PlanetCatfish.com

Last night I finally saw a little cory emerge from it's egg. Once I saw it head to the bottom and hide between the gravel stones, I began looking toward the bottom of the tank and saw a few more pop out for a few seconds then go back into the rocks. The parents seem pretty happy eating flakes and algae wafers, so I'm hoping they haven't eaten too many of the babies. I was advised to move the eggs or the parents to another tank, but didn't have time to get another one set up and cycled. They seem to lay more eggs every night (never during the day) and the eggs seem to take about 5 days to hatch. The fry seem to prefer emerging under cover of darkness as well. I proved this by watching a dozen or so eggs just before turning out the lights. I turned the lights on 45 minutes later and all but 4 had hatched. That's when I saw the one wiggle out of it's shell. By the morning all had hatched.

Is it likely that the parents are eating them whenever they get a chance?

Hi Tony

I am quite sure the parents will eat them, i have had spawnings by C. paleatus many times, and the hatchlings of the eggs i did not remove was eaten by the parents. It dosn't seem that they hunt their fry, they just suck em in when they are wacuuming the tank bottom. Don't think they know if it's a mosquito larvae or one of their babyes - and if they knew, i don't think they would care anyway .

How big is the tank btw? If it is too high the babys will have trouble reaching the surface, and would probably perish anyway.

Moving some newly layed eggs to another container would imo be the best possible chance to see some of these lovely fish grow up.

Kr
Allan

I normally wait till the frys are free swimming .... meaning no more sac before releasing them together with the parents. They have much much better chance of survival.
Weak fry easily get suck up especially with the sac. sagging them at their weak state.

Also I don't prefer small container as the water get polluted and temp change too easily.
Use a breeding net to hold the eggs in the breeding tank.