Food for corydoras pygmaeus fry

Piotr · Post by **Piotr** » 20 Jan 2012, 20:36

Best food for corydoras pygmaeus fry? Please help me!

dw1305 · Post by **dw1305** » 22 Jan 2012, 04:26

Hi all,
Try micro-worms and lots of leaf litter, ideally leaf litter that has been in another tank already. With the micro-worms you could try some very fine flake or pellets, I've used crushed Red astax crumb, but it need to be really fine, de-capsulated brine shrimp is another option, although live BBS would be better. I also have a lot of java moss in the tanks, and a pile of ceramic rings.

Have a look at Apistomaster's C. hastatus thread as well <http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=29511>.

Cheers Darrel

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 22 Jan 2012, 19:20

I raise all the dwarf Corydoras species in permanent breeding colony set ups.
I also maintain a shrimp colony with them; usually either Cherry Shrimp or wild type Zebra Shrimp.
You need dense plant growth of either Java Moss, Najas species Hornwort or some of each.
I use piles of the hollow ceramic biological filter media to provide additional hide outs for the Corydoras larvae.
To make these work you need to feed live Artemia nauplii daily and a good basic diet which covers all sizes of fry and the adults includes both Artemia nauplii and Mikroworms. I provide a powered sponge filter, an air lift sponge filter and an air stone.
I use 20 long tanks which are 12 X 12 X 30 inches. At times my Catfish total numbers reach into plus 200 as do the shrimp.
If the filtration and aeration is not sufficient you can not achieve and then maintain such large numbers of animals in a tank of this size. I sell enough of the Corys and shrimp to control the populations. Below are some views into my Corydoras hastatus colony style breeding set up.

Sweety · Post by **Sweety** » 23 Jan 2012, 20:48

Hi apistomaster could I ask what filtration you use in your tank please just i'm about to set up a 24x12x12 tank to house some c. habrosus which i'm hoping to breed

Coriequest · Post by **Coriequest** » 24 Jan 2012, 05:59

Thanks for your help on how to breed these special coreys. What substrate is in the image? It looks nice and smooth for barbels!

ars · Post by **ars** » 24 Jan 2012, 14:49

I have two set-ups for dwarf corys. A large display tank with a group of ~50 pygmy corys and an army of BN plecos. Corys lay eggs o regular basis for about three months, then take a short brake and start over. I use regular food for adults, but also provide microworms, which work very well. Same regarding the 2nd small fry tank. Microworms diet is the must plus I also use decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and Hikari's first bites. Plus a few oak leaves as a source of antimicrobial tannins, which also provide excellent hiding spots.

Pozdrawiam,
Robert

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 24 Jan 2012, 21:03

I use a thin layer of FloraBase aquarium plant substrate. Just enough to barely cover the bottom glass.

I had an Azoo OxygenPlus Bio-Filter model #6 Sponge filter(http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... 41&catid=3) powered by a MaxiJet 600 power head.
and an Aquaclear 50 HOB filter plus an air stone.
I made a long lasting prefe-filter to go over the AquaClear's intake.
I use a small filter media bag stuffed with Eheim Ehfifix, a green colored, coarse, springy plastic fiber mechanical filter media inside the bag. It keeps the media bag expanded so a very large intake surface area spreads the incoming flows and prevents fry and baby shrimp from being drawn into the filter.

I was also raising Corydoras habrosus at the time I took the C. hastatus breeding tank set up photos shown above.
Their tank was set up the same way except I use two of the Azoo sponge filters with one fitted with the MaxiJet power head and the other set up using the air lift.
I no longer keep C. habrosus going although one of my buddies is keeping a small colony of them going.

Those hollow ceramic filter media seen piled up provide the larvae and fry plenty of hiding places as do the free floating plants.

In the case of C. hastatus, I have seen very small males only about four months old joining in spawning frenzies. They go into this spawning state very actively during the first couple days following a 75% water change.
I get much better production with C. hastatus when I use soft water. I use about 25% tap water and 75% RO water. This results in a TDS of about 40 to 50 ppm and the pH drops from 7.4 down to the mid 6's.
Corydoras habrosus seem less demanding of water chemistry. they are less prolific but they lay fewer and larger eggs than C. hastatus.
I have bred C. pygmeus but I have not kept them going continuously. There is a good market for C. hastatus but wild imports of C. pygmeus and C. habrosus are usually easy to find at reasonable prices so breeding them is something I did more for the fun of it. I liked raising C. habrosus enough to keep them going for three years. My C. hastaus colony is about six years old.

Sweety · Post by **Sweety** » 24 Jan 2012, 22:11

Hi apistomaster thank you very much for the info as it has been very helpful

Hi Piotr sorry for taking your post off topic slightly

Coriequest · Post by **Coriequest** » 25 Jan 2012, 05:34

Thank you! I could see how much it looked like their natural habitat from a video. Your success is admirable. I'm getting some home bred hastatus as soon as I make their tank just right. Good to hear how you did it! Thx so much!

Vlacek · Post by **Vlacek** » 25 Jan 2012, 08:18

Hi there! I've read through this topic and have a question in regards to microworms. What is latin name of it please? I'd like to get hold of them but not sure what to look for. Also do you produce your own ones or keep buying it? I have a colony of c.hastatus and have seen two spawns so far but didn't manage to raise any fry. One survived for weeks but didn't grow much and died in the end. I guess sera micron and liquid food was not good enough for start and I couldn't leave them in the main tank where they may have had higher chance to find "some" food. Also I guess my pH is a bit too high - 7.2.
BTW - interesting thing about c.hastatus fry, they tend to stick to tank walls and plants more like otocinclus fry rather than other cory's fry

dw1305 · Post by **dw1305** » 25 Jan 2012, 08:35

Hi all,

What is latin name of it please? I'd like to get hold of them but not sure what to look for. Also do you produce your own ones or keep buying it?

Micro-worm is Panagrellus redivivus, but any of the small nematode worm species (Micro, Banana or Walter worm) will do and are very easy to culture. I use oats and a very small amount of bread yeast as a starter and then subculture every couple of months (you don't need to add the yeast when you sub-culture). If you want higher nutritional value in your micro-worms you could add a small amount of fruit (Banana normally) and a very small amount of sunflower oil (Reference for this is Schlechtriem et al (2004) "The suitability of the free-living nematode Panagrellus redivivus as live food for first-feeding fish larvae" Journal of Applied Ichthyology 20:3 pp 161–168).

Culture details here: <http://www.worm-cultures.com/microworminformation.htm>

cheers Darrel

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 25 Jan 2012, 19:22

Hi Vlacek,

The fry are very sensitive to pollution and are not very interested in non-living foods at first.
Newly hatch brine shrimp is a superior food for these fry. I use microworms as a supplement live food. Mainly for those times when I screw up a batch of brine shrimp.
If you feed live brine shrimp nauplii(bbs) twice a day the adults will spawn more prolifically and the survival rate of the fry will be very high.
It is necessary to keep a thick growth of some free floating plant like Najas, Hornwort or Java Moss. The plants provide niches for microscopic live foods like Protists and provide the fry with safe feeding and hiding places.
I recommend that you change 75% of their water about every 3 or 4 days. Use some polyester floss or a filter media bag over the siphon inlet to prevent sucking up the fry.
The breeders will not thrive unless they are fed some live foods every day. Ideally they should be fed a lot of bbs and Grindal Worms.
I also find it is helpful to keep a colony of Cherry Shrimp in the breeding tank. I already described above how I use the permanent breeding colony method.
Provide much filtration and aeration. Keep the breeding colony tank at least ~27*C/~80*F to ~29*C/~84*F.
I realize these are warmer temperatures than most references recommend but I have raised literally thousands of Corydoras hastatus this way and about 1000 C. habrosus. I recommend keeping C. habrosus a little cooler. 25*C/~76*F to ~29*C/`82*F.

dw1305 · Post by **dw1305** » 25 Jan 2012, 23:25

Hi all,
I'd go with Larry's ("Apistomaster") method, it works for him and it is pretty similar to what I do (probably because he is where I got the method from). Because I'm not bothered about removing any of the fry, I use very heavily planted tanks with a lot of structure, but this makes catching the "spare" catfish virtually impossible.

I like Grindal worms (Enchytraeus buchholzi ) too, I feed all the fish a small scrape of them every day. I keep them in a mixed culture with another annelid worm - Red worm (Lumbricus rubellus) details here: <http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishfoo ... ulture.php>.

If you are interested in growing your own fish food, I'd recommend Mike Hellweg's book "Culturing Live Foods".

cheers Darrel

Vlacek · Post by **Vlacek** » 26 Jan 2012, 13:03

Many thanks both!

I'll try to get as close as possible to the setup and conditions you have. I have to get hold of grindal. I found single egg yesterday and another one today too. I also started with brine shrimps yesterday so they should be ready by the time fry will hatch. Accidentally my otocinclus spawned at the same time so have to somehow combine conditions for both. Now I have water at 24C so will raise it a bit too. I have quite well planted aquarium but had neon tetras and Carinotetraodon travancoricus with cories and otos so they had to be removed as they both like eggs very much.

Thanks again!

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 26 Jan 2012, 13:20

must say that I absolutely LOVE the Corydoras hastatus breeding colony......

beautiful!

and I sure didn't know they could handle that kind of heat;
I thought it was more of a subtropical species, given the fact that it also occurs in Paraguay together with the remarkably similar looking Aphyocharax paraguayensis

nice to see all the tiny youngsters together with the bigger adults

did you ever the same with Corydoras pygmaeus?
and if yes, got any pics?

Vlacek · Post by **Vlacek** » 26 Jan 2012, 16:39

Aphyocharax paraguayensis - good to know, these were in the group of c.hastatus when I bought them, very similar looking fish!
I had pygmaeus but out of hastatus, pygmaeus and habrosus I like hastatus the most. They are a)most beutifull b)most active.

Coryologist · Post by **Coryologist** » 26 Jan 2012, 17:42

I realize that names of fish are always changing, but the fish that I have always kept with C. hastatus are what can be found as Odontostilbe kriegi and/or Serapinnus kriegi, commonly referred to as Tetra Kriegi.

I cannot tell you if that is the same fish that you are referring to, but when you place them with a group of C. hastatus, you'll go insane trying to tell which are the Corys and which are the tetras.

They are virtually identical.

Cheers. - Frank

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 26 Jan 2012, 19:58

Odontostilbe kriegi and Aphyocharax paraguayensis are not the same fish!

they are however remarkably alike.
I think corydoras hastatus simply has a very wide range where it occurs and lives together with several very similar looking tetra's

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 26 Jan 2012, 20:37

I believe the same as sidguppy, about the C. hastatus looking like many of the nondescript Tetras found in the same range.
C. hastatus is found in the State of Matto Grosso, Brazil and the shallow waters of the Pantanal, the largest tropical fresh water swamp in the world, which gets quite warm.

dw1305 · Post by **dw1305** » 27 Jan 2012, 17:15

Hi all,

... the fish that I have always kept with C. hastatus are what can be found as Odontostilbe kriegi and/or Serapinnus kriegi, commonly referred to as Tetra Kriegi.

Odontostilbe kriegi, I had this as a by-catch with C.hastatus. I only had one, it shoaled with the Corydoras and it was almost identical in appearance and behaviour. I couldn't find any more to buy, but Aphyocharax paraguayensis is commonly available.

I didn't buy Aphyocharax paraguayensis as the literature suggests it is a great fry hunter and quite aggressive. Having observed them in the shop they seemed to be quite surface orientated and very active.

cheers Darrel

jogeorge · Post by **jogeorge** » 21 Mar 2012, 10:51

apistomaster wrote:I use a thin layer of FloraBase aquarium plant substrate.

Where do you get that from? I asked in my local store and he said that they do not have FloraBase aquarium plant substrate. Can I order it somewhere? I took a look at the house plant delivery I usually get all my plants from and they did not have this too. Is it like a very special substrate because I kind of thought it was a random one.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 21 Mar 2012, 11:17

Flora base is a product from Red Sea, but their website is currently "between upgrades", so you may want to contact them for a local supplier. There are several other "plant substrates".

--
Mats

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 21 Mar 2012, 18:02

I haven't kept A. paraguayensis but a very large petshop I know will not carry this species because it was "pound for pund the most aggressive fish we've ever had" and people who bought them tended to return them because of their aggressivity.

My suggestion would be Hyphessobrycon elachys. It's a very peaceful and quite attractive tetra, and it too is in nature found in mixed schools with Corydoras hastatus. The resemblance is remarkable, even at close range one is hard pressed to tell the tetras from the corys.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 21 Mar 2012, 22:19

jogeorge wrote:
apistomaster wrote:I use a thin layer of FloraBase aquarium plant substrate.
Where do you get that from? I asked in my local store and he said that they do not have FloraBase aquarium plant substrate. Can I order it somewhere? I took a look at the house plant delivery I usually get all my plants from and they did not have this too. Is it like a very special substrate because I kind of thought it was a random one.

Hi Jogeorge,
Here is where I bought Red Sea's Flora Base:
http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Freshwate ... trate.aspx
Last time I ordered I bought 6, 12# bags and it was only $19.99 a bag. Now it is $26.99!
It is still worth using as a potting material but you may want to consider CaribSea's Torpedo beach sand, a medium fine grain white quartz sand. It is 100% chemically inert in aquarium water.
They also have Sunset River and Tahitian moon sands which are all fine grain sands.
These are all $19.99 for 20# bags and suitable for use with Corydoras catfishes.

Coursair · Post by **Coursair** » 22 Mar 2012, 17:38

I have planted sand tanks. One has Flourite black sand and the other is Black Diamond blasting sand. Both are capped with Tahitian Moon Sand.

Both have Shrimp and my Cories love it.

frad · Post by **frad** » 30 Mar 2012, 11:41

Hi friend i am new in your site Same regarding the 2nd small fry tank. Microworms diet is the must plus I also use decapsulated brine shrimp eggs and Hikari's first bites. Plus a few oak leaves as a source of antimicrobial tannins, which also provide excellent hiding spots.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 31 Mar 2012, 19:00

I believe I have already mentioned this but to reiterate, if you use very soft water the pH will drop below 7.0 as long as the carbonates are at low levels. I use Cattapa leaves but Oak is also good. In very soft water these leaves will help lower the pH. Not drastically but all you need is a pH between 6.0 and 7.0.
Mikroworms are extremely handy to culture as occasionally a batch of brine shrimp eggs fails to hatch well.
Besides, it never hurts to have more small foods for variety. I store my newly hatched brine shrimp in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours in a clean brine solution. This methods extends their life, prevents further development thus retaining them at peak nutritional value. Decapsulated brine shrimp cysts are also an excellent food. www.brineshrimpdirect.com sells decapsulated Artemia cysts or one can do it yourself using a strong bleach solution.
I have always kept cherry shrimp colonies with my dwarf Corydoras breeding colony set ups. I have tried Zebra shrimp but I am beginning to think they may eat some Corydoras eggs because I get better yields with cherry shrimp and dwarf Corys than I have with the Zebra shrimp but this may be a coincidence. I am not quite ready to blame the Zebra shrimp for the observed differences in my yields. There may be different factors involved like how much attention and care I provide. I can't really see any reasons why there has been a difference between which shrimp I have chosen to use. I do not know of any empirical reason why Zebra shrimp may be any different from Cherry shrimp.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 11 Jun 2012, 05:53

jogeorge wrote:
apistomaster wrote:I use a thin layer of FloraBase aquarium plant substrate.
Where do you get that from? I asked in my local store and he said that they do not have FloraBase aquarium plant substrate. Can I order it somewhere? I took a look at the house plant delivery I usually get all my plants from and they did not have this too. Is it like a very special substrate because I kind of thought it was a random one.

I always ordered it from http://www.drsfostersmith.com but I don't see it listed in recent catalogs. Might check out their web site or give them a call.
It really isn't essential. Any fine and chemically inert sand will work just as well. I mainly use FloraBase as my potting subsrate for higher value plants. I pot most such plants so they may be kept in bare bottom tanks or those with barely enough sand to cover the bottom. I sometimes recycle it from the bottom to pots.
I often use #20/30 silica sand which runs about $8.00/CWT at a hardware store. It is also used as a sand blasting media.

Elwood · Post by **Elwood** » 03 Aug 2012, 22:36

Does "Liquifry 1" works with pygmaeus fry??