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Last night marked 72 hours since the C. aeneus fry hatched and I'd not seen much activity in the tank. I thought that I might have had a die-off, but last night, the fry were quite visible and mobile, and about 1.5-2 times the size they were when they hatched. I can now see fins and barbels and I started feeding with Wardley liquid small fry food. I see foraging behavior in the sand and on the glass, so I think that's a good sign.

I've been doing water changes daily and drying to remove debris/dead fry as best I can without siphoning off live fry in the process. That's a challenge when the fry are the same color as the substrate!

I added an airstone to get better circulation in the tank (I have a Penguin Mini power filter, modified so the intake is covered by filter material and pantyhose).

So my questions are:

- Any suggestions on making the cleaning/siphoning process less harrowing for me and the fry?
- Any rules of thumb on what size tank I'll need for grow-out?
- Any suggestions on feeding, other than what I'm doing now? I was considering pulverizing some of the sinking food I feed the other fishes.

Thanks!
Jen

P.S. I put some photos up here.

A friend of mine was able to raise seventeen panda corydoras fry in a five gallon (yes, just 5 gallons) tank (without taking out the parents- 1 female, 3 males) with a biological sponge filter, a plant, and course white sand for substrate and by feeding them pulverized sinking wafers only (no newly hatched brine shrimp or live food whatsoever). No methylene blue either. Seems like he went against some cory breeding conventions but he did it. (He gave me and my sister fifteen of the now young adult corys. )He modified his gravel vacuum by replacing the end with a straw covered with a fine net. For simple water changes, he siphons from a cup which he submerges in the aquarium tank.

Now it looks like he's got a new batch of panda cory fry.

How's that for no-sweat cory breeding?