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How to discourage eating eggs:?:
I could use some idea(s). I believe my Panda start to re-cycle their eggs. And I need the idea(s) to discourage to do so.
I had this Panda corys only tank set up. There are 4 adult which I believe 3 females and a single male. 1 Female is always fat and big and another one don't get fat much (As a matter of fact I saw she make empty egg basket more than few occation) and last female is I think runt since she is smaller and hasn't grown much. They have been in 5 gallon tank by themself for few month. Fed well and start to produce 20 eggs or so weekly. I used to see them form T at night 1 hour or so before the light goes out. And when I get up in the next morning, there are eggs on the glass and I collect them and hatch them in the separate container and grow them up. Heck, I dropped some eggs or missed some eggs which hatched and survived. So I start to see few babies in the tank recently. Since I saw that and they are actually doing better than the frys only tank, I start to reintroduce few weeks old to the parents tank.
And last week one night I saw them form T at night and went to bed. There were only 1~2 eggs in the morning. With some egg sticky marks on the glass. That didn't make me happy. So I start to think about the prevention. I did put more Java Ferns and Moss. Although I did find most of the eggs on the glass if not all, I did found few on the leaf of the Java Fern and even less time on the Moss. But I figure more crowdy it gets, less chance for them to find the eggs, I hope. Also, I have been feeding more than ever, so they won't be hungry and less incline to eat eggs. I don't think I got eggs since then. But I am thinking do some water change today and almost always they lay eggs after that. And if I see any sign of egg eating today, tomorrow.
Here is what I am planning to do.
1) I may move fat female and a male to their own tank. Since almost always she is the one produced eggs. And I am quite sure which one had eaten the eggs but less fish should be better for the safety of eggs.
Last few days, this question also came to my mind. "How smart is the Corydoras? I mean, is it possible they start to eat eggs because there are more fish than before. Because there are more frys in the same tank now that their instinct tell them not to make more offsprings? What do you thinks folks?
Anyway, I'll give them 1 more chance. And I'll move main couple to the other tank, I think. Unless someone have a good idea(s).
I did post above on other forum but I didn't get any response. So here it is hoping get some from this forum. Thanks in advance.

I've had trouble with my breeding pandas eating eggs too.

I've found that enormous amounts of javamoss in the tank reduces the predation. I go through the moss every day, as my pandas are "2 eggs today, 6 tomorrow and 4 the day after"-fish.

Thanks Kim
I am glad that someone finally post something to my question.
Since first time it happened, I moved the other adult fish. So now there is 1 male and 1 female and god knows how many frys. And I did increase the amount of Java moss or X'mas moss I'm not sure. And try to feed more than ever before so hopefully they don't even think about egg eating. And of course, need to change water more often to keep the water quality up. And I did harvest smaller batch of eggs one night. Instead of collecting in the morning after which I used to do.
I have another crazy idea which I haven't try yet. But ... since my female Panda still prefer the tank glass over the plants for the egg placement. I'm wondering what if I place the piece of glass like slate piece for the angelfish. And place it so that tough to get to, maybe.

Oh Kim, What was the number of your breeding group and what was the tank size? If you don't mind sharing it with me. Thanks.

So, the recuction of adult fish have increased the number of surviving eggs/fry?

I have 11 adults in my 30 litre tank.

kim m wrote:So, the recuction of adult fish have increased the number of surviving eggs/fry?

Answer is. It is hard to say since I only had 1 night they sticked the eggs since the morning I found no eggs but sticky marking from the eggs. And I decide to collect all the eggs I can find at the same night. Not long after they done sticking eggs. I used to collect eggs the morning after they make. But after the egg re-cycle incident. I decide to collect as soon as they finish making them.
And it seems the frys grow without problem if I keep them with adult(s). I did lost few frys when I was keeping frys alone. And it seems adults don't bother frys. So after I lost some frys in the frys only tank, I decide to grow them with adults. I still hatch them in seperate container and grow them for 2 weeks or so. And I re-introduce them to the parents. And they seems growing fine.
And here is my theory. I lost some frys in frys only tank because I overfed them. But if I keep with adults, they make sure all the food get eaten before it get spoiled to polute the water.
So verdict for your question is still out there because I don't have enough data. And may never know for sure that I decide to collect as soon as possible.
For now, I have 2 x 5 G tanks of Panda Corys.
1 with breeding male and female and 20~30 frys of various age(2~7 weeks or so). And another with 2 adult females that are not as productive and another 10~20 frys(2~7 weeks.)
Not a sure thing but I am expecting some eggs tonight. Since I did big water change and fed well and female is balloned up. And I am intending to collect eggs as soon as they are layed.
And I should set up more tank or switch to bigger in week or 2.
I'll let you know what happened tonight.

OK

Had 21 eggs from my group last night (and 21 also from my group og C. atropersonatus).

you could try adding floating spawning mops to the tanks.. I find when adding these to the tanks that most of the eggs are laid within the mop, and also prevents them from being eaten

madattiver wrote:you could try adding floating spawning mops to the tanks.. I find when adding these to the tanks that most of the eggs are laid within the mop, and also prevents them from being eaten

Thanks for the tip. I will try that.

Anyway, like I said yesterday. They were laying eggs late last night. it start like midnight and still going arond 2 a.m. And I couldn't wait them to finish. So I went bed. This morning I collected 8 eggs only in the Java/X'mas moss.
I am not sure but I suspect some might got eaten. Since she used to put majority of the eggs on the glass. And it used to average around 20.

Anyhow, I will take out the spawning mop and sterize and let it float. And see what it happen.
I should get back to you in 3~4 days on that, I think.

Well I found them eggs this morning. I managed to find 12 however 2 were really dark. And I know they are the older batch I missed harvesting. So I know they survived 3~4 days(at least since the tank is kept cooler it takes long time to hatch) from parents and all the small ramshorn snails. Which I try to turkey buster out everyday.
Anyway, she placed the eggs in the moss and none on the glass. And I did not find the eggs in the spawning mop either which I float it with a piece of cork. Also they made eggs so late that I didn't even see her carring egg last night. So they did it in the dark again.
So frankly, I don't know they are eating any egg or not now. But I will collect as soon as possible and feed as much as they can eat and do water change as often as possible to maintain the quality of water.

P.S. I saw this tiny guy(which is probably 1 1/2 mo old), about 1/2" long less than 1/4" width try to join swimming with parents. When the Pa try to chase Mom around. That was a cutest thing. Too bad I don't have good camera to take picture with.

I did found 18 eggs this morning. 14 in the moss, 2 on the Java Fern and 2 more in the spawning mop. So I think the egg eating have been subsided.
So I am hoping feeding heavier and crowding the tank with more plants did the trick. But I guess I won't know for sure. I just hope I can keep collecting eggs. So I can grow them to the hopping miniture Panda Corys.

This happened on 12th.
I did found 15 more eggs this morning. 2 on the glass and 13 on the Java Fern and none on the Java Moss I know of. And I noticed that the majority of the eggs are placed near the outlet of the power head, not directly but near. And that is where Java Ferns are and Java Moss was far away from the water movement. I usually have another HOB and it's outlet is facing to Java Moss. However, it was not working this morning, I guess after I mess it around yesterday it never re-start.
But it end up give me some interesting theory that my Cory seems to prefer to place the eggs near the outlet of the filter where there are some water movement. She didn't place the eggs in the middle of the current but the place have some water movement. That is why they were on the Java Fern and not in the Java Moss where there were not much water movement yesterday to this morning.
In a way it totally makes sense. After all some parents fish fan the eggs. And we know we need to put some air when we try to hatch the Cory eggs in separate container.
Anyway, I thought this may interest you with Cory owners out there.

And this happened this morning.
I found 18 more eggs this morning. 2 in spawning mop, 2 in Java Fern and 14 in Java Moss. This is after I put back the original 2 unproductive females since they were not happy in the other tank. Also they become chunkier. Anyway, and I notice that they are much happier with 4 than 2. Hopefully, I can grow enough males and get at least even ratio or 2 to 1 favor of males.
And best of all, I don't see the evidence of egg eating. My God.
So I just keep feeding well and collect eggs as soon as possible.
Also, I am happy that my Neon Tetra frys are free swimming now.

My pepper cories never used to eat their eggs, not until I started leaving the adults with the eggs that is ...

When my cories spawn I remove the eggs from the adult tank and place them in a separate "hatching" tank. If you do this on the same day they laid the eggs, the eggs are still soft and can be removed from the glass easily.

After the first day my cories start eating their eggs.

Hope this helps.

I find it's the adult female that didn't lay the eggs that's first to try to eat them, with the C.paleatus. With the C.aeneus, it's a free-for-all. They all eat the eggs. I have another breeding pair of C.paleatus in with C.trilineatus and a pair of C.copei(to try an jump start them). The C.paleatus pair ignore the eggs they've just laid. The C.trilineatus and C.copei ignore the eggs, too. The tanks are rather large, though. The large breeding group of C.paleatus are in a 75 gallon tank. The C.aeneus are in a 15 gallon tank. The C.paleatus pair is in a 29 gallon tank(with a pair of C.copei and 8 C.trilineatus).
Amanda

M@RS, bronzefry,
Thanks for your input. Since the first time I think my Panda corys ate the eggs, I think they stop eating eggs. My God.
I still can't collect them on the same day since they like to do at night. And I usually can't wait them to finish.
But I ususlly find about 15~18 eggs in the morning after. So I am pretty happy about that. And I see their off spring more often. Sometime the little guy about 1/2"TL 1/4"H try to join the group swimming with the adults.( I keep the frys with adults and they seem to grow better than keeping the frys alone.) Bigger they are, bolder they get it seems.
I collected 20 eggs this morning 10 in the spawning mop and the other 10 in the Java/X'mas moss.
So I guess all I can do is feed them well and collect eggs as soon as possible to reduce the chance of eggs be eaten.

It's been a while but I got 19 more eggs yesterday morning. 8 in spawning mop and 10 in Java/X'mas moss and lonely egg on the glass. And I see more and more off spring hoping around with the parents. They are from couple weeks old to 3 months old. It makes me wonder if it is getting crowdy. Since it would be really tough to catch all the little ones, I am thinking to set another tank and move the parents. And they can multiply in there.
Yeah, that I should do. Maybe this weekend.

I collect only 15 eggs 1/29 morning. I knew I have to collect eggs this morning that I saw them making last night. I tried to start collect last night since there is a egg on the front glass but it was too fresh and shell was too fragile and the unlucky egg was burst in the water. So I learned that I cannot collect the eggs too soon. So I went bed. And I woke up and saw the 3 eggs on the front glass and I thought there were 4 eggs last night. So I think someone ate 1 at least. But I don't think I can do much about it but feed more and change water. So I try to look the bright side that I found the 15 eggs.(3 on the glass, 12 in the Moss and none in the spawning mop). And I just hope she would hide eggs better although sometime frastrating to look allover inside of the Moss. Maybe I'll get more Moss and swich it around. Instead look for the eggs, I just collect all the Moss in the tank and let the eggs hatch with the moss. And replace with the other crump of Moss.
Yeah, I think I'll try that. Fortunately, there are big plant auction at my local aquarium society next month. I'm sure I can pick some Java moss for small price.

Well, what you know. My male visited his mistress yesterday(next day 1/30). I got 13 eggs.(1 on the side glass and rest in the moss) Since she is always slimmer than his wife I estimate fewer eggs but 13 ain't bad. I wonder if he will let in the other runtish mistress home tonight.
And I guess they don't think the family is still not big enough although the frys are everywhere. Top to bottom of the tank. I really ought to set another tank and move the parents.

I found eggs this morning, but only 10 which is fewer than usual. Anyway, 3 in spawning mop and 7 in Java/X'mas moss. I wonder this decrease of egg production is relate to the increase of the fry population. Anyhow, I ought to set the another tank and move the parents. I know I've been saying that but I really should.