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I bred some Sterbai Corydoras a few months back and today I noticed a peculiar pattern on some of the fry. Image is below, I have around 3-4 fry like this.

My question is: Has anyone seen Sterbai like these? They look similar to Corydoras cf.Sterbai, but different.



FYI: if you cant see, the two back lines on the body which are usually straight are muddled/marbled in the three fry pictured. Note the two other fry with straight lines for comparison.

I'm no expert in this area, but just wanted to say that they do look stunning!

I believe that their patterns are fairly consistant with age so they will likely stay with that pattern.

Is there any chance of them cross breeding with other corys in the tank which look similar, e.g. ?

Or even you being sold a group of C.sterbai and some of them are actually C. haraldschultzi?

I bought a breeding group of 9 from someone, so I don't know if they were bought together or separately. I can try finding out though.

Unfortunately I needed some money to make improvements in the fish house so I ended up selling the parents. However I know the guy that bought them fairly well and I think they will let me have a look to see if there are any Haraldschultzi in there.

But looking at the pictures of the adults Im 98% sure that they are all Sterbais. Check out another of the fry below.

stunning indeed. cheers jk

Do you guys think it would be possible to breed a pure strain of these? On further inspection I have closer to 8 than 4 so should be a good mix of males and females

Hi Artem,

Firstly is is most unlikely that there has been any cross breeding, the genetic barriers between these two species would be quite strong.

One thing that I found when breeding C. sterbai and other species for that matter, is the there is always some variation in colour pattern and fry nearly always show bolder markings which fine out as they grow. Having said that it is quite possible that the boldest patterned youngsters will retain a bold pattern and may even pass it on to their young.

Ian

Artem,

I have never seen sterbai with any pattern even close to the fish in your photo. It looks to me like a possible cross with C. reticulatus.

Mark

Thank you for the input Mark and Ian

If no one has any objections, Id like to officially nickname this pattern as Marbled Sterbai Corydoras.

You are fortunate to have the three C. sterbai with this different but attractive variation would be worth propagating,
Your chances of getting at least one pair are fair.
I would use these three and 3 normally marked siblings and see if you can produce more, If only one gene was affected then it shouldn't take long to develop a pure line.
I think they are much nicer than the other mutant forms such as the albino sterbai or the long fin sterbai. I think they would be profitable breed until there are many in the hands of other breeders.

Thats what Im planning. Will try conditioning them in 8 months once they are close to breeding age.

Ive had a quick look at fees, it seems it will cost money to export every single fish. Might have to look into exporting a breeding group to somewhere where the costs aren't as high. Its $5 per fish exported and then $134 an hour(!) for however long they spend on it.

It looks like there needs to be an export certificate. There are only ones for the EU and UK. So I will need to pay for the development of that I think its doable though, might just take a little while.....

I hadn't noticed you were from New Zealand which like Australia, has some of the most stringent restrictions on transporting non-native fishes. It is getting more difficult to import tropical fish and plants in many places but none are as restrictive as "down under".

I know, Its a nightmare really.. The average price for a zebra here is $600-700+ and only one person has a breeding group/pair. L260 - when they were imported EVERYONE got a male, only one female as yet and the guy who has them isn't selling any of the fry

Exporting seems to be slightly easier... At least the standards are there for the UK/EU. I'm seriously considering moving the breeding group I end up with in a few years time to the UK/EU then to Singapore so it can be mass produced.

If you moved purely to enjoy the change in scenery, climate and access to many more species of fish then that would make sense but the problem with moving purely to raise one variation of Corydras is the day you sell your first pair you will lose your monopoly. That would happen anyway with a species as easy to breed as C. sterbai. I began breeding Corydoras sterbai when they were retailing for US$15.99 each. By the time I had enough to sell by the 1000, the retail price had fallen to US$5.99 each which meant the most I could expect at wholesale was between $2.00 and $2.50 depending on the volume being sold.
Even for a small scale hobbyist breeder like myself, I calculate that unless I can sell fish for at least $10.00 each I can not recoup my expenses let alone make a profit. The cost of utilities, supplies, fish food and placing some value on my own effort is high even if I figure I am making $5.00 an hour(which I doubt). I don't know very many hobbyist breeders who make their living solely from breeding and selling fish.
I know I don't.

I am a very good fly tier and quality flies retail for $2.00 to $3.00 each and not counting my labor, most can be tied for about $0.25 each but big companies have out-sourced all the fly tying to well trained fly tiers in Thailand to people who have never seen a Trout so it isn't possible to earn a profit tying flies for sale in the USA. It certainly makes sense for me to tie my own but even I prefer to pay the retail price for a Dave's Grass Hopper because a good one is so difficult to tie. Most of the flies I use are designs I have come up with myself over my life time and I can't find commercial versions of my own designs.
My fly designs are meant to appeal to the Trout but a majority of commercially tied flies are designed to appeal to fly fisher's and catch their dollars.
Many years ago i briefly entertained the idea of becoming a Fly fishing guide. Charging people $250 a day, selling them my "special flies" at full retail and expecting the gratuity at the end of the day. In the end I realized I really couldn't stand the idea of taking people through my favorite fishing places and watching them fish them poorly. I thought it would be like becoming a trout fishing pimp and I bagged that idea. It is getting harder and harder to find privacy when fishing let alone taking strangers to "my places."

Do what makes you happy but don't count on that being how you earn your living.

I wouldn't be doing it for the money, there is little to no money in a cory that can be bred by the thousands. I would be happy as long as people knew I was where this pattern originated from.