I collected about 6 cory eggs this evening. I'm not sure what the next step is.

[KittenFishMom]

My corys were spawning tonight. I think I collected 6 eggs, and put them in one of these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005QRDDJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I took the divider out.

It has an air lift to draw water in non-stop, and an overflow to let it flow back into the tank. The fish are still laying eggs, but I don't want more than 1 or 2 new corys, so I stopped at 6 eggs. Two were on a piece of java moss, 2 more were on the underside of one leaf and 2 or 3 more on the underside another leaf.  I put the strands of moss and both leaves in the breeder box. The leaves are floating with the egg side down. The flagfish and male corys seemed to be eating the eggs as fast as she was laying them, so I watched her deposit the eggs and picked the leaves before anything could get near them.

5 to 6 males were chasing her, so I feed the tank bbbs fresh from the hatcher. That distracted the flagfish completely. All the corys were trying to eat bbs and spawn at the same time. It got confusing.

Since this HOB breeder box has a steady flow or water, do I need to do anything besides add IALs?

[KittenFishMom]

@Pepere IAL is Indian Almond Leaf.  Which kind of Repashy? There are so many flavors.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/28/2022 at 5:41 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Which kind of Repashy? There are so many flavors.

Soilent green or community blend.  The bottom scratcher is a bit too chunky.  Soilent green works really, really well for them.

On 12/28/2022 at 5:19 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Since this HOB breeder box has a steady flow or water, do I need to do anything besides add IALs?

I have my methods in my journal for what I did and notes, but the basics are....

Feed them 2-3x a day, lean towards 3 if you can.  (morning, afternoon, and then late night feeding so they can graze overnight).  I cleaned the container every 24-48 hours for about 6 weeks. 

 I also recommend adding some moss.  They like to lay in it.  Make sure the water level isn't too high on the box, keep the last divider in there and try to use something to keep them from going through the gate / overflow.  That will raise the water level, but once they get big enough you can remove that and then go ahead and remove the divider.

Edited December 29, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[KittenFishMom]

@Pepere and @nabokovfan87 For repashy, I have spawn & grow, Community Plus, and grub pie. I also have first bites and the ACO fry food. 

Do you think I should add a shrimp or 2 to the HOB breeder?

After I got the first 6 eggs, I saw the young hi-fin female spawn and grabbed some of her eggs too. Both were breeding to hi-fin and regular fin males.

What is a normal success rate for eggs to hatch and fry to live?

Thanks 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/28/2022 at 8:05 PM, KittenFishMom said:

I have spawn & grow, Community Plus

These two.  Feed one one day, then the other on the following day.

On 12/28/2022 at 8:05 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Do you think I should add a shrimp or 2 to the HOB breeder?

Not at first. No need.  After they start to have fins and tails, yeah, you're a lot safer to do something like that.

[KittenFishMom]

@nabokovfan87 The HOB breeder box I have has an air up lift that runs water in steadily. it the flows out at the same rate the the water level is not adjustable. I don't have any dividers in my breeder box.

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/28/2022 at 8:05 PM, KittenFishMom said:

What is a normal success rate for eggs to hatch and fry to live?

It all depends on methods.  I lost 1 in my hatch, but of course not everything hatched.  On the second attempt I had about 30 more fry and I ended up with just 1 that I saw after a few days.  Either the rest were a snack or jumped the gate into the tank.  Time will tell!

On 12/28/2022 at 8:13 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@nabokovfan87 The HOB breeder box I have has an air up lift that runs water in steadily. it the flows out at the same rate the the water level is not adjustable. I don't have any dividers in my breeder box.

I have the same one you have. 🙂


The first 2-3 weeks keep in that last gate.  Even after a month I had added it back in to make cleaning easier.  I pushed all the junk to the right, then siphoned that out without risk of the fry in there.

On 12/28/2022 at 8:13 PM, KittenFishMom said:

it the flows out at the same rate the the water level is not adjustable. I don't have any dividers in my breeder box.

Adding something at the gate, depending on the angle the box sits on your tank, those two things play a role on the water level.

Any sort of material at the gate, the output little grid thing, that causes the water to exit a bit slower.  If the flow itself is cranked too high, I almost overflowed the box once or twice. 😞

[KittenFishMom]

@nabokovfan87 I am setting up the shrimp in a seperate tank without any fish, except possibly the cory fry, if they hatch.  I think the fry can find a good bit to eat in that tank. I'm thinking the shrimp would clean up anything the fry don't eat.

[Cinnebuns]

Awhile ago I did a while write up on ways I have in the past and currently hatch my cory eggs and raise fry. There are other things you can do as well including hatching in a jar. Here it is:

 

On 12/28/2022 at 10:18 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@nabokovfan87 I am setting up the shrimp in a seperate tank without any fish, except possibly the cory fry, if they hatch.  I think the fry can find a good bit to eat in that tank. I'm thinking the shrimp would clean up anything the fry don't eat.

For months now I have kept a tank with neocaridina shrimp, cory eggs, and young cory fry. It works really well!  I highly recommend it!  I pull the cories out basically once they have full finage. Sometimes I let them grow a little after that but not always depending on the situation in each tank. 

On 12/28/2022 at 7:19 PM, KittenFishMom said:

Since this HOB breeder box has a steady flow or water, do I need to do anything besides add IALs?

I did a fluval hang in breeder box for my eggs for awhile and didn't use almond leaves at all. I saw you are putting shrimp in the box with them. They should clean off any fungus if that's why you are considering the IAL so I don't think it's needed but it also wouldn't hurt. Have a turkey baster handy for grabbing infertile eggs if the shrimp don't eat them. It's also helpful for grabbing the fry when you want to move them because they are too tiny to use a net on. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/28/2022 at 8:18 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@nabokovfan87 I am setting up the shrimp in a seperate tank without any fish, except possibly the cory fry, if they hatch.  I think the fry can find a good bit to eat in that tank. I'm thinking the shrimp would clean up anything the fry don't eat.

I had the same thought, then I think the bigger fry ate the little fry!  Just saying, give them a few days to get fully formed.  Very, very sensitive the first week.

On 12/28/2022 at 8:59 PM, Cinnebuns said:

For months now I have kept a tank with neocaridina shrimp, cory eggs, and young cory fry. It works really well!  I highly recommend it!  I pull the cories out basically once they have full finage. Sometimes I let them grow a little after that but not always depending on the situation in each tank. 

100%.  See above 🙂

[CalmedByFish]

On 12/28/2022 at 10:05 PM, KittenFishMom said:

What is a normal success rate for eggs to hatch and fry to live?

I collected 10 eggs. 4 hatched. 2 survived. Those 2 are now 6 months old and healthy. So I'd guess about 1 out of 5 will live. 

I kept mine in a little floating basket, wrapped in hosiery so they couldn't get out, until they outgrew the basket. I kept 2 neocaridina and 2 snails with them to keep the interior clean. Hikari First Bites is all I fed them, several times per day. 

[Cinnebuns]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:13 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I had the same thought, then I think the bigger fry ate the little fry! 

Even adult cories won't eat cory fry so idk if this happens or not. It absolutely could if they were low on food probably. Ik at one point my major issue was I didn't realize my 2 week old guppy fry were eating the cory fry. Oof that sucked when I first saw it. I moved a cory fry from the breeder box to the tank and immediately watched it get gobbled by the still small guppy fry. Live and learn!

On 12/29/2022 at 12:14 AM, CalmedByFish said:

I collected 10 eggs. 4 hatched. 2 survived. Those 2 are now 6 months old and healthy. So I'd guess about 1 out of 5 will live. 

That's very hard to say based on one experience. Especially since each species of cory have extremely varied fertility rates. Some species lay hundreds of eggs at a time but only a small handful are fertile. Others, like pandas for example, will lay a couple of dozen in a night and most will be fertile. Even then there are many other factors like how interested the boys are or even if the boys are "dried out" from the previous night and such. One night I collected 12 eggs and all but 1 were fertile. Another night I collected 43 eggs but only 5 were fertile. And that's the same exact panda female each of those examples. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Cinnebuns

[Cinnebuns]

On 12/29/2022 at 12:14 AM, CalmedByFish said:

and 2 snails with them

What kind of snails?  I personally wouldn't trust any snail but nerites near my eggs. Snails love to eat eggs. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/28/2022 at 10:46 PM, Cinnebuns said:

Even adult cories won't eat cory fry so idk if this happens or not. It absolutely could if they were low on food probably.

They very well could've gone through the gate, into the tank. We'll see how many I have when they get bigger.

On 12/28/2022 at 10:46 PM, Cinnebuns said:

I moved a cory fry from the breeder box to the tank and immediately watched it get gobbled by the still small guppy fry. Live and learn!

That's the worst. Yeah, now that I know the method, I'm going to keep them in the breeder box or something for minimum 6 weeks. At least until they get a decent enough size to handle the tank.  When they were in the 75G and had all of my rocks and hides, triple the space, I worried a lot less.

At least for now, waiting for all the plants to grow and carpet.... Yeah, have to protect them.

[Cinnebuns]

On 12/29/2022 at 2:22 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

That's the worst. Yeah, now that I know the method, I'm going to keep them in the breeder box or something for minimum 6 weeks. At least until they get a decent enough size to handle the tank.  When they were in the 75G and had all of my rocks and hides, triple the space, I worried a lot less.

At least for now, waiting for all the plants to grow and carpet.... Yeah, have to protect them.

Completely makes sense to me. I constantly get babies popping up from eggs I miss in my main tank now that it's heavily planted after I redid the aquascape but the fry from the eggs I pull I have the same idea about. It is kinda incredible how many more are surviving the gauntlet of the main tank now that it's heavily planted come to think of it. I actually never put it together until just now that that's what changed before I saw the big boom. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by Cinnebuns

[CalmedByFish]

On 12/29/2022 at 1:00 AM, Cinnebuns said:

What kind of snails?  I personally wouldn't trust any snail but nerites near my eggs. Snails love to eat eggs. 

Ramshorn and bladder.

[Andy's Fish Den]

When I pull cory eggs, I put them in a deli container floating in the tank water, and add an airstone that is turned way down to just a small trickle of bubbles coming out, just enough to add a little circulation. I will add a drop or two of hydrogen peroxide when I first put the eggs in, then the next day I will add a shrimp or two to the container, as well as a piece of Indian almond leaf. I have never had an issue with the shrimp harming the eggs, I will see them on the eggs and it appears as if they are cleaning them, I'm sure there is some microscopic foods that can fall on the eggs. The eggs hatch after a few days, and you will be able to see their egg sacs. Once they have absorbed the egg sac, I transfer them to a hang on breeder box, and add a small piece of wood as well, just something that has been in a tank for a while so it has some micro foods growing all over it, after I transfer them, I will add a small amount of powder food, either first bites, or some gulden pearls. I have also in a pinch ground up some flake foods very fine and used it and not had any issues, but when I have done that it was for bronze cory which is a larger fry.. At this point I will start hatching BBS if I don't already have some going, and will start feeding it slowly at first, then after a few days more heavily. You will notice the growth rate will take off once they are getting live BBS regularly. 

[KittenFishMom]

Current update, tank date 1230/2022 11:47 am east coast time:

Yesterday I bought some blue dream shrimp and added four to the HOB breeder box, along with more eggs I found on the glass and some java moss. There is an almond leaf held between the lid and the back. There are 2 bits of live leaf with eggs attached floating in the HOB.

Yesterday I fed the tank bbs and some of them were sucked into the HOB. I used a dropper to remove the debris on the bottom on the HOB. and use some gentle puffs of water from the dropper to move the eggs on the bottom around a bit.

The shrimp were swimming all over the HOB last night. This morning the had settled down on the java moss and were looking like happy busy shrimp. I added a bit of powder Spirulina for the shrimp. I wasn't sure what to fed the  shrimp that would not foul the water for the eggs in the HOB.

Edited December 30, 2022 by KittenFishMom

[Remi de Groot]

I was in the same position about 3 weeks ago. Pulled about 15 eggs but only one was fertilized in the end and hatched.

Love the Fluval container you got. Bought it as a birthday present for myself when pulling the eggs.

Because only one Cory hatched it's pretty easy to keep the breeding box clean. Every morning I turn of the air for a sec and clean the bottom with an airline. After I put in new food (just crushed flakes and some baby shrimp powder I already had) and reconnect the air again.

So far so good.

Edited December 31, 2022 by Remi de Groot

[Cinnebuns]

On 12/30/2022 at 7:19 AM, CalmedByFish said:

Ramshorn and bladder.

Idk about bladder but ramshorn definitely eat eggs. I intentionally got rid of them in one tank for that reason.