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I recently had to remove some Sturisoma juveniles from my Corydoras hastatus breeding tank so I used the opportunity to freshen their tank up. There is also a colony of Red Cherry Shrimps living with the Corys. The shrimp seem to have no noticeable impact on Corydoras fry survival. The Ceratophyllum submersum was harvested and needs to grow back thicker. The thicker the growth the more fry appear.
C. hastatus place the majority of their eggs in the plants and the balance get stuck to the glass sides or Anubias leaves.
The hollow ceramic media provides refuge to the newly hatched and larval fry. Once the fry transform into recognizable Corydoras hastatus, they then join the school. Many of the Catfish were hiding and are not shown in the photos.
I have seen juveniles as young as four months participate in spawning. Here are some photos of the tank and C. hastatus. All but the dozen original wild fish are their babies.

They are so awsome. I can't wait til I finally find some to purchase.
Thanks so much for sharing the pics. I just love those litle guys.

Tracy

Hi Tracy,
I think Corydoras hastatus is my favorite Corydoras species but I like all the dwarf species. I want to try breeding Aspidoras pauciradiatus using the same method. They seem to be available at the moment so I may get a group of them soon.
I have held off shipping fish in or out but it is beginning to warm up. I have six wild blue discus due tomorrow and eight medium size Red Turquoise Discus going out. I guess I'll know soon whether it is safer to ship now than it was in the Winter.

very nice

Nice fish!How big is the tank?

beautiful fish, great idea with the ceremic media.

I have both C. hastatus and C. habrosus colonies set up in 20 gallon Longs. The ceramic hollows work well in Apistogramma fry grow out tanks, too. Each individual can find it's own hide and it avoids line of sight which leads to aggression. For Corys, they provide both hides and "aufwich" growth on which Corydoras larvae use as their initial food.
I have two large sponge filters per tank, one air lift driven and the other by a MaxiJet 600 power head plus an air stone. The Dwarf Corys love strong currents.

Beautiful pictures! I so want some of these! I have four habrosus and about eight pygmaeus in a 33L, along with a couple of albino aeneus, four pandas, some fancy guppies and a schistura loach. Trying to establish nice plants in there. Have a sponge filter (a big one) on one end and an Aquaclear 30-50 on the other. I turned up the flow on the Aquaclear after you wrote that the pygmies like it-I thought cories didn't much care for fast water. The pandas seem to like to swim through it.

Ultimate goal is to get a small school of hastatus for this tank and move everyone else out and just let it be dwarf cories. I'll certainly consider adding the ceramic media. I never see my pygmaeus-they're all congregating under a piece of bogwood. Maybe if they have more hiding places (the plants are not very thick yet), they'll feel confident enough to come out more.

bevans wrote:

I never see my pygmaeus-they're all congregating under a piece of bogwood. Maybe if they have more hiding places (the plants are not very thick yet), they'll feel confident enough to come out more.

I have the same thing going on with my 10 Pygmaeus, I only see them now and then.
I have them in a 96 Litre, well planted tank with a BN, and 6 x C elagans.
I did have some White Cloud Mountain Minnows in there, but thought that they were perhaps too "busy" about the tank for the Corys.
I am thinking of adding some small Tetras as dither fish, to see if it make the corys show a bit more.
I was looking at H. Amandae, Ember tetra?
Any suggestions?

Larry - excellent photos & top notch husbandry - that is a fantastic shoal

For Corys, they provide both hides and "aufwich" growth....

What is aufwich, google shows nothing (:

jar wrote:

For Corys, they provide both hides and "aufwich" growth....

What is aufwich, google shows nothing (:

Probably meaning aufwuchs, which is a German word covering "most things that grow on the substrate under water", such as algae, bactera film [see the glossary under Help! for]

--
Mats

Very creative use of media, Larry. Have the roots of the plants begun to grow into the media?
Amanda

Hi Amanda,
The only plant with roots is an Anubias which is wedged into a small flower pot . A couple of small pieces if egg crate light diffuser hold it in place. The long exploratory roots haven't connected to anything yet. All my rooted plants are in pots so I can transfer them to other tanks as needed or rearrange decor in a tank.

The hollow ceramic cylinders have proven themselves as useful refuge for small fry over and over so I use them quite often.

I apologize for mis-spelling aufwuch. Mat corrected it in his subsequent post. English does not have a one word description that conveys all that aufwuch does. The microscopic life that is covered by the term is an important source of food for newly hatched fry, especially in a permanent set up like I'm using with dwarf Corydoras.

I placed a bag of SeaChem Purigen in a HOB filter and it has caused the C. hastatus to lose much of their shyness. They now calmly school or work the bottom right out front instead of dashing for cover. I found Purigen does the same thing with Heckel Discus and have used it in their tank for over three years. It helps Heckel Discus reduce the frequency and intensity of the panic reactions that are typical for aquarium specimens of wild Heckel Discus.It may remove pheromones that frightened fish release. These are sometimes known as "fright substances". Some believe that there are chemicals some fish release when they are frightened and in a closed system like an aquarium they are not diluted or removed and may continue the fright/flight behavior long after it has served it's initial purpose. Just a hypothesis, but Purigen has been shown to be effective at adsorbing a variety of organic chemicals from water.

I placed a bag of SeaChem Purigen in a HOB filter and it has caused the C. hastatus to lose much of their shyness. They now calmly school or work the bottom right out front instead of dashing for cover. I found Purigen does the same thing with Heckel Discus and have used it in their tank for over three years. It helps Heckel Discus reduce the frequency and intensity of the panic reactions that are typical for aquarium specimens of wild Heckel Discus. It may remove pheromones that frightened fish release. These are sometimes known as "fright substances". Some believe that there are chemicals some fish release when they are frightened and in a closed system like an aquarium they are not diluted or removed and may continue the fright/flight behavior long after it has served it's initial purpose. Just a hypothesis, but Purigen has been shown to be effective at adsorbing a variety of organic chemicals from water.

It would be interesting if you could do a further study of this and write an article for the website. This would be most benifical to keepers of other fish who have a deep "freak out" reaction. Possibly you could even have an academic paper published on this if you could find someone w/ a degree who would be interested in co-authoring w/ you. There has to be a way of monitoring hormone levels in water so this would be a good place to start. Let me know if you decide to pursue that. I would be most interested in reading the final publication. Being on this website is making me remember why I wanted to be a bioligist before it got in the way of my drinking! Then I had to quit school. But as the user name implies I'm over that problem!

Larry,
I'm also using Purigen in a similar way. I use it in a 250 micron 3"x4" bag. It appears to stay charged for approximately 2-1/2 months in a Marineland HOB, Bio-Wheel filter. The larger amounts of Purigen seem to stay charged longer in the canister filters. I'm keeping notes. I use the sponge filters in the fry tanks and quarantine tanks, but at a certain point, it seems that the sponge filters aren't enough. (It's most likely my inexperience. )
Amanda