Viable cory eggs?

[Phantom240]

Do any of these cory eggs look viable? I got an absolute ton of them a few days ago, but the snails, shrimp, and other members of the tank snacked on most of them. These have made it for 3-4 days now, but I don't really know how to tell if they're viable or duds. I know the pics aren't the best, but I did as best an iPhone 12 would allow lol. 

 

 

[Colu]

I would say they look like  viable eggs to me if you wanted you could cut the leaf of and put it in a breeder box with an air stone and a drop of Methylene blue to provent the eggs from getting fungus

[Odd Duck]

The eggs may also be hatching.  They can hatch in just 3-6 days depending on your water temp, warmer means a shorter hatching time.  They leave only a very thin trace of eggshell behind after hatching which isn’t going to be very noticeable on a leaf, but it’s visible on glass.

You can move cory eggs fairly easily.  Since they are sticky, you can gently roll your finger toward them until they stick, then roll them off into the inside of your container.  @Dean’s Fishroom shows how on one of @Cory’s videos.  That way you don’t have to remove a healthy leaf off your plant.  Check at around 42:00 minutes for the section on collecting the eggs.

 

[Phantom240]

Unfortunately, I didn't have another tank set up nor do I have any food specific for fry ready for them when they hatched. This morning, every egg was gone, so if any of them make it past their fry stage, that'll be awesome. Hopefully the other bottom dwellers don't bother them, and they can feed on sinking mini wafers or baby brine shrimp when I feed the tank as a whole. I'll never be able to spot them in my tank, with the dark sandy substrate, copious driftwood, and sheer mass of plant matter for them to hide in. 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/20/2021 at 1:51 PM, Phantom240 said:

Unfortunately, I didn't have another tank set up nor do I have any food specific for fry ready for them when they hatched. This morning, every egg was gone, so if any of them make it past their fry stage, that'll be awesome. Hopefully the other bottom dwellers don't bother them, and they can feed on sinking mini wafers or baby brine shrimp when I feed the tank as a whole. I'll never be able to spot them in my tank, with the dark sandy substrate, copious driftwood, and sheer mass of plant matter for them to hide in. 

You don’t have to pull eggs.  That’s for maximizing fry for deliberate breeding.  I‘ve pulled 7 young bronze cories from my 100 G using a fish trap and I could pull another 3-4 easily.  I never see the fry when they’re tiny.  I only see them after they’re about 3-4 weeks old and big enough they’re coming out to eat with their parents.  When I had these same cories in a plant grow out tank I rarely saw any babies until after I accidentally transferred eggs to another newly set up tank with no fish.  After I put those slightly larger fry back in with their parents, I started to see more fry survive.  It’s like the ones that survived taught any fresh hatchlings what to do.  😆 

I’m actually seeing many more survive in the heavily planted 100G with fewer parents/eggs being laid than I saw in the 20 G plant tank.  There was also no substrate in the plant holding tank and much less mulm, etc.  Biofilm and mulm is your friend if you want babies to survive without intensive care.

[Phantom240]

On 10/22/2021 at 10:06 AM, Odd Duck said:

Biofilm and mulm is your friend if you want babies to survive without intensive care.

I think I have plenty of biofilm (plants from old tank, driftwood), but mulm is lacking, as the substrate in this tank is maybe a month old, and the snails keep it pretty tidy. If none of the fry survive, that's okay. The cories will have lots more time to make babies.

[Odd Duck]

Vinegar eels can apparently live for several days in the tank.  Daphnia can live indefinitely, so if you do decide to separate eggs, adding Daphnia to the grow out tank would help over time if you have enough freshly hatched Daphnia in the tank.  Scuds (amphipods) also hatch out very small, so they can feed them at all sizes.