiny holes of the breeder trap by my clown loaches. From the second batch that I have 3 survivors, only 5 eggs from over 30 hatched. This time the spawn is way bigger and I think I'll know tomorrow morning when I see the eggs. I might as well have a lot of albinos that ain't hybrids.

I'll let you guys know how they turn out if I manage to grow them to adulthood.

[donpetty]

Corycory,
I generally remove the eggs with a square Tupperware pan and a razorblade
then I run an air stone and 2 drops of methylene blue and use the pan as the hatchery.
I wonder what your hatch rate would be if you removed them
and hatched them away from the parents and predation from the others in the tank?
For fry;
I grow them out in 10's then have a 55 for fry grow out until I find homes or sell them off.
The only fish I trust with the eggs have been my Aspidoras as they (so far) ignore eggs and fry.
I use spawning mops weighted to the bottom in my Panda tank otherwise they eat eggs as fast as they spawn!
They lay the eggs in the yarn and can't find all of them so whatever I don't find (and remove) tends to survive
and they emerge as youngsters, so they survive.
Once these albino laser fry grow a bit post a few pictures, I'd be interested to see if the albinos have a gold stripe!
Sounds kinda cool!~
Don

[Corycory]

Yes, I forgot to mention I always remove the eggs from the adults and put them in a fine net with a very good flow. That's the best that worked for me so far, tried with antifungus meds, separate containers too, air stones.... I put an air stone a couple of times but it makes no difference because I position the net straight into the filter flow which is quite strong in this tank. No fry or eggs can survive if left for over a few minutes in the tank I actually literally push the fish away from my fingers and eggs and today I was hiding them with plastic cups until they harden a bit so I can remove them. I burst quite a few This last batch has been moved to a tank I setup about a month and a half ago to actually breed the lasers and my 3 lonely pygmy corys. I actually only moved the 3 pygmys I have 2 days ago to try to spawn them to increase their number but this has to wait now I guess. They look so happy there sharing the space with only 3 shrimp that I feel sorry to move them back to a hungry community tank.

Yep, I'll post a picture once they start looking like something

[Coriequest]

Interesting thread!

[Corycory]

I am just wondering, why did my fish hybridize if I have 7 albinos(3 females, 4 males) and 6 laser corys(2 females, 4 males). It's not like they are short of their own species in the tank. From the moment I put the lasers in the tank when they were still young I noticed that they did not group with their own kind, but mixed with the albinos quite readily. Also, I was reading that in nature corys of several different specieas are found co-existing together as a norm. So do they mix in nature too so easily? Or are the offspring infertile so the mixes don't last?
Is there anywhere I can find info on which cory can hybridize with which so this can be avoided by not so experienced corydoras keepers. If mine have hybridized without a problem(and I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for the black eyed cory fry that started appearing) I am sure others have too and there are people that keep several species in one tank and specialize in breeding and selling? Maybe hybrids are out there too already unfortunately.
If they grow up, I'll try to spawn the offspring to see if they are indeed infertile.

Also, in relation to my previous comment, if gold laser corys are not aeneus(same species as albino/bronze corys), then what are they?

[donpetty]

Hi Corycory,
I have read that the lasers are more closely related to Corydoras melanotaenia.
But, regardless I think many of the Corys are distantly related and "could"
hybridize. I keep generally 2 species in each of my spawning tanks,and other than the Gold Laser/Green aeneus
cross that I experienced. I have not seen any other spawning group activity. Generally if my Corydoras trilineatus
start spawning, the Corydoras similis that are in the same tank also spawn but I have never seen them do this as a group activity. Only the one time with the Male Gold lasers and the female Aeneus. Maybe Female Aeneus are more tolerant or accepting to "odd" males?
How are your fry doing? Are the eyes still black?
Don

[Corycory]

Thank you. I'll research these.
The new batch hasn't hatched yet. There were quite a few gone "whitish" so I removed them. Not sure how many left, but certainly not many. If I get even 20 out of the over 100 eggs I'll be happy. They normally hatch in 2 and a half days so tomorrow I should have wigglers. I won't see the albinos on the white sand, but I'll see the black eyed I would think.
The other 3 will stay in the breeder box with their albino sibling for a while for closer observation.

[Corycory]

It's only an unexperienced observation and I see now gold lasers are considered more closely related to Corydoras melanotaenia and I am not objecting something I have no clue about. But the body shape of the melanotaenia is completely different than the gold lasers. Mine have very rounded head(snout) and the body is not so prolonged. Wondering why do they say they resemble the melanotaenia in body shape?

[Corycory]

Only the one time with the Male Gold lasers and the female Aeneus. Maybe Female Aeneus are more tolerant or accepting to "odd" males?

One of the times I was observing them spawning, there were 3 males(2 albino, 1 laser) chasing an albino female like crazy around the tank and guess who prevailed, the laser one. It looked to me it was a matter of who swims faster or the albino had no idea what species she is

[Corycory]

I've got wigglers. Can't even tell how many at this stage. They are impossible to see in a tank that size but there are ablinos and black eyed ones too, or so the magnifying glass says ) For some reason this tank got small seed shrimp(ostracods) infestation since setup although I've put food only a couple of times for the pygmy corys and that was just recently. I hadn't fed the 3 red rili shrimp in their at all and it seems seed and rili shimps are finding plenty to eat.
Anyway, when I turned the lights on for some reason the 3 rili shrimp and the ostracods were buzzing around the tank happily. Wondering is it because of egg shells Or do they pose a thread to the baby corys?

[Corycory]

The adult corys are laying eggs again and the lasers participating too. I think I'll leave them to it this time, morning snacks for the loaches . From the new batch of fry I was able to see only a couple of black eyed corys at a time so far, the rest are albinos but they are too small and too many places to hide, so we'll see.

[Corycory]

A video of the albino aeneus/gold laser corys. They are 2 weeks old exactly. The albino one in there is 1 month old. The breeder box is dirty from outside

[ColleenT]

Awesome! i can't wait to see what they look like as they grow. I like your floating breeder tank. Where did you get it?

[Corycory]

The breeder box is aqua one floating tank, very old one, got it in the pet shop. I have an air tube running from one the hood filter straight into the box, providing constant fresh water as those tiny holes are not enough but I recently got the hang on marina breeder box that hangs on the outside of the tank and provides a constant flow with tank water via an air pump. It's very good.
I moved the albino and the 3 black eyed ones to the fry tank so they are no longer in the breeder box, growing too quick
I was able to have a better look at the new fry and I was able to count about 7-8 black eyed at one time. I can't wait myself to see how they'll turn out. So far just bits and pieces of brown colouring on their body and brown heads.

[Corycory]

If they turn out to look like bronze corys, how am I going to know if they are pure bronze or hybrids I wonder?
The only visible difference in the adults I've noticed is that the gold laser corys have unusually long barbels compared to my albinos, they almost fold under their heads.

[ColleenT]

Sounds like a great setup for baby fish. I think you'll be able to tell. i am guessing they will look just a little different.

[Korsaaven]

Your fry shows a body pattern resembling laser fry (line from eye to mouth).

[Corycory]

The baby corys are not growing as fast as they used to in the breeder trap. I think I wasn't putting enough food in the fear I would pollute the tank and they are not so adventerous finding it either. I started putting some more from yesterday to see how it goes but is very difficult to clean after. If I had a way of collecting them all and putting in the breeder trap I would. There's a couple of "giant" ones that have grown pretty fast and there are some super tiny ones

My adult corys are gone nuts spawning at this very moment again. The clown loaches are chasing the females before they've even put eggs. I put almond leaves in the tank a couple of days ago and everyone seems to be loving it. The pleco came to my hand for the first time since I got him a year ago and tried sucking on my fingers. I am delicious

Just some pictures of the adult tank and tanks:

[Corycory]

Just to add that even the seed shrimp infestation I used to have seems to have disappeared so the competition for food must be huge with the corys somewhat prevailing it seems.

And a very poor picture of one of the older corys, couldn't focus as it kept moving but they still have the baby colours.

[Corycory]

Some pictures of the older corys. They are 3 weeks 2 days old now:

[ColleenT]

really cute. hard to tell their colors yet