Sterbai Cories Spawning in the community tank!

[Lennie]

(This topic includes fish NSFW. 😄 )

5 mins ago, I've entered to my room to feed my 29g community tank where I keep my sterbai cory school. I know there is only one male in the school and the rest are full girls 😄 The boy is the shiest  fish I've ever kept, so I was surprised to see him with a female one in front of the glass. I should've guessed there was something going on at that moment.

As you may guess, lil buddies were on some action. I fed them frozen food last nite, and did the weekly maintenance with a colder water change this morning, I was thinking of maybe they would spawn by any chance. Considering I'm starting a new tank, what could be even better than having my own babies moved to a new home!!

I got the corys when they were juviniles almost a year ago, and never seen spawning before, so I was not hoping much again.

The sad part is, whenever she leaves an egg, it is probably eaten by the rummy noses. I've seen one directly eating literally in less than a sec she left the egg on the glass. She keeps swimming through dense plants, driftwood and rock literally looking at places to lay.

I don't know what to do. The only chance seems to make any sense is moving her to my snail quarantine tank for her to spawn? I am scared of stressing her. That's the last thing I would like to cause, especially when she's spawning. 

Even tho there are lots of plants in my tank, I don't think it is likely that eggs would survive in the tank right?

I tried turning off the lights too but it seemed  to make her stressed a lil. Maybe I am over thinking. Maybe I keep the lights off and check for any eggs in the early morning?

I only kept easy african cichlids and guppies ages ago, and their breeding behavior is different than corys as you can easily tell.

How long do they keep spawning btw?

Losing eggs to other fish seems to be the only negative side of having a community tank I guess 😥

Thanks for the help in advance!😊

Edited January 14, 2023 by Lennie

[Flumpweesel]

She needs the male with her to fertilize the eggs as she is laying them the best thing you can do is distract the rummy noses with some food away from her them collect the eggs yourself and pop them in either a fishless tank or a breeder box.

My SAE's used to follow my corys around waiting for eggs . My krib killed my old female peppered by eating the eggs off her 

Krib has been removed to Cory free tank

[Guppysnail]

Congratulations 🍾🎉 

All my different Cory are in community tanks and I have the same issues of other fish predating. I find at sunup I hit an overhead light and search the tank and collect the eggs works. Also I check inside moss, plants, Anubis and have fern roots. All my Cory have started laying in hidden spots to stop predators. I pulled out a clump of algae in the bottom of my lucky bamboo a few weeks ago. Inside that clump were eggs. 
They spawn when happy and safe. Moving her out of her group even with your male to fertilize you will most likely see no spawning. Groups make them feel safe. Stable environments make them feel safe. 

[Lennie]

@Flumpweesel I instantly dropped a Sera O nip, it attracts everyone directly. Somehow it attracted her too 😄 

She went like, "these eggz can wait, it's o nip timee!"

I thought only one time mating could be enough to fertilize the eggs. They gotta mate before every single egg to be laid? Dang it >_> There is no way im moving her with the boi. He would have a heart attack 😄 He is a bit stoopid as well. I would love the see what babys would be like. He makes me laugh 😄

@Guppysnail Thanks!! I feel like I'm unlikely to save any babies from this spawn, but at least I know they are healthy and feeling well still after completing their one year journey in my tank. That alone makes me happy 🙂 Just in case she keeps spawning during the night, I will try to keep my room dark until I turn on the lights in the morning. Tetras seem to be inactive and sleeping during the night, meanwhile my corys are almost always active.  I won't be moving her to the quarantine tank then. Sounds to be pointless and would cause stress. They seem to be happier with their school, I agree.

Thanks again for the quick help guys. Appreciated!🤍

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/14/2023 at 8:04 AM, Lennie said:

I got the corys when they were juviniles almost a year ago, and never seen spawning before, so I was not hoping much again.

The sad part is, whenever she leaves an egg, it is probably eaten by the rummy noses. I've seen one directly eating literally in less than a sec she left the egg on the glass. She keeps swimming through dense plants, driftwood and rock literally looking at places to lay.

I don't know what to do. The only chance seems to make any sense is moving her to my snail quarantine tank for her to spawn? I am scared of stressing her. That's the last thing I would like to cause, especially when she's spawning. 

Definitely don't move her right now. Let her finish spawning. It can last a few days.

She is using leaves and other places to try to hide the eggs from predators. The main thing is to keep the eggs free from fungus, make sure flow isn't extremely strong, and that the water is clean.   The tank sounds like it has heavy plant cover, so the setup you have is perfect for the fry to do well in that setting. I wouldn't move either the fry or the parents.

Congratulations. Enjoy and best of luck with the fry and a successful hatch!

 

 

[Guppysnail]

If you gravel vac do so gently and watch the uplift tube CLOSELY for a month or more. I often get babies that hide in the gravel. They stay safe until they are large enough to come out from in the gravel then get eaten. I keep my siphon fingers ready to pinch the line and my other hand free to put over the end of the siphon. I keep a tiny dish of tank water I scoop out ahead of time to drop found fry in. Under plants near roots is where I find the bulk of my tank fry 

[Lennie]

@Guppysnail I do gravel vac once a week before the water changes! I will be more careful for sure. I'm using Tetra GC 40 as a vacuum cleaner, it helps me a lot to control water flow directly! I usually use it on very low setting as my substrate is super low in weight or else it gets sucked like a sand. Would the fry be easy to see? I have a dark substrate 😞

@nabokovfan87 thanks for the help! I really hope some babies would survive. I adore them a lot. Keeping the tank clean will  be a lil questionable, as my tank is a bit overstocked and I mostly keep the tank healthy with weekly water changes and gravel vacuuming. Seems like it makes it  a bit challenging rn. You mean it by mechanical cleaning, or keeping water parameters good and healthy?Any suggestions? My tank is quite planted with overgrown elodea and mosses too. The flow is by no means extreme! I only have a HOB placed in the center of the tank, with the capacity of 510L/hour. It does the job for me. So you suggest me to leave to eggs in the tank?

[Guppysnail]

On 1/14/2023 at 11:58 AM, Lennie said:

Would the fry be easy to see?

I look for incorrect tiny consistent movement.  Gunk goes up the tube fry fight desperately to go down. If I can see it you most likely can if you are looking for it. My eyes are not great. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/14/2023 at 8:58 AM, Lennie said:

You mean it by mechanical cleaning, or keeping water parameters good and healthy?Any suggestions?

Mostly water parameters, but both matters.

I tend to siphon one spot or two spots when I want to avoid fry. Those other spots, patches of plants or pile of rocks, I tend to avoid for a few weeks to give the fry time to develop. As soon as they get fins they are a lot more resilient to the siphon.  Fry tend to avoid open spaces on the tank, and adults. Wherever the adults congregate you might see fry in rock crevice or elsewhere, try to get the spots where the adults are if that section of the substrate needs to be cleaned. If not, just don't siphon it. You don't want rotting food in the substrate but you do want food there, aufwuchs, and places for the fry to get floating debris to eat off.

Once you get that siphoned, let the bucket sit and then you can use a flashlight through the side of the bucket. Sort of like how when you have glasses and they break, you lose a screw on the floor and can't see anything, having your eye close to the floor and seeing the shadow or odd shape helps.  Use a turkey baster to move any fry back to the tank and then dispose of the water.

On 1/14/2023 at 8:58 AM, Lennie said:

The flow is by no means extreme! I only have a HOB placed in the center of the tank, with the capacity of 510L/hour. It does the job for me. So you suggest me to leave to eggs in the tank?

If there is a lot of cover, yeah I would. The fry will be healthier and it's a lot less stress on you.  If you're trying to maximize the hatch then go ahead and move eggs. If you are happy with some surviving and adding to the herd, then just let nature do it's thing.

This is from my tank. The two fish are from the same hatch. The larger one survived in the tank while the smaller one was pulled into a breeder box, released into the tank at 6 weeks.

Edited January 14, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Lennie]

@Guppysnail I will be extra careful! Thanks for the warning and suggestion.

@nabokovfan87 that is some size difference there beyond gender siz difference. Nature keeps the strong and genetically best one alive, that's for sure. I will keep your suggestions in mind in case I happen to find any eggs in these couple days. I went upstairs to feed my snail tank, they were gliding on the glass again!! Your corys look cute 🙂

[Lennie]

Here is a pic of my 29g to give and idea how planted it is for cory eggs. Sadly dealing with mts bloom and hair algae since I left for military service, and I got my taken care of my parents when I’m away. No biggies tho. It will gradually fix itself I believe when I keep up with the maintenance!

Lily bulb sitting in front expecting it to root again to maybe use in on my new tank too. Also ignore the sponge, my black one died, so I put this in temporarily:) 

 

I couldn’t see any cory eggs in the morning with a quick peek. I hope there are some hidden well:)

[TheSwissAquarist]

What kind of moss are you using? I’ve been trying to get viable fry from corydoras for ages!

[Lennie]

@TheSwissAquaristIt is java moss! They have been doing great in my tank, and I barely trim them as my shrimps enjoy spending time inside it a lot. Sadly it got covered in hair algae recently as I mentioned above. They seem to enjoy it still, so I’m okay with the look as long as they are happy. Not planning to dose anything for algae, I’m learning to live with it 😄

I have no experience of spawning them before! But plant cover seems to be a place they prefer to lay on as @Guppysnail and @nabokovfan87 mentioned! 
 

But I believe feeding frozen brine shrimp/bloodworms followed by a cooler water change what triggers the spawning rather than mosses! As I’ve seen hem laying eggs on the glass even when there are so many plants/ rocks/driftwood/seramic pleco home around.

 

[Lennie]

Update:

I was aboutta make the weekly maintenance. And look what I saw all over the tank!

There were many around the mosses as well!

How will I know if they are fertilized? Idk when they have been layed, but none were showing signs of fuzz look.

P.s: this tank is so old, and I used to have an algae scraper and I did a great job scraping it with lots of sand. Yikes. Newbie times

 

[Guppysnail]

Infertile eggs will turn solid chalk white in a few days. Fertile ones will take on an amber or grey color inside. Congratulations. 

[Lennie]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:44 PM, Guppysnail said:

Infertile eggs will turn solid chalk white in a few days. Fertile ones will take on an amber or grey color inside. Congratulations. 

Many thanks! I will keep an eye on them. Should I try to remove other ones by the time I notice they are empty? Would they foul other ones?

I would love to see at least some to survive to increase my sterbai school :')

cheers,

 

[Ken Burke]

Your tank is heaven for community tank, colony cory breeding!  I never pull the parents, and manage sell some every month.  

[Guppysnail]

Yes pull the chalk white ones so the fungus does not spread @Lennie

[Ken Burke]

On 1/15/2023 at 4:29 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

What kind of moss are you using? I’ve been trying to get viable fry from corydoras for ages!

If you start a thread on cory breeding, I’m sure we can help you get your Cory breeding factory going.  

[Lennie]

On 1/28/2023 at 6:02 PM, Ken Burke said:

Your tank is heaven for community tank, colony cory breeding!  I never pull the parents, and manage sell some every month.

corycats are the cutest!:D Especially pygmys. Holy cow, if my pygmys ever breed, I will lose my mind. They are my fav fish I've ever kept :D. 

Do you do anything special to feed babies, or let them be with leftovers?

my 29g looks more like a jungle rn. I just let it be 😄 Visually it looks less pleasing, but shrimps and fish love it. I still have to figure out the MTS and hair algae situation I got when I left for military service tho. It does not seem to be getting any better even with limited feeding and scheduled maintenance for the last 4 months :') patience, I guess.

Do you have some sort of journal? Would love to see your discus and tank. They are indeed one of my dream fish to keep one day!

 

Edited January 28, 2023 by Lennie

[Ken Burke]

@Lennie I don’t do anything special for my corycats.  I feed tetra shrimp wafers and or Repashy. Occasionally frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp.

 

I haven’t bred pigmy corys, but I have a tank full of pandas and a tank with red sailfin corys. 
 

here are a few pics of my discus tank.  I’m horrible at journaling .

 

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 1/28/2023 at 4:10 PM, Ken Burke said:

If you start a thread on cory breeding, I’m sure we can help you get your Cory breeding factory going.  

Getting some Adolfoi ones from a fish swap next Saturday, I hope I’ll have more luck with them! 

On 1/28/2023 at 4:56 PM, Ken Burke said:

@Lennie I don’t do anything special for my corycats.  I feed tetra shrimp wafers and or Repashy. Occasionally frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp.

 

I haven’t bred pigmy corys, but I have a tank full of pandas and a tank with red sailfin corys. 
 

here are a few pics of my discus tank.  I’m horrible at journaling .

 

 

Are those 2 big plants Amazon swords? They’re massive! 

[Lennie]

On 1/28/2023 at 7:19 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Getting some Adolfoi ones from a fish swap next Saturday, I hope I’ll have more luck with them! 

Adolfois are really good looking!! They are a bit hard to find here.

In my case, it took quite a while for them to start spawning! I got them on february last year as juviniles. So they are more than a year old! So they surely take the sweet time to reach that point 😄 Or they did, in my case.

I would love to see your adolfois in the future!

Edited January 28, 2023 by Lennie

[Ken Burke]

@TheSwissAquarist  yup, those are Amazon swords. They really shine whin you have a big enough tank for them.  I had one in my 37 gal, way too much plant for them.  

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 1/28/2023 at 5:25 PM, Lennie said:

it took quite a while for them to start spawning! I got them on february last year as juviniles. So they are more than a year old! So they surely take the sweet time to reach that point 😄 Or they did, in my case

A decent water change and a temperature drop seems to get them spawning, according to a friend.