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egg seperation help required


Theplatymaster
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For the past few months i have not at all been successful breeding corydoras. I have 1 juvenile i bred right now.  But its always the same issue i have with the eggs, they dont hatch, even though i can see there are fertile ones in there. My question here, is How do you seperate your fertile and non-fertile eggs, i keep trying and nothing really works.

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The only cories I've had success with are sterbai and habrosus. I breed the sterbai by collecting eggs and hatching them in a tumbler, and the habrosus get it done all by themselves in their tank. 

Cory eggs should be hatching around 3-4 days after being laid. At that time, are you seeing them as grey-brown-beige in colour, sort of murky-transparent? Or are you seeing them creamy white and opaque? 

When the eggs are laid/collected, I rarely aim to separate fertile and infertile, because I can't reliably tell which is which at that early stage. But, after being in the tumbler for 1-2 days, I do see the fertile eggs remain translucent, while the infertile one fungus up and become off-white/creamy. Depending on how many there are, I may remove the fungused eggs from the tumbler, or not. 

I hatch my eggs a bit differently from some, I'll share my method and you can try it if you want. Every 24 hrs, starting with the point of egg collection and continuing daily until they hatch, I give my eggs a 15 minute Hydrogen Peroxide bath. The rate is 2mL of 3% peroxide in 250mL tank water for 15 mins. This means that every night I'm... i) removing the tumbler from the tank, ii) rinsing the attached sponge, iii) pouring off the water in the tumbler (trying to get any detritus/debris out at the same time), iv) removing the eggs to a holding cup so I can v) rinse and scrub out the tumbler, vi) refill the tumbler with with tank water and add the eggs back in (this is where I separate any that are fungused), vii) add the 2mL of peroxide (because the tumbler holds 250mL) and soak for 15 mins, then viii) pour off the peroxide mix and again refill the tumbler with clean tank water, and then ix) return the tumbler to the tank and reconnect the air. 

Edited by TOtrees
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Like @TOtrees said I grab any and all eggs I want and try to spread them out in the Ziss Tumbler. Easier said than done, but my experience and thought is that if eggs are spread out in the tumbler and some start to fungus I can either A) remove fungused eggs or B) spread them out far enough that the fungus can’t reach the other eggs. 
 

From there, once the fry hatch they go to a 2.5 gallon grow out tank with some Java moss and a small ACO sponge filter. From there, they go to a 10 gallon tank to grow out. Then, they either go to the store or get moved to the 55 gallon grow out tank if I need the 10 gallon. Here’s some pictures to illustrate. 

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Hopping in to let OP know you're not alone. I have had very few eggs hatch, and the ones that have are often hatching around day 7, rather than the 3-5 the internet has told me to expect.

I had been doing what I saw elsewhere - a breeder box with an air stone and an alder cone. My assumption before had been that my water being very hard is the biggest issue and was planning to try rainwater for the next hatch, but I'll look into what's been said here. How important is the Ziss Tumbler? I'd prefer to avoid the expense, but if it's the difference maker I can pull the trigger. 

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On 1/25/2023 at 5:42 PM, lewk said:

Hopping in to let OP know you're not alone. I have had very few eggs hatch, and the ones that have are often hatching around day 7, rather than the 3-5 the internet has told me to expect.

I had been doing what I saw elsewhere - a breeder box with an air stone and an alder cone. My assumption before had been that my water being very hard is the biggest issue and was planning to try rainwater for the next hatch, but I'll look into what's been said here. How important is the Ziss Tumbler? I'd prefer to avoid the expense, but if it's the difference maker I can pull the trigger. 

i dont think it is that important. the one time i hatched eggs it was in a catch cup, and the eggs tumbler makes it harder to access the eggs, as you need to reach down into it, and its rather narrow

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@lewk I don’t think the Tumbler is THAT important, but it helps me out for a couple different reasons. 
 

I keep planted community tanks, and when things breed I’ll hatch them out and raise them up if I have the space. Without some separate space, the eggs would be eaten. 
 

I like that the Tumbler is inside the tank and therefore the same water structure and same temperature the eggs are laid in. 
 

I like that it’s designed to constantly flow water over the eggs. An air stone in a specimen container could give you flow as well, but the tumbler does exactly what it’s designed to do and flows over all eggs evenly. 
 

I like that you don’t have to change water out of a specimen container, too. 
 

A specimen container inside or outside your tank could accomplish all these things, but just a bit more work, and I like the small package of the tumbler and all the above listed reasons. It’s like having the right tool for the right job makes the job so much easier. This tool was designed to hatch eggs and does a good job of that. For me personally, I’ve hatched enough eggs and traded off the fish I raised to pay for the tumbler many times over, so it made sense for me. 

Edited by AllFishNoBrakes
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On 1/25/2023 at 7:35 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@lewk I don’t think the Tumbler is THAT important, but it helps me out for a couple different reasons. 
 

I keep planted community tanks, and when things breed I’ll hatch them out and raise them up if I have the space. Without some separate space, the eggs would be eaten. 
 

I like that the Tumbler is inside the tank and therefore the same water structure and same temperature the eggs are laid in. 
 

I like that it’s designed to constantly flow water over the eggs. An air stone in a specimen container could give you flow as well, but the tumbler does exactly what it’s designed to do and flows over all eggs evenly. 
 

I like that you don’t have to change water out of a specimen container, too. 
 

A specimen container inside or outside your tank could accomplish all these things, but just a bit more work, and I like the small package of the tumbler and all the above listed reasons. It’s like having the right tool for the right job makes the job so much easier. This tool was designed to hatch eggs and does a good job of that. For me personally, I’ve hatched enough eggs and traded off the fish I raised to pay for the tumbler many times over, so it made sense for me. 

you have a few valid points, changing water in such a small container is annoying however as i said, reaching in is annoying, and fungus can spread much faster in a smaller area

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@Theplatymaster For sure. Which do you find more annoying is the real question, then, lol. For me, using a turkey baster to remove a fungused egg means I don’t have to reach into anything and water changing a specimen container is the ultimate annoyance, lol. The Tumbler made sense for me so just trying to share my experience with it. 

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On 1/25/2023 at 8:36 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

@Theplatymaster For sure. Which do you find more annoying is the real question, then, lol. For me, using a turkey baster to remove a fungused egg means I don’t have to reach into anything and water changing a specimen container is the ultimate annoyance, lol. The Tumbler made sense for me so just trying to share my experience with it. 

sure. sorry if i sounded agressive, its hard over the internet.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok, gotta admit my ADHD just kicked in hard and I didn't read much of the comments so idk if things were addressed yet or not but I wanted to reach out just in case lol. 

Were your questions answered?  Did you have more questions?  Do you want me to send you some eggs or fry because I'm getting over run right now haha. 

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