What species?

Granberry

Yesterday at the pet shop, it was super chaotic. I was dropping off fry and I said "I was hoping to pick up some cories too, but you're so crowded", and he said "what kind" and I said "just 2 different kind" They know me and my setups really well in there, so he gave me these (see picture). Can you identify them for me? And the ones in the big tank have put eggs all over the tank! Do I need to do anything to take care of them? I don't want them to be eaten up! All I have in there are guppies and swordtails.

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Thoth

Guppies will likely eat all the eggs and any fry that hatch if you leave it in the main tank. Here is a basic breeding setup I posted in another thread.


The basic Cory breeding setup..

4 Basic tools needed
-scraping device and a catching utensil or if you are comfortable you can roll the egg between your fingers to pick it up. This is more difficult with species that lay large clusters of eggs.

-turkey baster to clean the container

-Over the tank specimen container. There are no openings in this container so daily cleanings are required. I have seen them for sale for $4 and $10.



1- Fill the specimen container with tank water and hang it over the inside of the tank. This way the specimen container will remain the same temperature as the tank.

2- remove eggs carefully and place them into the specimen container. The eggs will be sticky and will likely stick to your scrapper. Do one egg at a time where possible and try to scrape them to the wall of the inside of the specimen container, don't worry if the eggs fall to the bottom of the specimen container and bunch up. Viable eggs will turn a grey color in a day while unfertilized eggs will turn white. Remove these if you can, along with any eggs that have fungi growing on them.

3- Eggs will hatch 3 to 5 days after the parents spawned.

4- Start feeding around 2 days after the the babies hatch. If you see any babies without an egg sac you know it is time to start feeding. Very fine flake food will work; do this several times a day in tiny amounts.

These babies still have their egg sac



This baby is around 3 days old and does not have the egg sac.




5- Water quality is key for fry survival. Remove 50% of the water in the specimen container at least once a day. I remove the water from the specimen container with a turkey baster and pour it into the main tank. Make sure that you remove any food from the bottom. Once I remove 50%, I fill it back up from the main tank. It is best to do this an hour or two after feeding to make sure left over food doesn't pollute the water. Fry are very poor at finding food for the first few weeks so a balance between enough food for them to find it and how much they will fit inside there stomach should be considered.

6- After a few months, they should be large enough to join the main tank.

Thoth

Top photo:
Corydoras aeneus, Common name, Bronze Cory / green cory

Bottom Cory photo:
Corydoras leucomelas

Granberry

Wow, that is a very informative post! I am anxious to get started! I do have a 5-gallon tank set up for my Guppy fry. Would it be okay to scrape the eggs into a container and just set the container on the bottom of the Guppy tank until their egg sac and then dump them out of the container? I don't currently have any fry in there older than a week to 10 days.

Thoth

You will likely have a lower survival rate but yes you can release them into the fry tank after they hatch and are free swimming.

jeaninel

Your cories would really do much better if they were on sand rather than that gravel. They may be ok for awhile but eventually their barbels will get worn down and may get prone to infection. It's also much easier for them to eat on sand rather than gravel as food tends to lodge down into the gravel.

Congrats on the cory eggs!

Granberry

As I have been reading up on cories, I saw it mentioned several times that they would prefer sand. I do have a spare tank that is not in use (even have a bucket of washed sand...don't want to have to do that again), but I am not sure it would be appropriate. It is a 12-gallon long tank, 35 x 8 x 9, and it isn't covered (except that I have a light that would stand on the rims. If they get any momentum at all swimming towards the top, they could jump out. Would that be a problem? I also have a 5-gallon tank that is not in use, but that just seems too small.

Am I correct that it would be okay to mix the blackfin cories and the bronze cories? And if so, would I need to buy just one more (since I've read they prefer groups of 5).

You can see a picture of the Mr. Aqua tank (12-long) if you follow the link below in my sig. It's in the album entitled "tanks that didn't work out". :)

Thanks!

Thoth

You can mix the two species together. The only problem you could have is that they crossbreed, which is only a problem if you sell/distribute the offspring.

I would combined the two schools and see how it works out before buying more (unless you want more :) ). Since they have different coloration pasterns it may require the 5 or more suggestion. I have a group of 2 skunk Cory that have never acted normal even with 15+ Pepper Cory but I also have 4 Violet Cory in another tank that act happy/normal by themselves. Combined them and give them a few weeks to settle in before deciding to buy more.

Personally, I wouldn't keep Cory in a tank smaller than 20" long and would limit it to the smallish Cory species <2.3". Your 35" sounds good but I would hesitate to put more than 8 Cory in it.

I have never had one jump out but in a shallow tank it is always a possibility. You could make a DIY plexiglass lid.

Sand is the preferred substrate. They will put the sand in their mouth and spit it out their gills sifting through the sand for food.

Granberry

Thank you so much for the education! I think what I will do is set up the 12 gallon tank today so I can get them on sand instead of gravel and just put some temporary cover on it like a cookie sheet or cardboard until I can buy 2 glass covers from Petco which side by side should work. I'll do that today and watch them and study up some more and go from there.

BTW, in the tank the bronze cories are in, I had 4 really pretty patches of Glossostigma and there is now only one patch left. They are very small, leafy, tender little plants, kind of like clover on a miniature scale. Do cories eat plants? I hope if they ate those that they enjoyed it because the plants cost more than the fish, and they're kind of fussy plants anyway....good thing they're cute fish!

Thoth

I am not familiar with that plant and I would assume they would not bother it. I have never seen them eat a plant. They feed on microscopic creatures living on the surface of plants but not the plant. I know that they do not eat Java Fern, Myriophyllum (parrot feather( my favorite), swords, Duckweed, Hornwort and Cryptocoryne.

Im 37 and have been keeping Cories since I was 8 but only 2 years into my obsession with breeding/collecting Corydoras. Working on obtaining some Corydoras schultzei black

Glad to see that you are looking out for your fish. Cories are little wedges of love.