PlanetCatfish.com

Hi all,
I have a question for the more experienced Corydoras breeders here.

I thought I found a trick that worked for me to induce some of my more stubborn
Corydoras species to spawn, I added a breeding trio of green aeneus.
After a big water change the Aeneus spawn and many times the other species will
join in and spawn as well at the same time. This may have back fired on me…
I have recently been seeing something interesting in some green aeneus fry,
A faint gold stripe along the dorsal area. What happened I think is;
I was trying to induce my Peru Orange Lasers to spawn, so, after a large cooler water change the aeneus went into action; the Orange lasers did as well
(Maybe due to hormones in the water and nothing more)
When finished with the cor-orgy
I found a large splotch of eggs everywhere. I noted that some of the eggs were normal aeneus size and some where a bit smaller; I assumed that these were eggs from the Orange lasers. Now that the fry are coloring up; I do in fact see slightly smaller fry which have signs of a definite orange stripe. But, on the aeneus fry (a little larger sized fry)
I also see a faint orange stripe, and two body shapes longer fish like the Orange Lasers (melanotaenia body shape)
and rounder fishes (Aeneus Shape) Maybe, I am seeing things, but, I am now wondering if one of the orange lasers fertilized some aeneus eggs? This makes me wonder if a little fish partner swapping was going on…
Is it possible I inadvertently created a hybrid?
If so, is the recommendation to make them never-breeding community tank fish and is it even possible for this to occur, again maybe I am seeing things?
Sorry for poor picture quality, iPhone photographer...
Thanks for any ideas, and advice…like don’t put your aeneus where it don’t belong!

Kindest regards,
Don

I'm shure it would be possible for those two species to crossbreed. They are in the same group of "Corys" (the group that contains aeneus, venezuelanus, schultzei, lasers, eques, etc.).

Personally I would never let any fish enter the hobby if I suspected they were hybrids. In my fishroom they would be culled.

Your method is a good one for inducing cory's to spawn but it is flawed in that there is no separation of the species so hybridization is not only possible but is likely to occur.

I would suggest changing your system to using multiple tanks that are all linked together with a common filtration system. Separate out each species to it's own tank then. When you induce the aeneus to spawn, the hormones, but not the sperm, will travel through the water system and induce the other cory's in the other tanks to spawn.

That will prevent any hybrids in the future.

Andy

Hi Thanks for the suggestions; This is what I was wanting to hear.
More Information;
I currently have 30 tanks,
the majority are 20 gallon High(US)tanks, my Corys are housed in these. My grow out tanks are 55 gallon and also have larger tanks.
All of the species have separate tanks with the exception of the dwarf species;
I currently house my pygmaeus, Habrosus and several Reynoldsi together.

The Aeneus (Green and Albino) are kept in a 150 gallon community tank, with Rainbows and larger L numbers.
I was moving the Greens between several tanks; they (or hormones from them) I believed helped
with spawns of Axelrodi, Sterbai,and the Peru Orange lasers. It was not until I used them in the Orange
lasers that I noted "related" fry. I do also agree with Kim M. This was NOT an intentional thing and I was not now or ever trying to produce hybrids. I do cull fish that are deformed, missing fins etc.
I currently have filtration which is; each tank has a separate corner sponge along with HOB filters of various power (Current) depending on if the species likes current or not.
In the future I will not use the Aeneus as triggers, but will use water from a tank of fish that are currently spawning or have just spawned. My barbatus spawn frequently and I think that will be the water I will use.

Narwhal72; are you also saying that the fertilized milt can travel along with hormones if I use tank water from a currently breeding but unrelated species?

Thank you for this information,
Kind Regards,
Don

It might be worth a try to save the "waste water" from the active breeding tanks water change and putting it into the tank that you are hoping to induce spawning.

Yes, I think that using waste water from tanks that are just spawning will be the
"only" artificial triggers I'll be using in the future.
Making Frankenstein's monster was not what I wanted.
Thanks for all of the advice!
Don

i breed trilineatus and orange lasers in seperate set ups. my orange lasers are 3 mos. out of peru so they r new to tank life. to get them to spawn i did 6 85% waterchanges in a row(every day). also keep ur ph about6.4-6.8, and all my tsnks r kept at 74 degrees.i live in a 60 ft fema trailer so keep my air down for the tanks. this mimics rainy season in S.America which is when they naturally spawn. usually in the winter here. my trilineatus spawn every 8-10 days. i use nothing but api stress coat as it doesn't seem to stress out the fish . i also use tap water and not aged water. sometimes u will see them do the spawning dance when a storm moves in as i think barometric pressure may play a role also.

Before we can actually see if we are dealing with species crossing we need to determine the true identity of the species involved. The so called 'aeneus' group is a very confusing one, and many may be proven to be just regional colour form and I think it will take science a long time to sort them out

The C. sp. CW23 (Orange laser), also known as C. sp 'Orange stripe' it is very close to C. aeneus in colour and shape, in fact there are a number of C. aeneus looking species which possess anything from a gold shoulder flash to a full gold band along the upper dorsal scutes, the most prominent of these being C. sp. schultzei. It very likely that many of these C. aeneus types will interbreed if kept together.

Because of the similarity in patterns of many of the regional forms, there is every likelihood that many if not all of the Asian farmed C. aeneus are actually hybrids. This is also evident in C. paleatus and its similar look-a-like species.

Ian

Before we can actually see if we are dealing with species crossing we need to determine the true identity of the species involved. The so called 'aeneus' group is a very confusing one, and many may be proven to be just regional colour form and I think it will take science a long time to sort them out

The C. sp. CW23 (Orange laser), also known as C. sp 'Orange stripe' it is very close to C. aeneus in colour and shape, in fact there are a number of C. aeneus looking species which possess anything from a gold shoulder flash to a full gold band along the upper dorsal scutes, the most prominent of these being C. sp. schultzei. It very likely that many of these C. aeneus types will interbreed if kept together.

Because of the similarity in patterns of many of the regional forms, there is every likelihood that many if not all of the Asian farmed C. aeneus are actually hybrids. This is also evident in C. paleatus and its similar look-a-like species.

Ian

Interesting. That's exactly what I was thinking after drilling the net for info for months. And of course, my own experience.