How do corydoras breed?

[luenny]

Hi all,
I am relatively new in keeping corydoras. I had around 8 corydoras sterbai in one of my planted tank (now left 7, 1 died ). Anyway, I used to put them together with a few discus and basically, they're the clean up crew of any unfinished discus food.

Recently, I moved my discus out because or some reason (long story). Well, the point is, I found a small baby cory in there swimming about the driftwood. I am just curious as to how these corys breed because I sure didn't see any eggs, etc. Only eggs I see in that tank are discus eggs. Anybody with experience on breeding corys want to share?

- Luenny

[CK Yeo]

Congrats!
They are egg layers and will stick them to the tank wall, plants, anything. You probabaly missed the eggs especially if the clutch is small. They are usually induced to spawn by a large water change of lower temperature.

ck

[luenny]

Hi CK,
Thanks for the reply. I still can't believe the babies aren't eaten by the adults. The baby I saw was the size of a small panda cory ~ half and inch. How long do they need to reach this size?

- Luenny

[CK Yeo]

Well, it depends on which species. Some will eat the eggs like caviar, others leave them alone. My experience is that they tend to leave the fries alone.

Hard to say how old is your fry. With good feeding, my guess would be that the fry is about a 3-4 weeks old.

ck

[ahaetulla]

Breeding corydoras: http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/...Corydoras.html

Detailed article on breeding C. sterbai:
http://www.kcff.net/fish/catfish/cor...ai/article.htm

[luenny]

Wow!! Those links say a lot of things to be done to breed successfully. Well, I didn't intend to breed them when I bought them. They were mainly cleaning crew for the discus - messy gluttons. And I didn't do anything at all for the babies (because I didn't know that they actually bred) and so I was so pleasently surprised to actually see a juv cory sterbai swimming around. It keeps zipping in and out of the driftwood. I wonder how many of them are there.

- Luenny

[benny]

Congrats!

Hopefully, there is more than 1 suvivor!

Cheers,

[Quixotic]

Having a planted tank helps to provide hiding places for the fries.

[luenny]

Updates, there is at least 2 survivors. They're the size of an adult cherry shrimp now. Do you think I still need to give them special food like artemia? Or you reckon they can eat whatever the adults are eating which is bloodworms and some sinking pellets?

[illumnae]

congrats on your "new family" luenny i wish i could get mine to breed haha...that's one of the greatest joys of fishkeeping, getting your fish to be so comfortable with the environment you set up for them that they act as they do in nature...

[Quixotic]

Updates, there is at least 2 survivors. They're the size of an adult cherry shrimp now. Do you think I still need to give them special food like artemia? Or you reckon they can eat whatever the adults are eating which is bloodworms and some sinking pellets?

Well, they didn't have artermia after they first hatched, did they?

I think they should be okay. How big are the pellets? Assuming these pellets disintegrate over time, and as long as the food is not totally consumed by the adults, then I don't foresee any problems.

Otherwise, what I normally do is crush some flakes and scatter them around the tank. That way, I would ensure that the fries would definitely get some food.

And of course, atermia would be welcomed as well.

[luenny]

Hi Illumnae,
Thanks. Didn't expect them to breed. Hopefully the babies survive.

Hi Quixotic,
Yeah, didn't have any special food at all. Didn't know they breed. I guess that's why only 2 survive. Anyway, the pellets I'm using are discus pellets - very small and sinks. I think they should have no problem eating them. Also I do drop some artemia from time to time but I have a feeling that the adults get most of the food.

- Luenny

[SCOPE]

Congrates on your breeding.....