Anyone have success breeding corys in hard water with high ph?

[k0olmini]

The title says it all. I've lost some black venzeula corys and some gold laser corys unexpectedly in my time as a fish keeper. I'm not sure if its the hard water I have or my lack of care. My LFS keeps them in RO water, close to neutral. The main meat of my question is, has anyone bred this fish in the conditions stated above? My pH is 8.2 and water hardness is 100-300 ppm. I would like to breed some of these really expensive corys but am wondering if I am trying to do the impossible

[Odd Duck]

My bronzes (Corydoras aeneus) don’t care, at all, about hardness or pH.  I wouldn’t bet the same about any other species, though, and intend to mix RODI water with my very hard, high pH tap for a better mix.

[Gator]

kOolmini; My Bronze cories do care about pH, water hardness and temp. You can change 25% of your water and each time you do, replace it with RO/DI, after a while, your tank will be 100% RO/DI water. You can also place Fluval peat pellets in your filter to make the water softer and more acidic, it's what cories like.

[Minanora]

So I had pretty much the same in my 20G tall for a while. 360ppm hardness, 8.2pH. My cories lived, but did not thrive.

My water in that tank is now 150ppm GH and 7.6pH, and my salt and pepper high fins are scattering eggs and making with the lovey dances. I doubt I'll see babies, but there's eggs being placed in the plants as of this morning. 

[Gator]

@Minanora; If you can collect the eggs, do so and place them in one of those mesh breeding boxes that you should be able to buy anywhere aquarium supplies are sold in your area, they're cheap. You'll be able to see babies in a few days and they are tiny. feed them finely crushed flake food or finely crushed Bug bites. 

[Minanora]

@Gator I have a mesh breeder inside that same 20G with two female guppies in it right now. Ha. I currently have just over 130 baby guppies, and around 15 baby swordtails. I'm letting nature take its course with the cory eggs. I know better than to overfill my plate, I just cleaned the floors, don't want to spill. ^_^

[drewzero1]

My pH is 7.6-7.8 and hardness around 300ppm. I've never seen my corys showing breeding behavior. I've been keeping them a year and a half and lost one unexpectedly. The ones I have left have been growing fine and seemed happy until I moved them to a new tank, where they've been very skittish. Another one passed away after the move, more likely stress than water quality but I can't be completely sure.

[Odd Duck]

On 12/1/2021 at 9:11 PM, Gator said:

kOolmini; My Bronze cories do care about pH, water hardness and temp. You can change 25% of your water and each time you do, replace it with RO/DI, after a while, your tank will be 100% RO/DI water. You can also place Fluval peat pellets in your filter to make the water softer and more acidic, it's what cories like.

I wonder what the difference is?  Mine were breeding like mad practically the minute I got them home and very frequently since, and my hardness and pH are nearly identical to OP’s.  Although the guy I got mine from claimed he had extremely hard water but I have no idea on his numbers.  Perhaps his was even harder water (they were breeding intermittently for him, also) and they were all too happy to get to my sludge from his liquid rock?  😆 

I’ve had the RODI for a few months and have been mixing since I got it, but about 1/3 RODI and 2/3 tap and only recently started going closer to 50:50 in most tanks.  Even more RODI on some.  I’m hoping to get lots of eggs and babies from my orange laser cories, and using softer water for hopefully best possible breeding and hatch rates.

[Gator]

@drewzero1; You could have all males or all females. Males are skinny and shorter than the more rounded and longer females. It's hard to tell a male from a female when you first get them from a LFS because most LFSs' don't feed their fish. When you get them home, feed them well and they will grow, when you can tell the difference between the sexes, you'll want a tank set up with three males and one female to get the most eggs. Until you're able to slowly convert to RODI water, place some Fluval peat pellets in your filter to make the water softer and more acidic for them, and slowly raise the temp to about 85 degrees and your Cories will be happiest.

@Odd Duck; Eventually your water should be 100% RODI, the water in all four of my tanks is 100% RODI and in the Cory species tank, my Cories lay eggs at each full moon. I also have Fluval peat pellets in the filters of all of my tanks and the heater in every tank is set for 85 degrees though they will usually stay at 84.7 degrees, close enough to prevent diseases.

[JettsPapa]

I have Corydoras trilineatus, Corydoras panda, and Corydoras pygmaeus (in different tanks), with 8.2 pH hard water.  They seem to be thriving, but I have never seen any indication of breeding behavior.

[Guppysnail]

I have Pygmy and panda. Very Hard water but only 7.6 ph. Pygmy are too young I think. Panda spawned 4 times. Of those twice I was able to get to the eggs to keep the fertile ones before my guppies ate them. I used two different hatch methods and the eggs developed as they should but never hatched. No fungus. I wonder if my water is too hard and it calcified the eggs preventing the fry from escape? Just something to consider. Both groups are doing well. 

[drewzero1]

@GatorIt's entirely possible that I ended up with males only/females only, considering I only ever had four in my 20L. Now that I've moved up to a 40B I'm starting to build a school again but with peppered corys. I'm not really trying to breed them though... just sharing my experience keeping corydoras in hard water. For now I'm focusing on breeding my WCMM and livebearers.

[KaitieG]

I have also had success (on accident) with my aeneus corys in 8.2 PH very hard water.  Only ones that hatched out were after I moved adults to a different tank.  Otherwise they eat their own eggs for me.

[k0olmini]

When I had more bronze corys they actually bred up a storm a couple times but all the eggs were eaten

[Odd Duck]

On 12/2/2021 at 7:28 AM, Gator said:

Eventually your water should be 100% RODI, the water in all four of my tanks is 100% RODI and in the Cory species tank, my Cories lay eggs at each full moon.

I have no intention of going 100% RO in all 24 of my tanks since there is absolutely no need for using 100% RO in any of them.  I adjust percentage of RO based on the species.  My bronze cories were laying like mad with eggs produced nearly every week when I had no RO water at all.  I have not collected eggs at all for the bronzes since I don’t need more and yet I’ve raised nearly 2 dozen just by collecting them via fish trap from the community tank when they reach about 1/2” and over.  This is with some of them eating their own eggs and I’m sure other fish eating the fry.

I have used minimal remineralizer by adjusting the GH/KH by mixing with my tap and that suits most of my tanks very well.  I will be trying 100% remineralize RO in shrimp tanks since I’ve not had the success I expected, mostly because I didn’t set them up as shrimp tanks, I set them up as plant grow outs.  I’ll be setting up new shrimp tanks in the near future (not the top of my list right now) and will be trying full RO in them and see if I have better production.  If the 100% RO works, I’ll likely try mixing on a couple tanks in the more shrimp specific set ups since I won’t have loads of scuds competing with the shrimp when I redo their setups.

[Ken Burke]

I’ve been thinking about this thread for a couple days, and can’t get it out of my head…

my wife’s show tank doubles as my panda Cory breeding tank, with pretty good success over the last couple years.  Our water is hard with low ph, so doesn’t really apply.  But for for what it’s worth:

 

- tank: 10 gallon heavily planted tank (mostly Java fern and Java fern windelov, and some Val.) I have a large piece of driftwood and an artificial plant as well.  I try to leave lots gaps under the driftwood to provide hidey spots for fry.

- substrate: medium to large gravel

- water changes: 50% once weekly with filtered water. 
- food: tetra shrimp wafers each morning

- tankmates: betta, harlequin rasboras, cherry shrimp.  I tried endlers, but the corydoras stopped breeding.

 

I’ve never seen any breeding behavior or eggs for that mater, but baby's keep coming.  

[k0olmini]

On 12/4/2021 at 7:06 PM, Ken Burke said:

I’ve been thinking about this thread for a couple days, and can’t get it out of my head…

my wife’s show tank doubles as my panda Cory breeding tank, with pretty good success over the last couple years.  Our water is hard with low ph, so doesn’t really apply.  But for for what it’s worth:

 

- tank: 10 gallon heavily planted tank (mostly Java fern and Java fern windelov, and some Val.) I have a large piece of driftwood and an artificial plant as well.  I try to leave lots gaps under the driftwood to provide hidey spots for fry.

- substrate: medium to large gravel

- water changes: 50% once weekly with filtered water. 
- food: tetra shrimp wafers each morning

- tankmates: betta, harlequin rasboras, cherry shrimp.  I tried endlers, but the corydoras stopped breeding.

 

I’ve never seen any breeding behavior or eggs for that mater, but baby's keep coming.  

I really appreciate you keeping my question in mind. I think the pH is my biggest challenge TBH. Thank you so much for sharing your experience 

On 12/2/2021 at 10:52 AM, KaitieG said:

I have also had success (on accident) with my aeneus corys in 8.2 PH very hard water.  Only ones that hatched out were after I moved adults to a different tank.  Otherwise they eat their own eggs for me.

Hey that’s good to hear, maybe I just need to give them some time.

On 12/2/2021 at 5:55 AM, JettsPapa said:

I have Corydoras trilineatus, Corydoras panda, and Corydoras pygmaeus (in different tanks), with 8.2 pH hard water.  They seem to be thriving, but I have never seen any indication of breeding behavior.

Hmmmm okay. Are they in a community setting or are they exclusive in their own tank? 

[JettsPapa]

On 12/6/2021 at 10:54 AM, k0olmini said:

Hmmmm okay. Are they in a community setting or are they exclusive in their own tank? 

The trilineatus and pandas are in community tanks.  The pygmys started out in a community tank, then were alone for a while, then had guppies with them.