Corydoras bilineatus vs. habrosus egg size??

[Becki]

Last December I had been trying to breed my bilineatus, to no avail (at least that's what I thought at the time). So, after a few months of attempting to get them going, I moved them out of the breeder tank, and moved my habrosus back in. I had bred the habrosus before, but lost all the fry. I knew that the habrosus would breed like rabbits. Well, within an hour of putting the habrosus in the tank, I find it FILLED with eggs. I could've SWORE that there were no eggs when I placed them in there. Literally hundreds of eggs. I counted. So many, I don't know how I could have POSSIBLY overlooked them. What was odd, though, was that the eggs were significantly smaller than the eggs that the habrosus had laid before. I wondered if being in a 15 gal with yeast-activated co2 had affected their egg size. After removing the eggs, I kept them in there for another week or so, and collected more eggs. The eggs after what I thought was the initial habrosus spawn were the 'normal' habrosus size again.

When the fry got big enough to display colors, I started to think maybe my habrosus were mutts, since the place I got them from on the internet sold pygmaeus also. Some had habrosus markings, some looked like pygmaeus, though with a body shape more like the habrosus than the pygmaeus.

Now, I'm thinking that maybe I had seriously overlooked a bileneatus spawn, since the cories that I thought were displaying pygmaeus colors are significantly larger than the habrosus juvies.

Long story short, can anyone confirm egg size for these 2 cories, that bileneatus eggs would be smaller than habrosus?? My adult bilineatus have darker coloring and are a bit more 'splotchy' than the pictures on the cat-e-log, but the juvies look like the spittin' image of the picts!!

Thanks!!

[Coryman]

Compared to the size of the fish C. bilineatus produce large numbers )100's) of very small (1 mm diameter) eggs C. habrosus on the other hand produce relatively few eggs (10's) around 1.7 mm diameter). In all Cory species the colour changes the the fry go through in many cases is very dramatic, making it just about impossible to tell which species they are. It you take a look here you will see how the patterns change.http://www.corycats.com/spawning_logs.htm

Ian