Do females become egg-bound ever?

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 25 Oct 2004, 07:36

I'm concerend my corydoras are going to become egg-bound (if this even occurs in cordoras). I recently moved the whole school (plus some first gen. babies) into my 120 gallon from a 30. I've been working hard to drop the hardness & pH a bit & have been doing regular water changes in addition to socks stuffed with peatmoss hanging in my tanks.

So far no luck

My concern is mounting just in that the female are seem to be quite large now. Their underbellies are very white & protrude quite a bit.

I've always had an issue of not having enough males (some how I got a 1:4 ratio in the wrong direction

) and have 3 males for my 15 females - this is why I added the first gen. babies (parents are from 3 seperate spawns in 2 different cities, inbreeding not really an issue at this stage) so the males would mature & be able to help out. Still my corydoras have managed to breed pretty regularily once a month & in fairly large numbers - but could it be that the younger babies are getting in the way or not helping to start the spawning or something?

I've just been feeding them up on lots & lots of veggies right now, but I can try going into dry spell if it really becomes necessary. (Also in the tank are tinfoil barbs, clown loaches & goldfish - so no issues with them).

*sigh* Any suggestions? Do I need to really worry about them binding?

I've also been having a diatom issue - I clean the sides of the tank regularily but this might be detering the fish (I've been looking for alterate spawning ideas for them - but so far come up with nothing - clown loaches will eat broad-leaf plants).

Nes.

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 27 Oct 2004, 23:00

Don't be shy, you won't be judged if you can offer an advise at all

.

I'm going to sell about 5 of my adult females so the ratio will be bought down to 10:3 + my juveniles.

I've swtiched to just feeding floating foods effectively creating a 'dry period' just for the corys & forgoing this weeks waterchange (which really does pain me to no end, want...to...clean!!), so the other fish are getting food as well as a few of the smarter cory - but for the most part it's the dry season

Hopefully I'll have some more little ones really soon.

Nes.

Post by **corybreed** » 28 Oct 2004, 00:15

I would not worry about the Corys becoming egg bound. I have never heard of it occuring. If your fish are spawning regularly why do you think they are egg bound?

Mark

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 29 Oct 2004, 06:25

because they havn't been spawning *sigh* I moved them a month & half ago, just days before they were supposed to spawn again. Since then I've been fighting to get the parameters right & I've had NO luck with a new spawn.

All the females are very large with big white protruding bellies - I know they are ready to spawn again. I'm having a HUGE diatom problem in that tank though (which is quickly becoming a small problem again

yeah!!).

Would the coverage of the tank walls in goop cause them to not want to spawn? Or is it throwing the balance off?

Right now we're going back to the drawing board so it's back to dry season then rain storm & lots of cool water

Little concerning for the other fish in the tank, but I don't think it will be that stressfull

Also I've had 2 fish of other species die recently of egg-binding (inc. my very special goldfish

) so I'm really paranoid about it

Nes.

Post by **corybreed** » 29 Oct 2004, 13:19

I think once you get the water parameters right your fish will start spawning again. What is the "goop" on the walls of your tank?

Mark

Post by **Coryman** » 29 Oct 2004, 13:23

I think the best place to start would be to read the first sticky post I put at the beginning of this forum and then give us all the necessary information. At the moment there is very little to go on. There may very well be a simple answer.

Ian

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 29 Oct 2004, 18:39

Sorry I guess I've been kinda scatterbrained lately

----------------------------------------------------------

1. Water parameters
a) Temerature range: 78 - 80 F
b) pH - 7.4
c) GH } moderate hardness (trying to drop)
d) KH }
e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, levels - I had a spike about a month ago for a longe story but back to being almost nill because the tank is under-stocked
f) Water change frequency - once weekly religiously & someteims twice
(Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings).

2. Tank set up
a) Size - 120 gallons
b) Substrate - small sized dark gravel
c) Filtration - eheim classic
d) Furnishings - lava rock, slate caves, resin driftwood, fake plants, live floating plants
e) Other tank mates - tinfoil barbs, common goldfish, clown loaches
f) How long has it been set-up? - 6 months with a veriaty of occupants

3. Symptoms / Problem description
Not spawning

4. Action taken (if any)
Going thru a dry season which is helping get ride of the diatoms

______________________________________________________

so I really don't know what I'm doing wrong with this water , maybe it really is just the diatoms. I've also cut back on the bloodworms a little bit - I suppose that could be related.

Nes.

Post by **Coryman** » 29 Oct 2004, 22:41

To start with Corys are not vegetarian and need a diet with insect larvae and crustaceans in it, frozen blood worm, daphnia and tubifex are all good, but in small doses (No big helpings)

All the three other tank mates will with out a doubt eat any eggs that appear and have probably done so already.

One large water change might just trigger them off. I would suggest using water ten degrees F cooler but this will very likely trigger of an ich infection with the clown loach, as they are a species that are prone to it.

The best bet would be to put the Corys in a smaller tank of their own to breed and just use two females and the three males.

Ian

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 30 Oct 2004, 06:32

That's why I've been on such vigilant gaurd, I usually remove the eggs anyway & they can be such big spawns that having a few eaten is not an issue. I check all sides of the tank everyday ever for signs of eaten eggs (that little white circle they leave after the eggs have been burst)

I can move a few into a 33 gallon with my telescope - but I've found that doesn't seem to really be enough room for the cory - they are so energetic I feel bad keeping them in a small tank.

The cory are feed:
- zucinni
- spinach } mostly for clown loaches but available to cory
- algea pellets
- shrimp pellets
- bloodworms
- tubifex
- goldfish pellets } really for goldfish

- glass worms
- daphnia/krill
- snail eggs

I'll try to add some more shelled & insect larva to their diet, I'm not really happy with the shrimp pellets anyway.

I droped the tank level down in half, turned off the heaters & set the spraybar to make it rain

tomorrow or sunday I'll re-fill with cool water. Funny enough my tinfoils are actually moving around the tank more now with less water

.

Nes.

Post by **Coryman** » 30 Oct 2004, 11:43

To be honest the tank size for breeding Corys is not that important, here are a couple of shots of my set up, the largest tans are the ones on the top and are 24" x18" x 14" high and hold 18 gallons. the majority are 18" x 12" x 10" high (8 gallons).

If you are not squeamish chopped earth worms are an excellent food and can be cultured very easily.

Ian

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 30 Oct 2004, 23:56

Sweet fishroom

I've been thinking alot about what you said actually & am considering moving my corys & maybe trying to tell off some females for some more males.

I'm just getting such odd behaviours from them. I'd expected the cory to school together - but they all space out around the tank & just sorta swim around - I suppose that's what happens when you pick up such a domesticated strain as albino.

Maybe I'll keep 6/7 and pick up a second dwarf strain.

I've actually tried culturing earthworms for my oscars - but I just get soooo grossed out by them

. I think I'll start it up again, or else go with some black-worm. Frozen food is proving much too expensive so I'm going to try going live

Nes.

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 01 Nov 2004, 07:08

Good news!!

I found some egg-shells today when I was filling up the tank again. Not really enough that the whole school spawned, but I know a few did so it's nice to know my water's fine after all - they just needed a bit of a push

Thanks for the help & pacients, in future I'll try to be a little more co-herant

Nes.

silvernes · Post by **silvernes** » 08 Nov 2004, 23:52

Yeah - you guys were right

Within a week of moving to a new tank one of my females layed some infertile eggs (which were eaten quite quickly) and just generally the 9 cory I've decided to keep look a lot happier in a smaller tank. I'm still quite at odds with that though.

I know that my bettas also do well in smaller tanks where they can hold their terrotory more easily - but corydoras?

Oh well, all's well in the cory house anyway - if anyone in the Toronto area is looking for about 30 albino cory between 4 - 10 months... ;)

Nes.