How to get Salt n Pepper Corys to breed?

[Potaqua]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some tips to breeding Salt n Pepper Corydoras.

[Guppysnail]

I’ve not bred salt n pepper but I have bred quite a few types of corydora. 
 

What does their diet consist of?  For me diet is the breeding trigger. Live worms for a week straight with live bbs and some high protein food yeilds me spawns every time. I do not do cold water changes or wait for storms or any of the other stuff folks do just feed. 

[tolstoy21]

Mine bred in my display tank without me doing anything.  If I were to take a guess, I think large water changes triggered them.  I remember thinking this at the time, that after I did a big WC, over the course of the next few days I'd seem them laying eggs all over my anubias.  I didn't intentionally breed them, but I am currently breeding Sterbai, and water changes seems to trigger those. A good diet also helps. 

Edited November 3, 2023 by tolstoy21

[Potaqua]

I have been feeding my corydoras consistently and the females are displaying that they have eggs. I have done a water change, but nothing change. I think I might have to be patience about it. Or maybe they are eating their eggs? 

The corydoras diet consist of Freeze Dried Tubifex Worms, Frozen blood worms, and Algae Wafers (For fiber). 

Edited November 3, 2023 by Potaqua

[nabokovfan87]

@Potaqua pretty much some species of corydoras just need the right setup in the tank.  Things like having certain plants for them to lay on or certain surfaces can be all it takes.

With those ones in particular I think a bit of moss and just let them do their thing is 90% of the battle.  As @Guppysnail mentioned food helps.  Things like aqueon nutrinsect or krill based foods would be good sources of protein for them as well as live foods.  Repashy also have foods that they love and would be very helpful to condition them for spawning.

Conditioning, meaning you would feed them a bit heavier for a week or two and then have the hopes of that triggering them to spawn.

[tolstoy21]

On 11/4/2023 at 12:20 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

@Potaqua pretty much some species of corydoras just need the right setup in the tank.  Things like having certain plants for them to lay on or certain surfaces can be all it takes

Salt-N-Pappas (oh, baby baby!) seem to be 100% happy laying on the aquarium glass, as do Sterbai. If one were looking to breed these as a breeding project and not just trying to have them breed in an established tank, then I would not use plants at all, as having them lay eggs on the glass is much easier to check for and remove, in my experience.

If one does want to go the plant route, mine liked anubias, but I would guess any leaf with an adequate surface to adhere eggs to would work well. (Mine laid eggs on the egg tumbler containing the prior days batch).

I'll add in the regular caveat that I am by no means an expert at cory breeding (or anything really).  However, with the two mentioned species above, these are my hands-on observations thus far.

@Potaqua if you have success, please share your experiences! We're always happy to hear them and like fishy pictures!

Edited November 4, 2023 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

Oh I will also add that I took someone's advice and added some lateral flow, back-to-front, with a small powerhead. So far, my Sterbai do seem to prefer to lay their eggs in this flow, in the front right corner of the tank, right where the flow hits the glass and silicon.  They will lay in other places, but 90% of the eggs tend to be in that exact spot.

Not sure if Salt-N-Pappas (Ah, push it!) prefer the same.

Edited November 4, 2023 by tolstoy21

[lewk]

Do you have anything else in the tank with your Corys? They could be breeding already and getting their eggs eaten. 

[Potaqua]

On 11/4/2023 at 2:18 PM, lewk said:

Do you have anything else in the tank with your Corys? They could be breeding already and getting their eggs eaten. 

I strictly have the Corys only

[Ben P.]

It's been a few years but I did them in the winter so I scooped a bunch of fresh snow and melted it and actually put a bit of snow in there too.  Cold water with low tds did the trick.  I did it in a 10 gallon.  They did not live in the 10 gallon, just breeding

[tolstoy21]

On 11/4/2023 at 9:30 PM, Ben P. said:

It's been a few years but I did them in the winter so I scooped a bunch of fresh snow and melted it and actually put a bit of snow in there too.  Cold water with low tds did the trick.  I did it in a 10 gallon.  They did not live in the 10 gallon, just breeding

Yeah a drop in TDS might help. When I do water changes to trigger my corys, I do about a 50% WC with water with a much lower mineral content.

If you don't have access to RO water, you could probably lower the TDS of your water by diluting it with distilled water. However, if you have these in anything larger than a 10G, could get cost prohibitive. The other option is rain water, which is free, but you'll to collect it.

[Potaqua]

Just wondering? How cold should the water change be? How many degrees F?

[TheSwissAquarist]

I put mine in a small tote to spawn at room temperature. If they’re well fed I tend to get 50 ish eggs within 2 days or so. 
 

[jwcarlson]

Not the same corys or anything other than a thought.  For about the last week I have been feeding my sterbai corys heavily.  They're in a community tank and I have had them at least a year and a half and have never seen any eggs (not saying they've never dropped any).  I started feeding them (I have six) at least two cubes of freeze-dried tubifex (one morning and one evening) plus some of whatever I'm feeding everyone else... baby brine shrimp, flake, nano pellets, etc.  Also some Rapashy spawn/grow a few times a week for them.  Tonight I noticed two eggs on the glass (but something had eaten them).  A quick scan saw one more on some driftwood.  I put in a spawning mop and a little submersible pump to see if I can get them to concentrate on the mop.  I say all that to say this... I've never fed fish so heavily and it's amazing how much more plump they look after pounding them with food.  I watched *again* @Lowells Fish Lab's awesome Sterbai breeding video for about the fifth time recently, it might contain some tips that will help you.  I never realized how much food they might need even having watched this video multiple times, but picked up him mentioning two FDTW cubes for six adults.  Good luck!

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/5/2023 at 7:53 PM, Potaqua said:

Just wondering? How cold should the water change be? How many degrees F?

I've read articles on this from major breeders in articles from fish magazines.  I think I have it saved, specifically because I am right there with you and trying to breed corydoras successfully.  The magazine is called "Catfish Study Group" and the authors are highly regarded corydoras keepers: Ian Fuller and Eric Bodrock.  (EDIT: FOUND IT!)



They gave a range drop in temp of 10-15 degrees F.  So let's say your tank is in the mid-70s, you'd use some low-60 degree water as a means to trigger them.  It's a big influx of highly oxygenated water and that could be the key for some species to trigger. 

The other technique I see a lot is doing a temp drop, lower volume of water, but to be changing the temperature multiple days in a row.  People reporting on the scotcat articles changing 10% of their water and doing so over 4-5 days and that gets them to trigger.

I will share this... it's a great resource and a very enjoyable conversation about breeding corydoras.

Here is a great article I will reference as well, another good resource focused on catfish and corydoras information.

This one specifically talks about triggering the species you are working with too!

https://www.scotcat.com/articles/article91.htm

Edited November 10, 2023 by nabokovfan87
added detail

[TheSwissAquarist]

I’m thinking that a faulty air pump has led me to large spawns. It keeps on turning on and off your 8 hour ish periods (the plug sockets loose) and I’ve got 2 60+ egg spawns so far. 

Room temp is also key imo

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 11/9/2023 at 9:46 PM, jwcarlson said:

Not the same corys or anything other than a thought.  For about the last week I have been feeding my sterbai corys heavily.  They're in a community tank and I have had them at least a year and a half and have never seen any eggs (not saying they've never dropped any).  I started feeding them (I have six) at least two cubes of freeze-dried tubifex (one morning and one evening) plus some of whatever I'm feeding everyone else... baby brine shrimp, flake, nano pellets, etc.  Also some Rapashy spawn/grow a few times a week for them.  Tonight I noticed two eggs on the glass (but something had eaten them).  A quick scan saw one more on some driftwood.  I put in a spawning mop and a little submersible pump to see if I can get them to concentrate on the mop.  I say all that to say this... I've never fed fish so heavily and it's amazing how much more plump they look after pounding them with food.  I watched *again* @Lowells Fish Lab's awesome Sterbai breeding video for about the fifth time recently, it might contain some tips that will help you.  I never realized how much food they might need even having watched this video multiple times, but picked up him mentioning two FDTW cubes for six adults.  Good luck!

 

 

It's a little off-topic, so apologies, but one thing @Lowells Fish Lab does in that video is squish out all the air in the freeze dried tubifex worm cube so that it sinks for the cories. I have never been able to make that work. Stick to the glass, sure; sink to the substrate? Nope; it always floats. Some day!

[jwcarlson]

On 11/12/2023 at 9:54 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

It's a little off-topic, so apologies, but one thing @Lowells Fish Lab does in that video is squish out all the air in the freeze dried tubifex worm cube so that it sinks for the cories. I have never been able to make that work. Stick to the glass, sure; sink to the substrate? Nope; it always floats. Some day!

I also cannot get them to sink and I've tried a number of ways.  Such a mess.  What I've started doing is squishing the cubes to a small pebble and then dropping it in.  As long as I squish it well enough it mostly stays attached.  The other fish will get the floaters anyway so it's not that big of a deal.  But the whole tank mobs the tubifex pebbles.  Might be worth a shot for you.  

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 11/12/2023 at 11:04 AM, jwcarlson said:

I also cannot get them to sink and I've tried a number of ways.  Such a mess.  What I've started doing is squishing the cubes to a small pebble and then dropping it in.  As long as I squish it well enough it mostly stays attached.  The other fish will get the floaters anyway so it's not that big of a deal.  But the whole tank mobs the tubifex pebbles.  Might be worth a shot for you.  

Does it have to be a flat, "skipping stone" sort of pebble, or will it stick to any wet bit of gravel? What a good idea, thanks!

[jwcarlson]

On 11/12/2023 at 10:18 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

Does it have to be a flat, "skipping stone" sort of pebble, or will it stick to any wet bit of gravel? What a good idea, thanks!

Any wet gravel should work.  I usually pull several out and leave them sitting and use them as needed.  My "gravel" is just Home Depot pebbles.  Which isn't much different than any other gravel.  It doesn't take much to get them to sink.

[sumplkrum]

I have salt and pepper corys and can't get them to stop breeding. 🙃

As far as I can tell they only need a decent amount of food and a well-planted tank.

For me, I have noticed that they tend to be a bit seasonal.
I have 8 tanks and a colony in each.
Around winter time (New England) all of the tanks will start getting a lot of eggs. Almost every day I'll see them on the glass. Other times of the year, not so much at all.

No idea if that helps. I started out with a couple in each tank to clean up the bottom and now I have well over 60.
I stopped collecting the eggs because I end up with more corys than the local fish store can take.

Personally, I only do water changes about once a month. Plants are a big part of my maintenance and I tend to keep more natural jungle-looking tanks.

[MattyM]

Once I moved mine to a 100g with good flow, heavily planted, all I have to do it feed frozen bloodworms right before lights out, and/or do a water change but use water that is a few degrees cooler - I think this is supposed to simulate rain fall, which triggers them. I'll wake up to a bunch of eggs on the glass. 

[Shawnmrose1983911]

All I have to do is feed heavy for about a week and that’s about it

[tolstoy21]

On 11/12/2023 at 10:54 AM, Rube_Goldfish said:

one thing @Lowells Fish Lab does in that video is squish out all the air in the freeze dried tubifex worm cube so that it sinks for the cories. I have never been able to make that work. Stick to the glass, sure; sink to the substrate? Nope; it always floats. Some day!

Yup! Same here.

 

@Potaqua Any luck with the breeding?

[Potaqua]

Update,

So far no luck. I'm gonna try to add a lot plants to see if anything change. At the moment, I have been busy working on my CPDs since I recently had a lot of success. 
I am gonna try again.