PlanetCatfish.com

Just though I'd ask to see if anyone knew of someone who's bred C. ornatus, as I've got some fish which Ian has discribed as cf.ornatus which have spawned this morning in the community tank. The reason I ask is these fish have layed around 40 to 50 eggs at a time in a tight group, on the surface of some Amazon swords leaves, so I hope could in some way help in id'ing them and infact help confirm the type, if infact C ornatus do the same.

I've managed to rescue around 30 to 40 eggs out of around 100 layed before I had to go to work (some tetras were picking them off but the corys were still at it when I left) and the eggs are fairly large, 1.5 to 2mm.

The only thing I've changed in the tank is adding more current in the form of a extra power filter with spray bar on Monday, went I also did the usual 25% weekly water change.

If you want to see a pic of the fish in question then have a look at http://www.fnas.co.uk/corypics/idcorys.htm the fish labled #1 is one of the females of the group that have spawned, the other 3 are from a different source (and in a different tank), so may or may not be the same fish.

Hey Andy,

I bred ornatus a few years back and it was the only cory I have ever had that laid eggs in a jellied group, much like frog eggs. They were in a jelly mass and got taken into an in the tank power filter. I lost them all but had the mass/mess from which I couldn't salvage anything. That was the only time they had bred for me and I had them for around 3 years. I have never read any articles on this particular cory. Yours look more like schwartzi to me and not the true ornatus...

Ignots

Thanks

I know that they are not true ornatus, but they aren't schwartzi either which have a round nose, clear dorsal spine (mine have opace white spines which might not be evendent from the pics), with black markings on the first couple of rays.
That's the thing, I don't know exactly what they are as they don't fit any currently discribed species, but the closest is ornatus hence the cf.ornatus tag. I was just hoping that the manor in which they spawned could help in some way, as after counting the eggs last night there were approx 70 to 90 eggs layed in each circular group which was around 1.5" diameter. Out of 2 groups of eggs, I managed to achually save close to 70 rather than the 30 to 40 I guessed yesterday, although it only looks like there's around 40% fertile but I'll have more time to count again tonight to confirm the fertile.
As for the protective slime, I didn't witness anything like that. Oh well, just hope I can get a few fry and raise them on along with I don't know how many sterbai, as they are spawning on a daily basis for me ATM (8 cont. days now).

Well these fish spawned again on Monday morning, with the first few hatching this morning. This time there were far more eggs (>400), plus a much higher fertility rate (+95%). Here are a couple of pic's of how the eggs where depositied.

these are all the eggs photographed soon after spawning had finished, which you can see are all grouped within a small area


and a close up of one of the groups with approx 250 eggs, taken in the hatch out tank

Wow.....

that's great...

Good luck to your spawning Andy... I wish mine can do the same though....

Yeah, that's a lot of cory-eggs. Smashing

And good pictures.

I've never had a cory laying so massive clutches, I'm kind of jalous.

Thanks,

Just to keep you informed, I've counted all the eggs from pics and there were near on 800. I have two females (3males) but don't know if both where involved. All but around 20 where fertile and hatched between 48 - 72hrs @ 78F. Unfortunatly, quite a number have died off, which I'm putting down to the fact the fish house has got very hot over the last week, raising the temp to over 85F in most of the tanks, although I'd guess I still have around 200 fry and things have stablized again. One thing I've noticed is that they are not very quick growers, as some sterbia which hatch out a day or so before hand have grown much quicker and are twice the size, even though the size of the new hatch fry were about the same.

Anyway, will keep you informed of the progress.