Help please! Are these Male Albino Corys

[Leafy]

I have five Albino Corys three I know are female, I have had eggs laid twice now by two separate females - but so far, they’ve been unfertilised - two of my corys looked male to me but now I’m second guessing.

looking at these images can anyone give me their expert input on the genders of these two please.

Thanks.

 

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

Make Aeneus cories tend to be smaller than the female, if that helps.

Welcome to the forum!!

[Leafy]

Yep, that’s the advice I’ve been going on. The bottom pictured Cory is certainly smaller but the top pictured one is of similar length only thinner…I am wondering if my females are more mature than my potential males. Or the eggs I’ve managed to save on both occasions (as the rest got eaten) are in fact just the leftover unfertilised ones. 
 

I think next water change, as they’ve done it two weeks in a row following water changes, I do then weekly but this last two weeks have been the only time they’ve spawned at all. I’m not sure on their age so am guessing they’ve just reached maturity. I’ll watch out for the signs and move a pair into a separate tank, see if I get better results. 
 

thank you for your reply.

[gardenman]

A top-down look generally helps you sort males from females. The males will be slimmer while the females will be bulkier.

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 11/19/2022 at 3:18 PM, Leafy said:

Yep, that’s the advice I’ve been going on. The bottom pictured Cory is certainly smaller but the top pictured one is of similar length only thinner…I am wondering if my females are more mature than my potential males. Or the eggs I’ve managed to save on both occasions (as the rest got eaten) are in fact just the leftover unfertilised ones. 
 

I think next water change, as they’ve done it two weeks in a row following water changes, I do then weekly but this last two weeks have been the only time they’ve spawned at all. I’m not sure on their age so am guessing they’ve just reached maturity. I’ll watch out for the signs and move a pair into a separate tank, see if I get better results. 
 

thank you for your reply.

Maybe try conditioning them with livefoods like live black worms & BBS

[Odd Duck]

Are the smaller fish chasing behind the females as they lay?  Do they look like they’re harassing the females until they lay?  It can be hard to spot them doing the “T” but if you see all those things, then you should have males.  If you only see the females laying eggs and no male zipping along after her, they may not be mature enough or may be younger females.  Females will lay eggs without males but you don’t get the frenzied chase typical of bronzes.  The other possibility is you have 2 different species of albino cories and they aren’t all bronzes.  The majority of albino cories sold at most lfs stores are bronzes, but multiple species come in albino versions and can be very hard to tell apart as albinos.

[nabokovfan87]

If you have a specimen container, try to put them in there (or just a net against the glass in the tank) and then record a video or photos.  It's really hard to tell without front / top / side shots.  The other main way to tell is the lower fins.  There is some awesome sketches here:

https://www.calgaryaquariumsociety.com/eenie-meenie-minie-moe/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by nabokovfan87