Pygmy Cory's

[Flumpweesel]

So my pygmy corys in a community tank are doing the spawning dance but as yet no sign of eggs. I figure they'll be small but any tips on where to look? So I can move them to safety.

And meet Tubs the more porky than pygmy cory.

[Guppysnail]

My understanding from reading is any hard surface or plants. Mine have not grown up enough to spawn yet so I cannot confirm. 

[Flumpweesel]

I've tried watching them but it like trying to see where a snowflake lands

[pcb09]

I have a set of 5 pgymy corys in a 10 gallon with a handful of neocaridinia shrimp that i set up to breed the pygmy corys. 

Mine have been laying eggs on java moss and the glass in the corner of the tank. My understanding is that they will look for an area with a good bit of water flow which seems to be born out by my tank. 

The eggs if fertilized will go a brownish color and take 4ish days to hatch. They are super small, and if you have a gravel substrate you will likely see them disappear. I just got mine to spawn in the last two weeks after they grew up a bit. I am currently experimenting to see what method makes more sense - leave in tank with the parents or pull the eggs and hatch in a hang on fluval breeder box. The parents do not seem to be interested in eating the eggs, and general internet knowledge seems split 50/50 on if they will eat their fry. So we will see what method will lead to a higher hatch rate. 

Currently have 14 in the fluval breeder box that are growing. Feeding baby brine shrimp and super crushed flake food. I threw a couple bits of indian almond leave in the breeder box and some java moss. They seem to like to hide under the indian almond leave bits at this point. 

If you have neocaridinia shrimp they are like my favorite trick for hatching / raising fry. Toss em in with the eggs, they eat the fungused ones (seem to ignore healthy eggs) as you start to feed the fry they will scavenge and eat whatever the fry dont eat. They are the nanny's of the fry.

[pcb09]

Decided to add to my experiments… noticed that they were happily laying eggs in Java moss….

 

thought to myself I have a spawning mop for collecting bosemani rainbow eggs…I wonder if they will lay in / on the mop. Would sure make collection easy if I were to raise the eggs/fry separate from parents. Just get a couple mops. Rotate every two days or so into your grow out tank. Rinse and repeat. 
 

will post back with success/failure. 

[Flumpweesel]

I like your thinking.

I was contemplating adding some moss balls as they would certainly aid extraction.

 

[pcb09]

On 10/11/2021 at 4:37 PM, Flumpweesel said:

I like your thinking.

I was contemplating adding some moss balls as they would certainly aid extraction.

 

So… there’s already at least one egg in the mop. Like three hours later. 
 

I’ll plan to let it hang out in the tank till Wednesday evening then pull count and transfer to the breeder box. That would put the oldest in mop a day or so from hatching. 

[Flumpweesel]

Wow it's like they were waiting for that!

On 10/12/2021 at 3:11 AM, pcb09 said:

So… there’s already at least one egg in the mop. Like three hours later

 

[pcb09]

So I had placed the mop Monday afternoon, Wed afternoon I removed it and pulled 20+ eggs off the mop. I noticed they were concentrated at the bottom of the mop where it almost touched the substrate. 
 

I think the easiest strategy would be have a tank to just plop the mop and eggs in one into   
 

they still laid eggs elsewhere in the tank but the mop definitely worked. 

[PedroPete]

I’m loving the experimentation and quick results! Keep us posted:)

[pcb09]

So the mop was a good idea but I am not sure it was necessary. The loose babies in the tank seem to be growing and surviving with no issue. The s was re out and about loungin around near the adults. 
 

my original concern was predation by parents hence the mop but does not seem to be a issue. 
 

I think if you had no other soft scape in the tank they would choose the mop as they seem to favor moss, mop, etc. the mop would be nice if you choose to have a fry tank where u can make it easier for food to get to fry.

 

the downside to the mop because there is one… some babies that hatched out in the tank with parents decided they wanted to hide in the mop… so as I pulled eggs from the mop I had to detangle a few babies. This could be solved by moving the entire mop to a fry tank and letting them hatch out… but then you might have the problem in the fry tank. 
 

so moral of the story… I don’t think you need to remove eggs but if you do the mop works well just be sure to check the mop for fry 

[Flumpweesel]

Brilliant and congrats on the fry. Good to know they aren't too cannibalistic.