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Hello All,

I was wondering why I have had different sizes of fry and eggs depending on the hatching. I actualy don't know for sure who laid what eggs. I have 1 Albino Cory and 3 Emerald Gold Cories. My first couple hatchings were on an acrylic leaf and were encased in a mucus sac. They were all bunched tgether, about 100 eggs (1.5mm diameter.) I got 14 fry from this laying. Recently I found eggs scattered on the side of my tank. These were very very small compared to the eggs I had the first time (0.5mm diameter.) They also were sticky rather than all bunched together in a mucus sack. I just hatched these and have gotten about 20 very very tiny cory fry. not even half the size of the cories from the first laying. What causes this difference in size in both the fry and the eggs? Also why were some laid in a mucus sack and some not? Thankyou in advance for any help and or redirection, it's greatly appreciated. These are all "accidental" community layings, I wasn't expecting this but its a great surprize. I'd like to know as much as possible about this so I'm able to do what's best for these fry.

HellaSancho

it is not unknown for cories to lay different size eggs from one spawning to another, as i get different sized eggs from one female C.duplicareus.you could put this down to diet or how long since they last spawned as possibilities to why they lay different sized eggs. as to what to do to get the best results try reading the sticky at the top of this forum, it should give you some pointers as what to do.
best of luck

stuart

I do not know of any Cory eggs of.5mm in size. The smallest are almost 1.0mm in size. I think the first bunch of eggs you are talking about could be snail eggs.

Mark

When you say "In a mucus sack" it would indicate to me that those were not Cory eggs but snail eggs. Corys do not lay their eggs in a mucus sack, in fact I do not know of any fish that does. All Cory eggs are sticky in varying degrees but not jelly like.

Ian

This is strange. I first thought that they were snail eggs as well but I isolated them and then within about 3 days I had a container with cory fry. Possibly cory eggs were laid on a snail laying. I had no snails from those eggs, I kept them for a while. All I have gotten are cories from all of these eggs. The second laying was done in a tank with no snails. The first was done in a tank with 1 ramshorn snail and a black mystery snail. This first laying was the one inside of the mucus sack. When I retreaved the acrylic plant that the egg sack was attached to and placed it in a hatching container, the sack seemed to hang but held firm to the leaf. Not long after this I found another batch of about 100 of these eggs but no cories were hatched from it. I can't easily explain how I got cories from eggs in mucus sack. I didn't actually see it happen. I suppose thats where speculation takes over. All I can state is that the eggs were fully isolated and I have 14 corydoras from it. Strangely they are all randomly spotted and brown.

All photos of eggs and fry here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/70976452@N00/?saved=1

HellaSancho

(Oh, and sorry, my metric isn't really very accurate... I live in a slightly challenged country... The eggs from the second laying are about 1mm in diameter, not 0.5)

Those certainly look like Cory eggs and the mucus around them is actually fungus, with the next spawning I would use a little anti fungal treatment in the container you put the eggs in and add a little aeration to keep the water moving, this helps to stop particles from settling on the eggs and causing damage.

Ian