Remembering how much fun corys are

[TwoTankAmin]

For the first few years I was in the hobby I kept cory cats. I used to love watching a group of them motoring about a tank, swimming up and down the glass and ultimately spawning in that rolling tumbling thing they do. And then I found plecos. Over the years I had fewer and fewer corys and more and more plecos. I had finally reached the point of having just two similis left in one tank.

This past week I drove 90 minutes to meet a gent coming 2 hours to meet me and purchase zebras. This person breeds corys and in talking with him I discovered he was overrun with Sterbai to the tune of about 500. Since I am planning to attend a few events this year to sell plecos and other things, I felt it would help to have a few different fish that sell with some costing much less then my pricey plecos to offer prospective buyers. To that end I asked this gent to sell me 50 sterbai. Not only was he happy to do so, but he refused to accept any payment for them. He felt my driving 3 hours round trip to get him the zebras and the good price I gave him justified his generosity.

So two days ago we met and I came home with 50 adult corys, a number of which were females so full of eggs they looked ready to pop. Due to circumstances beyond my control I was forced to plop them into 3 different tanks and they are a tad overcrowded.

For the past day and a half I have been watching them motoring about the tanks and engaging in pre-spawning behavior. I had forgotten how much watching these guys can bring a smile to my face. They appear to be such "happy" fish that it is hard not to feel good just seeing them doing their thing. I was planning on selling them all but now that I have them in tanks, I think I will have to keep a group for me.

The only downside is that they did not fare well on the trip and I lost 6 fish- 4 were DOA and 2 more did not last the night. So now I have 46 and I keep making the rounds of the tanks hoping to spot eggs before they eat them and smiling every time I stop to watch them.

[bekateen]

Sorry about your losses, but to me the gift from that other gent affirms the thoughtfulness people are capable of and the positive influence acts of kindness have. I had the same joy recently when the guy gave me three Hypancistrus juvies for free, just because he could (even though I don't know what they are yet, LOL).

Adult sterbai are really lovely fish. Good for you. Enjoy them and may they be fruitful and multiply!

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Back in august last year when i first began my L397 project, 8 of them were brought by a very good friend of mine. 1 was payed for by myself. Things didn't go as planned, some of the group were lost, in very unexplainble circumstances and unexpectedly. Since this real low point, 2 were gifted by another very close friend, 1 more by myself, 2 were an christmas gift from my mother, 1 was given by the breeder as he had excess youngsters. I now put all every available resource into making it work. Now things are generally working out, when it does succeed and with determination it will, in geniune gratitude to the kindness of all those who have continually supported along the way, I very would happily do the same for someone else.

[TwoTankAmin]

Sterbai are notoriously poor shipping fish. They are one that exudes a hormone when they are scared. It is nasty and in the wild it is intended to put off a threat long enough for them to flee. At least I think this is the case. The result is when bagged and shipped in a small amount of water, this chemical quickly becomes toxic to the fish. Some shippers will take steps to induce them to exude this hormone into a bucket prior to shipping by giving the bucket a kick every few minutes for a while. After doing this the fish are netted out into fresh water and bagged.

My guy only sells corys he breeds to stores in his area, so he doesn't ship. he did do the kick the bucket trick, but may have not done so sufficiently. I also doubt whether he starved the fish for a couple of days either. The water smelled nasty in the bags. Between the time he bagged them and I was dumping them into clean waters ASAP was about 8 hours.

The fact that I only lost 6 I consider a victory under the circumstances. I did save 3 of 9 that came out of the bags unable to stay upright and 4 of which which died in the bucket and then 2 more overnight in a tank even though they had improved initially. One of those 3 was touch and go all night in a hang-on-the-front circulating trap. I have not had any further losses and in two tanks they are sure acting spawnerish, but no eggs I have been able to spot.

[pleconut]

It can happen with sterbai i think and some other cories also, but considering you had a really long trip home, you did quite well to only lose a few, fish loss is still not an easy thing though, some water changes should remove anything possibly remaining, i dont have cories at present but they're really cool fish to have.

[MChambers]

I've had both sterbai and gossei self poison. Never had it happen with any other corydoras, although I'm sure there are other corydoras that are prone to this. I've gotten to the point that I usually bag gossei in individual bags, just to minimize any deaths from self poisoning.

[JamesFish]

Sorry about the loses as nobody likes losing fish.

I would love to breed fish and sell for a side line / hobby but lack the tank space and time to maintain them. I've only got Bronze cory & peppered spawning along with Ancistrus CF nothing fancy or hard to breed and all work to raise in community tanks.

As I watch this I'm watching my 4yr old peppered go T style with the male 1/3 her size this pairing hasn't gone well never noticed any usable eggs from it.

[Marine590622]

I've had both sterbai and gossei self poison. Never had it happen with any other corydoras, although I'm sure there are other corydoras that are prone to this. I've gotten to the point that I usually bag gossei in individual bags, just to minimize any deaths from self poisoning.

I can attest that c120s do the same. A friend of mine has to take down his fishroom to do a remodel. He had a group of my c120s on loan. I stopped by his place the other night and we took down 6 of his tanks. As I am litterally 1.5 miles from his place I thought nothing of bagging the c120s and some other fish in the same large bag. When I got them home and pulled the bag from the styro, I saw the tell tale foam on top of the water, I did not lose any of the c120s but I did loss some other corrys that were in the bag with them.

[TwoTankAmin]

Well it did not take long, I can confirm sterbai eggs in at least one of the three tanks. Because I was forced to overcrowd them some, there is no chance the eggs will last and I simply do not have space for fry anyhow. They have been acting spawnerish in all the tanks. Besides, my zebras are now in spawning mode and I am more worried about dealing with those fry than cory babies. In fact most everything seems to be spawning lately

Most of the corys are for sale. I was planning to bring them to a few events where I will be vending or doing room sales, but I will usually not ship them.

[pleconut]

Obviously not the best cory to chance shipping, because of the toxin release, probably best to sell as you've said. Good luck with the zebra's though!

[TwoTankAmin]

As I like to do I would like to report how it all worked out. I kept 9 of the corys for myself and all the rest were sold. All the corys were bagged at least once and a few got bagged a couple of times.I lost just one and that was due to a netting injury. All the rest did fine. I should say as far as i know but nobody ever contacted me to report they lost any of the fish.

The thing is I understand how to ship this fish so they are not likely to self-poison. The problem is the process is such that it makes it not worthwhile in terms of making any money. I was happy to do it here because my cost per fish was 0. I would not undertake to try and sell these fish on a regular basis.