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So I put a group of C. aeneus in my QT to keep it cycled. They seemed relatively unhappy at first, so I added more decorations and they settled down. Two weeks ago, I woke up to a bunch of eggs all over the glass - first time I've had a spawn, so pretty exciting. They turned out to all be infertile. Wasn't trying to breed 'em, so that's OK.

This Sunday, I wake up again to eggs everywhere. By yesterday, most of the eggs were creamy-tan and if I held a light behind them, I could see wee little specks inside. I moved the jolly group of cories to another tank so I wouldn't have to displace the eggs, and put some filter material over the filter intake (had I been trying to breed, we might have set up a sponge filter, but apparently the fish didn't get that memo...

Everything looks OK so far. I'm thinking of setting up the video camera on time-lapse mode to see if I can catch the hatching...

Anyone with tips above and beyond what's in the sticky, please let me know...

-Jen

Sound like you've got it covered, Jen! Congrats. Let us know how you do.

congrats, Jen! it's always cool to find your corys breeding without even trying.

So I went in to see how I might set up the camera and did a double-take... Did I see something move in there? I've now spent half an hour staring into a tank that would, to most people, appear completely empty. My dogs think I'm insane.

All I have to say is - wow, those things are really, really small - and they are remarkably powerful swimmers for their size.

So I have a Penquin Mini Biowheel filter on the tank, with filter pad wrapped around the inlet and secured with cable ties. After seeing the size of the fry, I modified that by covering it with pantyhose as well.

My questions at this point are:

- Is the power filter a problem? The fry seem to be able to swim where they want to - I just want to make sure that the filter isn't going to prematurely wear them out.

- Do I really wait a few days before feeding them? They are zipping around like crazy - I don't want to wait too long. I got some liquid fry food tonight just in case.

- Do I do water changes? If so, how do I avoid dumping out the babies with the tank water? Inventive ideas wanted...

Thanks in advance y'all,
Jen

Congrat's on the fry . in answer to your question yes you do not feed them for about 3 day's and water change's need to be done, are the egg's in a seperate space from the main tank? when i hatch my Barbatus and need to do water changes i use a piece on airline.

Kev

The fry have a filtered, cycled, 10 US gallon tank all to themselves - I kicked the parents out so I wouldn't have to stress over removing the eggs from the side of the tank. Before they hatched, I decorated to give them plenty of places to hide. I just wanted to make sure that the current from the filter wouldn't wear them out... and that I didn't need to feed them any sooner... though, I'm imagining that they would actually be able to find quite a bit of food in a well-cycled tank that had been continuously occupied up until the day before they hatched...

This morning, they aren't zipping around as much. They seem to be settled in amongst the plants and such on the bottom. Is it an illusion or did these things grow overnight?!?

Jen,
They seem to grow overnight at times. Soon, you'll see their little barbels. They'll have very active phases and rest phases,like any developing being. They do like to hide and eat in the plants. I like keeping a diary or journal. This allows me to see how they progress. It takes just a few minutes a night. I like to go back to the diary and read over the different milestones different batches of Paleatus fry have passed at what time. I find it interesting that some fry prefer to eat and live at the top of the tank, while others prefer to eat and live at the bottom. A third group seem to do both. I've also noticed some batches of fry grow intensely fast at first, then slow down. Others are slow out of the gate, but catch up. I'm new to this, too, but it's a blast. Welcome to the club, Jen!
Amanda

Thanks for the suggestion on the diary. I'm an engineer, so I'll probably make a spreadsheet. The fry all seemed to be resting today. It's just so amazing to me to see these minute little things that already exhibit very cory-like behaviors.

So, as I'd mentioned earlier, I put the adult cories in another tank so the fry could have the 10 gallon to themselves. I go home at lunch today and they're spawning again. Was kind of neat, in that the other spawns had been 'stealth spawns' and I'd not actually seen them spawning. Only one of the females seemed to be participating - is is likely that they're taking turns?

By the time I got home this evening, they had attached eggs all over the glass, the plants, the heater, etc, etc...

I guess I'll just collect the eggs (or anything they're stuck on that's movable) and stick 'em in the other 10 gallon.

Anyone have a rule of thumb regarding # of cories that you can grow out in a given size tank? I figure it's a given that I'm buying another tank for this, just wondering what size...

Jen

I'll leave the rules of thumb to the experts. I've got one female Paleatus who neatly lays her eggs on the glass in an obsessive-compulsive style, in neatly ordered rows of even numbers on a certain piece of equipment, like a powerhead, heater or filter intake. She's the same one that "faints" every time she lays eggs. The male that fertilizes her eggs also appears to "faint." The largest of the three female Paleatus I now have in the 75 gallon tank seems to lay all of her eggs on leaves. I've never seen her lay them anywhere else. The third female, acquired a few months ago, does both. I have also noticed times when females take turns. It seems now that there's a ratio of five males to three females, this doesn't happen as often.

I noticed something last night. I had taken some cuttings of a pennywort plant for the 15 gallon plant I'm using to quarantine a Chaetostoma sp. I know I checked them for snails. But I didn't think to check them for Cory eggs. Here's one of them:

Sorry for the grainy quality, but it's been cropped down several times. The Chaetostoma hasn't bothered them at all. These days I usually put the eggs in a separate 10 gallon, bare-bottom tank. Big oops. Might as well leave them. They have plenty of hiding places.