Colony Breeding Habrosus

[JeremyAllen]

Hi all, I was looking into seething up a tank for some habrosus corydoras to breed in a colony style I’m not sure if I’ll invest in a fish to keep around the top to keep with them, but will shrimp and snails decimate the egg population or if I plant heavy enough should I be able to see fry eventually. Appreciate the information!

[Fish Folk]

What kind of shrimp? Neocaridina? or Amano shrimp? Neocaridinas usually don't bother fertile eggs, but they'll chew up infertile ones -- and much down on any fungus. Snails might nab some, but if you're observant, you can usually pull eggs and hatch separately. If you just want to let them go wild and see what happens, it might take a while, but if you keep working on them, they'll usually multiply. Large water changes, and feeding heavily before turning off the light (corys are active at night) can help to stimulate spawning. Cryptocorne parva is a nice easy plant that our Bronze Corys like and often lay eggs on. 

[JeremyAllen]

57 minutes ago, Fish Folk said:

What kind of shrimp? Neocaridina? or Amano shrimp? Neocaridinas usually don't bother fertile eggs, but they'll chew up infertile ones -- and much down on any fungus. Snails might nab some, but if you're observant, you can usually pull eggs and hatch separately. If you just want to let them go wild and see what happens, it might take a while, but if you keep working on them, they'll usually multiply. Large water changes, and feeding heavily before turning off the light (corys are active at night) can help to stimulate spawning. Cryptocorne parva is a nice easy plant that our Bronze Corys like and often lay eggs on. 

Neocaridinia most likely, but I never know what I end up with in this hobby😂 that’s good too know will have to grab a few crypts!! Do you keep any sort of tetras or rasboras? I thought of maybe trying a nice pencil fish school in if I felt I needed something above them.

[Fish Folk]

4 minutes ago, JeremyAllen said:

Do you keep any sort of tetras or rasboras? I thought of maybe trying a nice pencil fish school in if I felt I needed something above them.

We've kept various species of tetra and at least one strain of rasboras. South American species do fine with Corydoras. If pencil fish will take to your water, they're interesting. We were unsuccessful with the coral red pencil fish. Maybe a slightly hardier species? 

You'll find that corydoras need to occasionally blast up to the surface for air. They generally appreciate flow. We added a small Hydor powerhead to help induce spawning. 

One caution with adding tetras and rasboras: you need to be very careful about diseases. Those big schools can easily bring in Ich (especially as temperatures fluctuate severely). 

Here's a detailed thread we posted on how we bred and raised Bronze Corydoras. Not sure if these ideas could work for you with your species or not, but we sure learned a lot on this journey: