Paleatus breeding

[Jimmy]

I have a group of paleatus in a 20 long by themselves. Initially when I got the group over a year ago, they breed constantly. Fast forward to now I see no breeding behavior. I think it’s 1 female to 7 males. They don’t seem to pester or harass her which is ideal. I’ve watched them after water changes and storms and see no activity. Any suggestions or feedback on how to get them back into breeding shape? 

[Fish Folk]

Live. Black. Worms. 😎

Feed just after lights-out. Leave a night-light on in your fishroom overnight. 

[JMP]

Try frozen blood worms and other frozen foods to condition them. Large water changes with slightly lower ph and temp than their tank. A large (50%) water change does the trick with my Cory’s. I use RO water at approx 6.6 ph for water changing. I run my Cory tanks from 6.7 to 6.8 at 74 / 75 degrees. 

[Cinnebuns]

High protein foods will make her develop eggs faster. A cold water change (5-10F lower than the tank temp) will trigger them to spawn. Works almost every time for me. 

A note on the sex of them. In cories you actually keep a reverse trio of 2M to 1F. Males won't pester the female but will run out of sperm with females spawning regularly. So, in your case neither is of concern. The only concern is that you have all of your eggs in one basket so to speak. It all relies on the one female. 

[Jimmy]

On 1/9/2023 at 6:38 AM, Fish Folk said:

Live. Black. Worms. 😎

Feed just after lights-out. Leave a night-light on in your fishroom overnight. 

I’ve heard so many great things about them but just coming out of the holiday season budget is a concern lol.

 

On 1/9/2023 at 6:55 AM, JMP said:

Try frozen blood worms and other frozen foods to condition them. Large water changes with slightly lower ph and temp than their tank. A large (50%) water change does the trick with my Cory’s. I use RO water at approx 6.6 ph for water changing. I run my Cory tanks from 6.7 to 6.8 at 74 / 75 degrees. 

I might try pumping them full of blood worms and doing the water change. When I first got the group they spawned all the time and I did nothing. They haven’t appeared to spawn at all in months from what I can tell. One time their tank hit 61 degrees and I got a whole bunch of eggs lol.

 

On 1/9/2023 at 6:25 PM, Cinnebuns said:

High protein foods will make her develop eggs faster. A cold water change (5-10F lower than the tank temp) will trigger them to spawn. Works almost every time for me. 

A note on the sex of them. In cories you actually keep a reverse trio of 2M to 1F. Males won't pester the female but will run out of sperm with females spawning regularly. So, in your case neither is of concern. The only concern is that you have all of your eggs in one basket so to speak. It all relies on the one female. 

I’ve thought about possibly doing musical tanks and pulling her out with 2 males to see if that encourages activity.

[nabokovfan87]

cc @TeeJay

 

On 1/9/2023 at 6:25 AM, Jimmy said:

I think it’s 1 female to 7 males. They don’t seem to pester or harass her which is ideal. I’ve watched them after water changes and storms and see no activity. Any suggestions or feedback on how to get them back into breeding shape? 

You have the moss in there so that's 1/4 of the battle right there!

I would propagate that moss and glue some onto the top of the PVC tubes.  This gives the corydoras a few locations for eggs. 

One thing you're sort of missing in the tank is that you don't really have cover on the substrate.  Think of it as the "if you build it, they will come" mindset.  You need to have a piece of wood, cover, a place to tell the adults that the fry will survive! Rocks on the floor of the tank with moss attached to them is my preferred route.

If this was my set of corydoras, this is what I would do....
A.  Get 2-4 decent pieces of wood or rock for the bottom of the tank.
B.  Cut the moss you have so that you're using about half of the portion you have floating.  Use scissors and cut that to 1/8-1/4" segments and then glue that to rocks, wood, and your PVC.  Once that grows out in about 3-6 weeks you will have a really nice surface for the fish.
C.  At this point then you condition them.  Feed them good food 2x a day.  Repashy overnight 4-5 times a week is a great method to condition your corydoras to breed.  You would use a food like community blend, bottom scratcher, or spawn and grow to give them that protein they want to grow the eggs and trigger that behavior.

 

[Cinnebuns]

On 1/10/2023 at 7:27 PM, Jimmy said:

I’ve thought about possibly doing musical tanks and pulling her out with 2 males to see if that encourages activity.

It honestly might. I do know this is something some cory breeders do. They mostly do it to control who breeds with who but in this case it might help other things too. 

I would also try to use a spawning mop personally. They are very handy. They simulate plants they like to lay their eggs in and are easily removed to search. There are many YouTube videos explaining how to make them. In this case use sinking, not floating ones. They are the bundles of yarn on the bottom of the tank in this picture of my main tank. 

 

Edited January 11, 2023 by Cinnebuns

[Jimmy]

On 1/10/2023 at 8:56 PM, Cinnebuns said:

It honestly might. I do know this is something some cory breeders do. They mostly do it to control who breeds with who but in this case it might help other things too. 

I would also try to use a spawning mop personally. They are very handy. They simulate plants they like to lay their eggs in and are easily removed to search. There are many YouTube videos explaining how to make them. In this case use sinking, not floating ones. They are the bundles of yarn on the bottom of the tank in this picture of my main tank. 

 

I thought about throwing some mops down in the substrate but previously they always laid on the glass. It might be worth a shot.

[Cinnebuns]

On 1/11/2023 at 9:05 AM, Jimmy said:

I thought about throwing some mops down in the substrate but previously they always laid on the glass. It might be worth a shot.

It's worth trying. I haven't experienced this personally but I've heard that it can be harder to get glass layers to use a mop.

Funny enough, mine have used the mop for over a year now yet one specific female has started to randomly place a few eggs on the glass. My guess is because it's now heavily planted. Maybe since the plants are up against the glass she THINKS she's laying on a plant?  Who know haha? 🤷‍♀️. Sounds like a plausible reason to me. 

[Jimmy]

On 1/11/2023 at 10:46 AM, Cinnebuns said:

It's worth trying. I haven't experienced this personally but I've heard that it can be harder to get glass layers to use a mop.

Funny enough, mine have used the mop for over a year now yet one specific female has started to randomly place a few eggs on the glass. My guess is because it's now heavily planted. Maybe since the plants are up against the glass she THINKS she's laying on a plant?  Who know haha? 🤷‍♀️. Sounds like a plausible reason to me. 

They like to keep us on our toes, huh? Lol