When you are TOO successful

[Cinnebuns]

About a month or so ago I collected and hatched over 100 panda cories. The most I've ever had at a time is 30 so it's been a lot. The increase of fry plus other factors crashed my growout tank and so my fry tank has had to hold juveniles longer than it usually does. While dealing with all of that, the adults have been constantly spawning. For 2 weeks they decided to spawn every single day even!!  I started ignoring the spawning mops and letting the eggs mostly be eaten but now I have about a dozen fry showing up in the main tank. Just tonight I checked the mops and found TONS more eggs. 

Someone please stop putting viagra in the tank lol

So, I think I know why they are so "excited" moreso than ever before. It's known that the presence of young can trigger a species to spawn. I think it's also causing them to not stop. It started with me adding 2 juveniles to the tank that I wanted to keep. I believe me ignoring the mops and assuming the eggs would be eaten made it worse. It caused younger and greater numbers of fry to be introduced. I even noticed that as those fry grew older, the spawning has slowed down. 

[Tony s]

Sounds like you can go find some swaps or club sales now 😀

[tolstoy21]

My Sterbai breed like mad as well, almost every day. if I am too busy to attend to all the activity, I'll ignore the eggs as well. A few fry make it to a size large enough to not be gobbled up, and when I see these I net them out and move them to the growout.

You might want to pull the mops and try letting them lay on the tank's surfaces where it is easier for them to see and eat the eggs.

[JettsPapa]

On 4/4/2024 at 1:37 AM, Tony s said:

Sounds like you can go find some swaps or club sales now 😀

Or sell some to me.  I have a 40 gallon breeder tank with ten or so, and I'd love to add at least that many more.

[Cinnebuns]

On 4/4/2024 at 11:20 AM, JettsPapa said:

Or sell some to me.  I have a 40 gallon breeder tank with ten or so, and I'd love to add at least that many more.

When it warms up a little I plan to make a post and ship. 

[Cinnebuns]

On 4/4/2024 at 8:27 AM, tolstoy21 said:

My Sterbai breed like mad as well, almost every day. if I am too busy to attend to all the activity, I'll ignore the eggs as well. A few fry make it to a size large enough to not be gobbled up, and when I see these I net them out and move them to the growout.

You might want to pull the mops and try letting them lay on the tank's surfaces where it is easier for them to see and eat the eggs.

Taking the spawning mops out is a great idea. The only reason I hesitate is the last time I did that it crashed the cycle. I usually leave them in there 24/7 for over a year now. It might not be a bad idea to take one of the 2 out and let the cycle adjust to them not being in there though and just put them in occasionally from now on. 

[sumplkrum]

I have the same issue with Pepper Corys. I stopped pulling eggs years ago, but they still breed like crazy.

I'm resetting my tanks and keeping the biggest ones, but I have 40 young-adult fish to take to my local store just to reduce the population.

I had one 45 gallon tank I only put two in. When I cleaned it out, there were over a dozen.

It seems that if they're happy enough to breed, they just just get 'morning wood' and go through the mating routine every morning.