PlanetCatfish.com

Greetings all,

First post here. Does anyone on this board keep/raise this charming species? I've finally located a few sterbais (good sized, too), and I am really curious about trying to get them to spawn. I've read a number of articles on this, which range from saying that they're near impossible to breed, to not much harder than C. aeneus or C. paleatus. What have your experiences been? A tank has been waiting just for them...15 gal., sponge filter/powerhead, layer of fine gravel, driftwood, and a variety of plants (java moss, anubias, water sprite, etc.).

Thanks!
Smokepearl

This'll help.

Hi there,

I have a group of 10 sterbai, which have laid eggs on several occasions, producing eggs with a 90%+ hatch rate and some great fry which I have raised and passed to others.

I had the group in a 36 gallon tank, with very soft water about pH 6.5.

I then moved them to a 12 gallon breeding tank and after a few days did a 50% cold water change and turned the heater off for about 12 hours.

The fish start chasing around ( I had roughly 2 males to each female) and it was amazing to see the females carrying the eggs in their fins before sticking them to the glass.

Another time the fish started to lay eggs a few days after transfer to the breeding tank without me having to change any water at all.

I had a small internal ehiem filter to create some current unitl the eggs started to hatch, and then I replaced it with a mature spong filter.

Good luck with the breeding

Stu

I have a group of sterbai too. They breed easily when I do water change.
The first time may be difficult.

Seven surviving babies managed to grow to an inch size without special care.
I still have many eggs on and off but I just leave them be ...

Hi ... I too have a breeding colony of wild Sterbai. They have become fairly productive over the past year. I'm not a Cory expert, but I've been breeding angelfish and Discus commercially for over 12 years. In fact, cory have been somewhat of a mystery to me until recently.

I believe the "trick" is patience. I had my fish for over a year before I tried to spawn them. I have 10 Sterbai that I kept with discus in a 70 gallon tank. Once I decided to spawn them, I separated them into 2 groups, sexing best I could. I gave each group their own 10 gallon tank, bare, with a sponge filter. I feed live black worms, frozen bloodworms, and frozen mysis shrimp.

After several months of water changes (I use cool water ... 60-65 degress/50%), I finally got eggs from both groups. I scraped the eggs from the sides of the tank with a razor blade and hatched them out in 2.5 gallon tanks. They get live baby brine once they go free swimming.

It seems the colony (I've combined them all together) goes through spawning spurts ... I'll get 3 or 4 nights of eggs, then they go dormant for several months.

As I stated up front, I think patience is the biggest factor. keep up the water changes and feed well.

Jeff

Hi Smoke,

This is probable a little late. Have they settled in and spawned at all since your post?

I have sterbai that breed regularly through the warmer months (unlike some of the more common species C.aeneus and C. paleatus, sterabi like to spawn in warmer water) but don't spawn at all through winter and just recently had some young 11mth old albino sterbai (bought from a breeder) start breeding, they now seem to be spawning often, the first few batches were infertile with only a handful of eggs but the fertility rate and number of eggs has greatly improved.
A good diet and regular water changes seems to do the trick as well as the warmer water. There's guys here have spawned in a range of temps between 24-29.C (76-84.F) but more commonly between 27-28.C (80-82.F).

My normal sterbai are in a gravel bottom planted tank and the albino's in a bare bottom tank, with a clump of java moss.

The first spawn can sometimes be the hardest to trigger but once they have started spawning it shouldn't be to hard to set them off.

Tammy

any what size are they ready to breed? i have three at 2" and two at 1.3". ive never seen any articles mentioning their size or age of sexual maturity.

Also, what would be a good number to buy? Male to female ratio? (I'm planning to try breeding in 5.5g tank)...

Appreciate any feedback!

I got my first 10 little C sterbai in August 1990. I still have 8 of the original 10 now housed in a "retirement" tank with a mixture of other catfish and c******ds. Believe it or not they still spawn whenever the tank gets a good clean and water change even though they are getting around on walking frames.

As Caty said in her post, they should start breeding at about a year old, so you can look foreward to a long and productive life from these delieghtfull fish.

Alan