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I bought this group of 5 C. weitzmani four weeks ago.
This was the only five fish the store got, although they had tried to order many.

Of course I bought all five:-)

Just amazing how beautiful they are

they really are beautiful. i bought 6 and had them shipped to me but unfortunatley they we're delivered 5 hours late and one died! so i have 5 left. what type of leaves are they in the tank? are they indian almond leaves? i heard they are anti-septic?

It's oak leaves:-) I have a lot of them in my tanks. I love the look and the rain forest effect they give.

They contain a high amount of tannin acid, so they are to some degree antiseptic as well.

they look great! oak leaves as in the same tree that produces acorns? do you have to treat them before they are added? i.e boil them first? any chance of a photo of your whole tank? it looks great from the close-ups, i might add some oak leaves to my tank!

Yes, from the same three that produces acorns:-)

The oak leaves are collected in the autumn, after the three has dropped them on the ground. They are not collected when they are green, and not from threes near heavy traffic roads.
No boiling or anything, the dry leaves are just pre-soaked in a bucket of water over night so they sink immediately in the tanks.

This photo shows the C.weitzmani tank 3 weeks ago.
As you can see on the photo, the oak leaves often get burried in the sand some places by the corys, so either you dig them up again or refill with new leaves



As mentioned I have oak leaves in several tanks.
In another tank where I keep my Corydoras metae it looks like this:

My compliments for the nice pictures+tank setup!!

Bye Martijn

mona o wrote:I bought this group of 5 C. weitzmani four weeks ago.
This was the only five fish the store got, although they had tried to order many.

Of course I bought all five:-)

Just amazing how beautiful they are

Hi, Mona. Yes - they are lovely fish and are becoming one of my favorites. I just pulled 25 eggs from my breeder group, which have started to spawn on a regular basis. I wish you much luck with yours and hope that they spawn for you soon. Keep us posted. - Frank/Guppyman®

Very nice tanks Mona...thinking of collecting oak leaves myself.

I have just bought 4 more C. weitzmani in addition to the 7 I had. No eggs yet. thinking of splitting the group into two tanks.

Thanks:-)

I want some more C. weitzmani my self, but I think that's going to be difficult to get. Norway isn't exactly the center of the world;-) so I'll just have to keep on trying. It was just pure luck that led me to this group of five I now have. I'll try to get the same LFS to order in some more.

I hope I'll get them to spawn, but you never know...I've had a group of large C. sterbai for 2 years now, and they've never laid a single egg. Another group of younger Sterbai's though, that I've owned for 8 months, have laid eggs 3 times. So you never know which ones that'll "cooperate"

Todays photo of a C. weitzmani

<img src="http://nettakvariet.no/forum/attachment ... 1159425510">

All great pictures in this thread. Compliments.

We should have some of these in the catelog-page. Especially the photo-series of the growth, very informative.

A LFS tryed to sell me weitzmani at 45 euro each some days ago.

Kr Allan

hey frank.

any tips on breeding these? mine are just coming out of quarentine and i want to give breeding them a go.

andrewcoxon wrote:hey frank.

any tips on breeding these? mine are just coming out of quarentine and i want to give breeding them a go.

Hi Andrew. This specie require nothing special to get them to spawn other than good conditoning and a 50% water change.

I must mention that this is one specie that I would rank high on the egg predation list. I have already observed 2 males following a female and scarfing her eggs within seconds of them being deposited. I have managed to increase the size of my egg count by providing a very dense thicket (is that redundant?) of java moss.

Another thing to look out for. Some of my spawns have resulted in globules of goo (scientific term) that one might be tempted to discard as not viable. Within 24 hours these developed into normal looking and sized eggs that resulted in fry.

I'm sure that you will have no problem spawning this fish. Good luck in your efforts and keep us posted. Regards. - Frank

Did a 50% water change in their tank this morning, so now I keep my fingers crossed and hoping for some
reaction (and action )

A couple of the females looks really nice and full now.

This photo shows one of the males.

Mona et al,
Very nice pictures of marvellous fish in this thread.
Mona, your tanks look stunning; I really like them.
And I'm going to do what I didn't dare before: add oak leaves to my tanks. That looks amazingly beautiful.

Fabulous photos everybody. Even the juveniles are stunning! I'm so glad this Corydora is appearing more frequently.
Amanda

can adding oak leaves hurt the fish??

andrewcoxon wrote:can adding oak leaves hurt the fish??

Well, as you can see in the pictures the fish look great.
So, in answer to your question: not directly.
But the leaves may influence the water quality, because they are dead and will start to rot. In that respect you have to be keen indeed and see to it that they are replaced in time and/or do more water changes.

The reason why most people use oak leaves are the high amount of tannin (acids) in them. That means they rot very slowly. They last for some months, and now and then I remove some and replace with new ones.
Other people I've talked to, like Apistogramma-breeders, don't bother to remove old ones. They just add new leaves now and then.

I have never heard of anyone that had any ill effects from the leaves. And the fish certainly seems to thrive:-) In a couple of thanks I keep Apistogramma as well, and they were the reason why I started adding oak leaves. They live in them and breed in them, seeking shelter and guarding their young amongst the leaves on the bottom. Just like they do in nature, a 100% natural behaviour. And that's something I really really love to see. Something like that can't be duplicated with clay flower pots:-)

And have you seen a group of Corys hiding amongst the brown leaves? It's perfect for them as they live their lives entirely on the bottom where the leaves are. It makes them feel safe and always offers a hiding place.
Take a group of Corydoras metae...they are almost invisible amongst the leaves, with their perfect "old leaves colour":D
Perfect camouflage, just as the colour are meant to where they come from

andrewcoxon wrote:can adding oak leaves hurt the fish??

No. I would never use them if there was a chance that they did.

I've been talking to people who's been using the oakleaves for years, and have been keeping fish for decades.

very fine examples you have there. i have just ordered 10 from a well known expert in the uk on corys. hope to be picking them up in the new future !

How have you found them? difficult to keep happy or not?

Sp00ky wrote:How have you found them? difficult to keep happy or not?

In my experience they are no more difficult to keep or spawn, than any common Cory. Good luck with them. - Frank

Guppyman wrote:

Sp00ky wrote:How have you found them? difficult to keep happy or not?

In my experience they are no more difficult to keep or spawn, than any common Cory. Good luck with them. - Frank

is this the frank i got my nats from on ebay??

Sp00ky wrote:Is this the frank i got my nats from on ebay??

Don't think so. I never sell of fleaBay. Just AB. - Frank

Guppyman wrote:

Sp00ky wrote:Is this the frank i got my nats from on ebay??

Don't think so. I never sell of fleaBay. Just AB. - Frank

my bad LOL, should have looked at your location first ! sorry

Sp00ky wrote:My bad. LOL. Should have looked at your location first ! Sorry

No problem! This is Lee from UK, correct? - Frank

Mona how much did you pay for those? We have had in Finland group of weitzmani waiting customers to buy them for over a year in one LFS. They are wild caught and price is only 60 â?¬ ahead.

Guppyman wrote:

Sp00ky wrote:My bad. LOL. Should have looked at your location first ! Sorry

No problem! This is Lee from UK, correct? - Frank

Indeed it is. just updated my profile. not had time to do it since i registered.

just wanted to add my 2 cents worth to this thread as i got a group of these little guys a few months back. they sure are a neat looking little cory and here is a pic of one of the ones in my group of 8


male


female