[42572]

How do you breed pictus catfish, pepper cory's, and also clownloaches??

 

[Thoth]

Pepper Cories are pretty easy. Have a group of 6, once they reach breeding age feed daily. 6 months to 1 year of age. Live food and frozen blood worms will help prep them. Do weekly 50% water changes and when adding water back in the tank have the water temp about 5 degrees below the tank temp. You will see the females get fat so you will know the breeding is coming.
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[42572]

I have two rgith now, and one of them is really fat, they have egged before, so will more help them lay the eggs? Also do they raise the eggs?

 

[Thoth]

The basic Cory breeding setup..

Basic tools needed
-scraping device and a catching utensil. Metal pie slicer and a small tablespoon strainer. I have stopped using these tools and now just roll the egg off of the glass or plants with my index finger. The eggs either sticks to your finger or you need to pinch it between your thumb and index finger. The eggs are surprisingly strong.

-turkey baster to clean the container

-Over the tank specimen container. There are no openings in this container so daily cleanings are required. If you use a breeding box, it will have holes and the eggs/fry will fall through.

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. I put sand in the bottom of the container. It seems to reduce stress of making them think they are not sitting on the bottom.

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 or dark color about 24 hours after being laid. Unfertilized eggs will turn a solid 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. Very fine flake food will work do this several times a day. If you see any babies without an egg sac, start feeding.

These babies still have their egg sac

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

5- 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. The idea is to provide a small area for the babies so you can watch the babies progress and so they can find food without polluting the tank. They are very poor at finding food for the first few months.

6- I would wait until their dorsal fin has completely formed before removing them from the specimen container. ~1 month old.

 

[Thoth]

A group of 6 is the amount needed to almost statistically guarantee that you will have at least one fish of each sex. Also, Cories are happier in groups of 5 or more. I have a breeding group of one of my Cory species that only has 4 fish and I have heard of many instances of a pair breeding. You don't have to rush out and get more Cories. There is however a benefit to having more males than females; there will be more sperm which will reduce the amount of unfertilized eggs. With only two fish, I would suspect that you will have a good percentage of unfertilized eggs so don't be discouraged.

Cories do not raise their young and it varies from species to species as to their liking to eat there own eggs. My peppers I breed a few years back did not eat their own. My Sterbai Cories however have become egg eaters the older they have become.

 

[42572]

Thank you so much for the information! All the eggs they haveever laid have been infertile, I will probably get more soon actually because I have enough money, so the babies don't need live foods?

 

[Thoth]

Feeding microworms will increase fry survival but are not needed. Fry will also feed off microscopic creatures living on live plants but mworms are better. If you are going for the highest survival rate I would buy some microworms. Aquabid.com has starter colonies for less than 10 dollars. They are easy to keep alive. I start a new colony every 3 to 4 weeks so it is not too much to keep going.

Fungicide maroxy can also be used to keep the eggs from getting a fungus. Just make sure to siphon it out before the eggs hatch.
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[42572]

ok, i will look at aquabid Thanks so much for the helpful info

 

[Thoth]

Not a problem.

one more thing, the first couple of times the group breeds, there seems to be more unfertilized eggs as they seem to be learning how to breed. Keep everything clean as well as the fry are susceptible to bacteria infections. This causes the fry to be unable to swim and sometimes you will see them swim in a circle. It is best to remove these as the fry will eat their dead corpse and become infected as well. I have heard that Mardels coppersafe helps with this but I have yet to try it. I ordered some and it has yet to arrive.

I am on my 4th species now and soon to purchase my 5th. Peppers are considered the 2nd easiest to breed and they were my 1st species I bred. Enjoy

 

[42572]

I will