What did you get done today?

[Odd Duck]

Topped off tanks and collected cory eggs.  Likely to be all bronzes (C. aeneus) but there could also be C. trilineatus, so I collected them to see if I can hatch them and raise them.  I only saw the bronzes chasing but the trilineatus could also have been chasing.  I was in my favorite easy chair and couldn’t tell for sure who all was involved from across the room.  It’s more eggs than the bronzes have ever produced before, so I guess I’ll hatch and raise them if I can.

I’ve raised plenty of bronzes, but only passively.  This will be my first time moving them to a different tank and raising them.  I’m not sure how many eggs there are.  I collected loads of eggs and lost many into the tank plus there were lots on plant leaves, too, that I didn’t try to collect.

I put the eggs in a hang outside the tank, recirculating, breeder box.  Partially filled the box with water, put 1 drop of methylene blue into the breeder box, then started the circulation into and through it.  The methylene blue was around the eggs for about an hour, then got gradually diluted into the tank water (10 gallon tank).

I’d say we could have a contest guessing how many eggs it is, but then I’d have to actually count them.  It’s well over a hundred, I’m certain of that.  That’s partially why I suspect the trilineatus got in on it.  I’ve never seen cories lay piles of eggs before, only a single layer, each stuck on the glass.  There were so many I got out a single edge razor blade to scrape them off 6-10 or so at a time, then held my finger or thumb over them to get them to the breeder box.  It was waaaaay too many to roll each one off then roll back into the breeder box.  I just grabbed as many as a time as I could, plopped them in the breeder box.  Then noticed they were swirling around in the box so I had to coax the bunches of eggs to stick to the breeder box.  It was a struggle not to knock some back off while I was trying to get more to stick.

So, I have lots of cory eggs, potentially lots of cory babies if things go well, and some possible sales in 2-3 months.  First I’ll have to determine which species they are.  I see lots of separating in my future.  My luck it will be all bronzes.  Cute, but not as sought after as trilineatus.

 

[Odd Duck]

Cories are hatching already!  I was expecting 3 days since they’re in a hang on outside breeder box but there were about 6 hatched when I started feeding the rack and at least 3 times that before I was completely done feeding fish before work today.

It is ridiculously difficult to get pics of tiny baby cories!  They are zipping around all over!  They already act just like cories with zoomies, then rest, then zoomies again.

I foolishly added some green water (that has some Daphnia in it) to the breeder box and the biggest Daphnia are bigger than the tiny hatchlings!  It made it so much harder to focus on the fry. I didn’t think to take pics until after I added the green water for infusoria. I also fed vinegar eels and added some semi-aged IAL’s into the box for cover and infusoria for the fry. I already had these IAL’s in the tank where the box is hanging, I just transferred them to the box. The remaining eggs are tannin stained from the IAL’s and roiboos tea I added when I set up the breeder box and added the eggs.

If you look carefully in the center there’s a tiny hatchling just left of the cluster of 3 eggs.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Odd Duck

[anewbie]

I moved my small but now larger L397 from the 10 to the 120 so that the clown loaches will have a new friend to confuse and the pucallpaensis can have a bit of peace and quiet - well as much peace and quiet as bickering fishes can have...

Edited October 8, 2022 by anewbie

[Odd Duck]

Cory babies are growing like mad.  They grow so fast early on and don’t slow down until around 2-3 months. Then they grow at a more “normal” pace.  They are already looking more cory like in their appearance and behavior.  The biggest are already over 1/4” (close to 7 mm) and I think I have at least 70-80?  They hang out in the layers of the IAL pieces.  First pic is as close up as I can get, second is a bunch from underneath the breeder box.  Very hard to get pics of them since my phone doesn’t like to focus on such tiny things.  😆 

 

I siphoned out all the unhatched eggs and cleaned up old food debris today.  Yesterday had a 12 hr shift scheduled, ended up working 16.5 hrs so didn’t even get to feed fish except put vinegar eels in the breeder box with these babies.  Today was recovery time for me after the stupid long shift, so got the cleanup done and a couple feedings in.  They have some biofilm to feed on with the IAL’s.  They also get some powdered First Bites food.

Edited October 11, 2022 by Odd Duck
Typo

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/5/2022 at 2:18 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’ve raised plenty of bronzes, but only passively.  This will be my first time moving them to a different tank and raising them.  I’m not sure how many eggs there are.  I collected loads of eggs and lost many into the tank plus there were lots on plant leaves, too, that I didn’t try to collect.

Awesome stuff!  I'm always very excited to see corydoras do their thing and their lifecycle stages for each variety.  I hope they do extremely well for you.  I know they will love all your awesome mosses and plants 🙂 .

[Odd Duck]

On 10/11/2022 at 1:32 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Awesome stuff!  I'm always very excited to see corydoras do their thing and their lifecycle stages for each variety.  I hope they do extremely well for you.  I know they will love all your awesome mosses and plants 🙂 .

These kids probably won’t get to play in the mosses.  If I put them in my best moss tanks I’d never be able to get them back out!  They will go into a tank that is going to be an RR experiment tank.  That’s where their breeder box is hanging and once they’re big enough, that’s where they’ll go for a grow out.  The tank has an UGF with 2” matten foam on top as substrate.  I’ll have to add some hides to it beyond just the IAL leaves but they’ll have plenty of plants to play among.

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/10/2022 at 11:39 PM, Odd Duck said:

 That’s where their breeder box is hanging and once they’re big enough, that’s where they’ll go for a grow out.

Very cool. Honestly, once I see full body shapes / coloration they do well for me and I have very few losses.  Usually 1/8" long or so I would guesstimate. 

Would the tank have cover / shade? 

Corydoras do happen to love moss balls too!

[Odd Duck]

On 10/11/2022 at 1:41 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Very cool. Honestly, once I see full body shapes / coloration they do well for me and I have very few losses.  Usually 1/8" long or so I would guesstimate. 

Would the tank have cover / shade? 

Corydoras do happen to love moss balls too!

I don’t have super bright lights on these tanks but they do get some afternoon sun.  It will have quite a lot of plants by the time I get done setting up all my different plant experiments.  It’s funny, but the previous youngest bronze cory pics  I have are probably almost a week older than these fry are now.  Tomorrow, well, today (Wednesday), will be 5 days from hatching.  These pics are at least 2 week old fry.  More opaque belly and head, even more “cory-like”behavior than this clutch has so far, but you can already easily tell the new ones are cories just by their movement.

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/10/2022 at 11:54 PM, Odd Duck said:

I don’t have super bright lights on these tanks but they do get some afternoon sun.  It will have quite a lot of plants by the time I get done setting up all my different plant experiments.

I actually don't think they mind the sunlight, or the light even, but I get the feeling you'll have an awesome little corydoras horde on your hand.  Even a tank with a little section of val is plenty for them to hide and feel safe in.  The setup sounds awesome and the numbers your going to have is really reassuring that they will do well in most / any conditions for you!

Really wonderful that you get to see all those little fish grow up for you.  One of my favorite things is seeing them interact with the parents and the new environment.

[anewbie]

On 10/11/2022 at 1:28 AM, Odd Duck said:

Cory babies are growing like mad.  They grow so fast early on and don’t slow down until around 2-3 months. Then they grow at a more “normal” pace.  They are already looking more cory like in their appearance and behavior.  The biggest are already over 1/4” (close to 7 mm) and I think I have at least 70-80?  They hang out in the layers of the IAL pieces.  First pic is as close up as I can get, second is a bunch from underneath the breeder box.  Very hard to get pics of them since my phone doesn’t like to focus on such tiny things.  😆 

 

I siphoned out all the unhatched eggs and cleaned up old food debris today.  Yesterday had a 12 hr shift scheduled, ended up working 16.5 hrs so didn’t even get to feed fish except put vinegar eels in the breeder box with these babies.  Today was recovery time for me after the stupid long shift, so got the cleanup done and a couple feedings in.  They have some biofilm to feed on with the IAL’s.  They also get some powdered First Bites food.

Which species? i have a pile of orange laser in one aquarium; one of these days i should ask them to breed....

On 10/11/2022 at 2:00 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

I actually don't think they mind the sunlight, or the light even, but I get the feeling you'll have an awesome little corydoras horde on your hand.  Even a tank with a little section of val is plenty for them to hide and feel safe in.  The setup sounds awesome and the numbers your going to have is really reassuring that they will do well in most / any conditions for you!

Really wonderful that you get to see all those little fish grow up for you.  One of my favorite things is seeing them interact with the parents and the new environment.

I find this depends on the species; i finally got my sterbai to calm down after 3 years by creating a canopy so dense the bottom is quite dim; conversely my eques seem quieter when full light is on.

[Odd Duck]

On 10/11/2022 at 7:11 AM, anewbie said:

Which species? i have a pile of orange laser in one aquarium; one of these days i should ask them to breed.

They are probably mostly or all bronzes.  Since I was sitting across the room while the shenanigans were happening, I couldn’t tell if the trilineatus cories were also involved.  I suspect they were since I’ve never seen my bronzes produce such a huge pile up of eggs.  Plus some of my trilineatus are less thick now.  I’m hoping I have both species in this batch.  I see a lot of sitting and staring at cory fry in my near future and trying to separate them eventually.  The more I look at how many I have, the more fry I think I have and I keep upping the estimate number.  Probably close to 100?  Maybe even more.  🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ll have a better count in a couple months if things go well.

A very cool water change, especially if there’s a weather front coming through, is the best way I know to trigger cories to breed.  I’ve read that some species need a water level drop, then cold water change and raise the water.  Obviously this is after conditioning the adults with a bit of extra protein and ideally some live foods.  Cories love whiteworms, blackworms, Grindal worms, etc, etc.

[anewbie]

On 10/11/2022 at 10:44 AM, Odd Duck said:

They are probably mostly or all bronzes.  Since I was sitting across the room while the shenanigans were happening, I couldn’t tell if the trilineatus cories were also involved.  I suspect they were since I’ve never seen my bronzes produce such a huge pile up of eggs.  Plus some of my trilineatus are less thick now.  I’m hoping I have both species in this batch.  I see a lot of sitting and staring at cory fry in my near future and trying to separate them eventually.  The more I look at how many I have, the more fry I think I have and I keep upping the estimate number.  Probably close to 100?  Maybe even more.  🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ll have a better count in a couple months if things go well.

A very cool water change, especially if there’s a weather front coming through, is the best way I know to trigger cories to breed.  I’ve read that some species need a water level drop, then cold water change and raise the water.  Obviously this is after conditioning the adults with a bit of extra protein and ideally some live foods.  Cories love whiteworms, blackworms, Grindal worms, etc, etc.

I don't know what the orange laser need; the sterbai just need me to look at them; they lay eggs every week or two; but the apisto like to follow them around and ....

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/11/2022 at 11:10 AM, anewbie said:

I don't know what the orange laser need; the sterbai just need me to look at them; they lay eggs every week or two; but the apisto like to follow them around and ....

Aquarium co-op has a few videos breeding his orange lasers on the vlogs. 🙂

I believe their needs are right on par with what panda corydoras prefer from what I've seen on videos.  Hopefully that helps you out!

Edited October 11, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[PineSong]

Just coming here to brag that today I sorted juveniles BEFORE work at the crack of dawn-- and it actually seemed easier to catch the little rascals, maybe they were still half asleep!

[anewbie]

Gave my 10 some - well something a few days ago; if you look carefully you should see a pair of female a. pucallpaensis; one is a bit tricky to spot as it is head on so all you see are glowing eyes - kind of spooky 😉

Also some shrimps are visible and the ember tetras; alas the star usually hides when i pull the camera out and it was the wrong time of day for the pangio shelfordii. Anyway let me know how many shrimps you find; i have no clue how many are in there these days.

[Odd Duck]

On 10/13/2022 at 11:51 AM, anewbie said:

Gave my 10 some - well something a few days ago; if you look carefully you should see a pair of female a. pucallpaensis; one is a bit tricky to spot as it is head on so all you see are glowing eyes - kind of spooky 😉

Also some shrimps are visible and the ember tetras; alas the star usually hides when i pull the camera out and it was the wrong time of day for the pangio shelfordii. Anyway let me know how many shrimps you find; i have no clue how many are in there these days.

“Under the bo`-oardwalk, down by the Cry-y-y-y`y`y`y`pt”.  It’s very hard to *write* a tune.  😆 🤣 

[CornAndCrawlers]

This morning I noticed my first ever INTENTIONAL breeding fish fry. It was a White Cloud Mountain minnow fry so too small for me to photo, but the parents were intentionally moved to a temporary breeding tank and heavily fed with frequent water changes and holy canalolis it worked!!!! 

I have since moved the adults back to the original community tank and will be feeding these baby white clouds infusoria and hiker first bites until they are big enough to eat live baby brine.

[PerceptivePesce]

I just spent 3 hours attaching 5 plants to rocks.  It was my first time! 

I tried tying with cotton thread first.  It was a mess but I managed to tie 3 clumps of plants very well.  Then the 2 java ferns were really like a billion plants and they were extremely difficult to tie down so I pulled out the superglue.  Y'all, I never should have tried thread, superglue is so easy!  And I didn't glue my fingers to the rocks, not once!  Amazing! 

Mini Bolbitis (baby leaf)

Bolbitis Heudeloti

Anubias Butterfly

There are 2 types of Java Fern, Needle Leaf & Black Forest

[Odd Duck]

I might have 2 species of cory babies?  Some of the fry seem to be a bit lighter colored with fewer markings but it’s too soon to say for sure and I can’t for the life of me get pics of the lighter colored ones that aren’t stupid blurry.

Super red pleco babies are doing well and getting a little braver so easier to get pics.

 

[Ruud]

Went to two different local pet stores and ended up buying a Crypto. I am trying to battle black beard algae and hoping adding plants will help the process before I fork out money for a CO2 setup. 

The interesting thing to me was that both shops have maybe 50 aquariums. 1 shop had no more than perhaps 10 fish in total and the other shop (where I got the plant) had a handful of discus, some mollies, tetras, guppies and goldfish and nothing more! I asked them and got vague answers about transport issues etc but its just so weird to me to see here in Spain (as a foreigner) that tanks are always mostly empty and assortment is poor. Unless you go to the handful of specialist stores. How do you make money if you don't have any stock??

[anewbie]

Snag a picture of my male t-bar:

[The Goatee]

I had a wild day of discovery today: platy fish fry, forktail rainbowfish fry, and at least two kuhli loaches in an aquarium where I haven’t seen a kuhli loach in at least 9 months. I thought the kuhlis were all dead!

[anewbie]

I have itsy bitsy t-bars !!! They are too small to photograph but mommy is doing a good job guarding them. Gotta say they are truly itsy bitsy - think baby wriggler ram cut in 1/3s.

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

We decided that the "43 puffer breeder" is Pao palustris approved . Adult male palustris enjoying life ...and ramshorns

[nabokovfan87]

On 10/14/2022 at 8:49 AM, CornAndCrawlers said:

This morning I noticed my first ever INTENTIONAL breeding fish fry. It was a White Cloud Mountain minnow fry so too small for me to photo, but the parents were intentionally moved to a temporary breeding tank and heavily fed with frequent water changes and holy canalolis it worked!!!! 

That's amazing stuff, congratulations. I absolutely would love to breed some white clouds. One day!

On 10/14/2022 at 8:39 PM, Odd Duck said:

I might have 2 species of cory babies?

I can't tell from the pic, I only see one eyeball in the top one 😂 and then I see the most awesome pleco ever. You're hunch is probably right. One common method breeders use is to take water from one tank of Cory's spawning and get the pheromones into the other tank to trigger them.  One group went, then the others joined in their own party.