Corydoras Hastatus eggs!

[Thomas1209]

Hello folks,

I purchased 10 corydoras Hastatus this saturday, the 18th. Most of them were already fully adult. I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed a female with 1 egg between her fins this evening. I waited till they stopped and then tried to find the eggs. I found 6 eggs so far, but damn, they're really tiny.
I keep them in a well planted tank with sand as a substrate. Temperature is about 25 degrees celsius and I use normal tapwater (Ph~7,8). Since I bought some more bottom dwelling fish I threw in lots of tubifex and some tablets. The tubifex thrive well in the tank and the hastatus often visit the spot to eat some.

I have several options on how to raise them;
1. Leave them in the tank, it is a 80cm tank with 2 hemiodontichtys, 3L010a's, 3L134 and the group of Hastatus.
2.Put them in a guppy breeding container so that I have a constant temperature and I can keep an eye on them. (bare bottom)
3. Put them in a bowl or an Aqua40 with a small layer of sand in it/spunge filter/heater.

I also have a question about the food they prefer. I have liquifry No1, JBL nobil fluid "artemia", spirulina powder and an artemia powder. Which one do you guys prefer?

Hopefully I can raise some of these gorgeous fish. Any tips would be well-appreciated.

Cheers,
Thomas

[bekateen]

Congratulations! I've heard hastatus is not so commonly bred in captivity. Good for you. Pictures please if you can.

Cheers, Eric

[MarcW]

Congratulations!

I would try putting the eggs in the guppy box, I guess this is similar to a fry trap/breeder box?

All of those foods sound good to me maybe alternate between them, so long as the artemia aren't too large for them, they can cause blockages in the digestive system of very small fry especially if there are any egg cases still in the artemia mix.

I said to keep them in a small box in the main tank as they will need to have food very close to them to begin with, it will also be easy to keep the water clean as you can flow water through it from the main tank. Just be careful that food doesn't start to break down and start to cause the fry issues if they are sitting in it for too long.

Good luck!

[Thomas1209]

Thanks lads!

The adult hastatus are still quite skittish, hard to take photos of them. I will take some photos of the eggs this evening.

Marcw, the artemia is liquid or a really fine powder so if this is too big, nearly everything will. I put the eggs in the guppy/breeder box for now indeed. I need such a container with a pump in it so the waterquality stays good. I will order one via ebay but that might take up to 40 days...

I will keep them in this box this time, but maybe the fry will be so tiny that they will swim through the gaps of the box. We'll see. I'll keep you guys updated!

Cheers,
Thomas

[MarcW]

Hi Thomas,

If the artemia is in a liquid form or powder you should be fine. The concern with intestinal blockages is only really relevant if you are using eggs to hatch out artemia, it can be hard to ensure that all the eggs have hatched and to guarantee there are no egg cases still in the mix.

I think I know the boxes you are talking about now, if it does have holes the fry will likely escape. Rather than ordering via eBay, you could try looking at something like this: https://www.ebo-aquaristik.de/produkt-k ... /aufzucht/

Either the floating rings which I have used, or the glass hang on fry raisers. I have never used this company so cannot comment on their service, but maybe ordering something like that from Germany would be quicker than the eBay option?

[Thomas1209]

I will try to get my hands on them on websites here in holland. I do think, seeing this small amount of eggs, that they are likely to spawn many more times. We'll see where this goes with the fry, and otherwise I'll change the plan. The eggs get that darkened color at this moment and you can see that there's something in it.

[MarcW]

Sounds like the eggs are developing normally. Good luck, let us know how they get on.

[Thomas1209]

Here are some pictures of the eggs. Everything is still looking great. The adults are in good condition and are getting more confident to get to the front of the tank. I am very curious if the fry will also swim in mid-water like the parents do, or if they wiggle like a normal cory.

[bekateen]

Nice pictures. Thanks a lot!

Cheers, Eric

[Thomas1209]

Update: 2 of the eggs have hatched already and the others will probably hatch this evening/night. The fry are so tiny that they could swim through the gaps in the guppy breeder, which even young shrimp can't. I managed to take some pictures and I'll upload them later. Since my own made box was still in the tank, I moved the eggs and fry to that tank. The thing I noticed is that they don't seem to have a big yolk sack, so I'll feed a little bit later tonight. I am also thinking of adding 3-4 of my smallest crystal reds to keep the biofilm of the bottom, maybe it works.

I came home this evening and I noticed not only that, but also a lot of eggs in the parents tank. Remarkably, nearly all of the eggs were placed in the moss called "Monosolenium Tenerum". Probably the fine texture triggers them to put their eggs over there. There were also a couple of eggs found on the glass near the moss, this wasn't the case in the first spawn. I took all the eggs I could find and placed them in the guppy breeder. if they are about to hatch, I'll put them in my own made tank. I found around 25 eggs.

Also I have seen a young fry in the main tank near the moss. I was quite surprised when I saw it swim about 20cm in height against the filter. The fry don't seem to be very powerful swimmers yet. They can hang/swim on the glass but most time they rest on the bottom.

[Thomas1209]

Here are some more pictures of the fry.

[MChambers]

I have my C. hastatus in a community tank with some other Corydoras and male Endler livebearers. The tank is heavily planted and I find juvenile hastatus from time to time.

[bekateen]

More wonderful photos. Thank you!

Continued success,
Eric

[MarcW]

Great pictures thanks for sharing.

What are you planning to feed them with?

[Thomas1209]

It's been a while since I gave you guys an update. I have 3 fry since the 25th and they are still thriving well. I see full bellies and they have gotten a striped pattern.
The fry grew noticeably but are still really tiny(less than a cm). They tend to stick to the vertical sides or rest on the pipe. I had about 25 eggs and I was waiting till they hatched so I could remove them to my box but I didn't see any. When I took a closer look I noticed some empty egg shells so I think the fry were able to swim through the gaps on their own. I then put the remaining eggs in a closed container and I have put 3 "new" fry in the container. Those are really tiny compared to the older ones. I will try to take pictures this weekend.

I feed them 3 times a day with 3 drops of Liquifry No.1 , a few drops of Liquid artemia and a bit of artemia powder. I mix this up and put it into the 2L container. I wipe the bottom clean twice a day and a few minutes later I will remove the biofilm/left over food with a small air tube. After that they get the new food.

[MarcW]

Thanks for the update, it sounds like you are doing a good job!

Maybe, as the fry are so tiny, some of the ones which escaped might survive in any plants or hiding places in the main aquarium.

It must be really challenging to get pictures of fry that tiny! In the past to try and get some reasonable pictures of eggs/fry I have used one of the cheap clip on mobile phone macro lenses which are available from Amazon/eBay, the only problem then is you have to get the lens very close to the subject! Around 1-3 cm, I've almost got my phone wet a few times when using the macro lens!

[Thomas1209]

Here are some pictures of the fry. I think around 5-10 newly hatched ones are in the breeding box and there are still a dozen or so that need to hatch. I did notice that the spawning seemed to have slowed down, don't have a clue why. I also added a picture where you can see the difference in pattern and size between the fry. The bigger one is around 7 days older.

[Tetranerd]

All the reading and emailing I’ve done on this species seems to point to the fact that these Cories are easier to breed in a group or colony setup. The adults of the species of Corydoras will leave fry alone, and as long as there are no predators and there is plenty of plants in the tank, you should be able to get this species to spawn. Clean tank and good food. (Same magic combo for lots of )
If you have plenty of plants, and your seeing some free swimming fry with no yolk sac then your doing something right.
Keep your parents well fed and happy, keep your substrate clean, and be careful on your water changes!!!
Congrats on your success, hope your colony of cory’s Continues to grow!!

My group has tripled or more without me doing anything special to raise the fry. Heavily planted 20 galling long tank, keep substrate of fine sand . I would notice a tiny fry every once in a while or a new tiny silver baby join the parade of fish as they follow each other around the tank. I did nothing special help and the fish do the hard work.
If the fish is spawning, then you have met the needs of the fish.

Keep up the good work.

[Thomas1209]

Hi Tetranerd. I think I did do the right thing for my tank. I bought a small group of 9 tanichtys albonubes to place with them but I don't think it was a succes. I once noticed a tiny fry on the glass in the main tank, I took a photo and when I turned my head for half a second it was already gone. He must've been eaten by the danio's since I did notice that when I dropped some eggs they just ate them without hesitation. I am planning to sell these this Saturday so that I will hopefully find some other fry.

Every second day I collect all the eggs out of the moss and put them in a small container. When they hatch I put them in a self made container with constant water from the main tank flowing in. I feed them 3 times a day and every evening I rub all the biofilm/excessive food from the walls. I suck the dirt up after that so I have a clean tank. I have quite some big fry already, but it has already been a month and I have no idea how quick these should grow. I will try to post some pictures this weekend