Using a secondary Pump/Skimmer to trigger Corydoras spawning?

[nabokovfan87]

I'm watching some of my fish tonight and they generally have more behavior when it cools off it's darker, and they tend to explore a bit.  I just added a skimmer on a timer to the tank.  I had a thought that I could take a pumphead/skimmer and increase the flow in the tank for say.... 30-90 minutes every night (or some other time interval).  Does anyone think this is something that could potentially trigger a spawn?  Has anyone tried this before?

Edited June 3, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Guppysnail]

Yes. I used a powerhead. I did not notice increased spawning but I did notice they began placing eggs directly in the strongest flow. Frozen bloodworms and hikari freeze dried tubifex worms (I just smoosh the cube in the glass at the substrate line I’ll include a video so you can see how I place) work consistently to induce spawning for me.  I always do slightly cooler water changes so I do not have to heat more water. 
 

Now that it is summer and late day sun hits the tank for several hours it gets considerably warmer in the tank. I did notice as it warms the spawning behavior increases. My new theory(just an observational theory) is any temperature fluctuations coupled with worms induce spawning behaviors in my pandas. 
 

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Guppysnail

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/3/2022 at 5:51 AM, Guppysnail said:

Now that it is summer and late day sun hits the tank for several hours it gets considerably warmer in the tank. I did notice as it warms the spawning behavior increases. My new theory(just an observational theory) is any temperature fluctuations coupled with worms induce spawning behaviors in my pandas. 

My pandas are the same way. Just in general they like to have the right "setup" and then once that is available they spawn almost every night/week.

I am trying to get these black corys going now that I have the plants taking hold and the bigger fish out of the tank.  They seem to be very weather dependent. First time was a massive storm moved in.  Second time was another massive wind storm we had when I saw a lot of behavior but no eggs.

I removed the ziss bubble bio, added the skimmer, and I'm working on fixing the tidal to give it that river pattern on it's intake (no skimmer, no midwater intake anymore.

[Guppysnail]

@nabokovfan87 my bladder snails are extremely sensitive to barometric pressure. They exhibit different behaviors with different changes. I’ve read folks telling of doing cool water changes before or after large storms to trigger behaviors. I’m thinking fish that come from regions that experience drought then floods or similar may be affected by the barometric pressure. 

Bear with me this is a long shot thought…but certainly not the craziest thing I would have ever tried. 🤣

Whenever you see storms rolling in on the forecast feed one specific live or freeze dried worm/food. Only do it through the lead up and beginning of the storm. Perhaps they will associate this specific food with coming storms as a learned behavior and spawn when fed so you can influence the spawning a little????

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/3/2022 at 8:45 PM, Guppysnail said:

I’ve read folks telling of doing cool water changes before or after large storms to trigger behaviors. I’m thinking fish that come from regions that experience drought then floods or similar may be affected by the barometric pressure. 

I need an app to alert me. 😂

When I was trying to be very serious about getting them to trigger I was checking temps and then when it was good to be a "cold day" I would open the window and let the cold air rush in.

It's one of those things where I just don't have experience with it to know if I'm doing the right things.

My focus right now is going from 1 to 2 meals a day, worms and frozen food every other day, not just mostly spirulina foods.

On 6/3/2022 at 8:45 PM, Guppysnail said:

Perhaps they will associate this specific food with coming storms as a learned behavior and spawn when fed so you can influence the spawning a little????

Very interesting! I will have to play with this. On "good days" I've been feeding worms just before lights out.

[Guppysnail]

On 6/4/2022 at 12:00 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

It's one of those things where I just don't have experience with it to know if I'm doing the right things.

No one does. If anyone did there would be a specific how to spawn manual. The great part of this hobby is everyone can be a great discoverer. 
The ACO members only presentation I liked the most was the one on Spawning plecos. She is a well known breeder and highly respected. She talked about some of the crazy things she tried to trigger spawning recommended to her by friends and how nervous she was. 

 

[Odd Duck]

My bronzes (C. aeneus) love to spawn when there is a storm coming through and especially when I do a water change right before or after that is several degrees (4-5 degrees or more) cooler than the tank.  I haven’t had the other species long enough to see spawning although the trilineatus are now starting to get frisky when the bronzes get frisky.  I’m hoping the gold lasers (CW010) and sterbais will soon start to do the same.  The bronzes definitely spawn more often when I’m feeding meatier foods regularly.

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/4/2022 at 9:07 AM, Odd Duck said:

I haven’t had the other species long enough to see spawning although the trilineatus are now starting to get frisky when the bronzes get frisky.

What behavior do you tend to see? Up downs or moreso chasing around the tank?

I've seen both. The chasing and the female looking for a place to deposit.

I also have "learned" to sort of write.some things off as them playing in the flow vs. more panicked up downs on the glass.

[Odd Duck]

Increases in ups and downs, but especially in back and forth.  There is more intensity to it than when they’re just playing.  They are moving faster, the males are very tight on the tail of a female.  To me, it looks very different than playing when they may be single, or there may be 2-3 (or more) zooming, but their bodies are still fairly relaxed.  Yes, they are zipping around, but not at nearly the speed as spawning.  They are quite driven and their bodies very tense when spawning.  When spawning is eminent, the males are sticking tight vs the loose group during cory zoomies.  When spawning, they do wiggles very tight to the glass or plants as they deposit.  They hold their fins differently and it’s a bit hard to describe why exactly it’s so different, but when you see it, you’ll know it and be like, “Oh, that’s what she meant.”  Hmm, maybe if I organized it into lists and clump the differences.

Play:

Zoomies are quick swimming, but fairly random and not the fastest they can go.  Singles, small groups, large groups, but always a fairly loose group not clumped tight around any individual.  Fairly relaxed body posture and fins even when zooming fast.  Randomly stop to rest with no particularly tight clumping.  Usually pointing every which direction away from each other as they rest.  Some will stop together, some will keep going and randomly stop elsewhere.  Some will randomly bumble away like, “Meh, no big deal, just clowning around.”  Will “dance” together sometimes with little ups and downs, but short bursts, no intensity to it, just typical cory bumbling and noodling around, very casual.

 

Spawning:

Tight groups with smaller males sticking tight to larger, plumper females that often have a paler, fleshy tone to their broader bellies.  Chasing with far more drive and intensity.  Body posture is more tight and tense.  Usually a small group of males or sometimes a single male will be pursuing a female.  Swimming is often at top speed and the female may duck and dodge into dense clumps of plants to shake off pursuers when tired.  She will sometimes do hard tail flicks that appear to be for getting away but also look sometimes like they might be a slap at the male to shake him off her tail.  If they stop someplace (without her diving into plant clumps) they will often stay tight together while resting with the male nose in to the female’s side.  Often the male is touching her and may nudge her sometimes.  Not as much resting overall until after spawning is over. 

 

Other tank mates:

I can also see a big difference in the other fishes’ behavior.  Normal cory zoomies might see a tetra or rasbora have to dodge out of the way occasionally.  During cory spawning, there is a significant increase in activity in many of the tank mates.  Swimming faster, more irregularly or erratically, turning back to watch the show after darting around a bit.  Just a general increase in excitement in the tank.  Shoaling fish may clump up a bit more than usual.  Not necessarily into a tight school, but more clumpy than the usual random swimming.  May even show some spawning behavior, too, although I’ve never noticed an actual spawn, but their eggs may be too small for me to see from across the room.

Hope some of this makes sense.

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/4/2022 at 10:06 AM, Odd Duck said:

Hope some of this makes sense.

Absolutely!  The pandas are zooming around, I saw one holding eggs.  2 sponges and 1 ziss in a 29G seems to make them very excited and after the water change, 2-3 days or so, a big feeding, and they are off and running again.  What I wouldn't give to get the black corys to act like my pandas 😂

I post videos sometimes and it's of "breeding behavior" but sometimes I don't know if it makes sense. There's definitely a difference!