Baby cory out of nowhere!

[Texaswoman]

Well, pretty amazing I believe. I have a 44 hex tank that is planted, somewhat, but not really heavy, with ph of around 8.5, tank temp about 74-75 deg, regular external power filter. It has gravel mixed with eco-complete substrate. I have in the tank 1 royal pleco, 3 power blue dwarf gouramis, 1 male guppy, 3 platies, 1 yo yo louch?, 2 bronze cories, 2 pandas, and 1 jullie, and 2 adolfois. Well, tank was struck by a sickness, and some fish died off. 1 panda, 1 adolfoi, and 1 bronze cory cats. A few weeks later I noticed a small moving thing on the floor of the tank. It was a cory fry, about 1/2 inch or smaller. It has turned out to be an Adolfoi fry, but, how can this be? Very nice and suprising, but these fish were not conditioned to breed, and the parameters in the tank are not ideal for this species, plus, I ended up with only 1 adolfoi. They were probably only in the tank 1-2 months before the die off. Any ideas on why?

 

[Texaswoman]

Can anybody give me any input on this?

 

[smithrc]

corrys can cross breed - it may be a hybrid or just took a while for the egg laying hathing procees.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Texaswoman

It's always an amazing thing to find a young cory in a community tank. The odds of it's survival is so great against it happening, even under the best of circumstances, that it is almost like a little miracle.

As to how it happened, we can only speculate, but I strongly doubt that it is a hybrid. This can happen with corys, but rarely does. Since eggs are fertilized outside the female, during the spawning process, and sperm cannot be stored by females like some livebearers do, the other parent had to have been the dead adolfoi. This puts it's time of birth before the sickness. It only takes 3 to 5 days for their eggs to hatch.

The size of the fry is not a good indicator of its age, because other factors might influence it. They grow much faster if the water is excellent and has daily small water changes, than if it isn't. The amount and type of food available would also play a part.

If your tanks are planted and you were not looking for them, you might not have even noticed the eggs during the time they were there. It might have been their first spawn which us usually small. Conditioning isn't strictly necessary, but it generally builds up the fishes strength and helps her produce more eggs.

If corys are ready to spawn they are apt to do it spontaneously, but there are a few other things that can set them off. Most often it is a large water change that causes the temperature of the tank to drop, or a heater that causes temperature fluctuations. This imitates springtime in their native waters when the melting snow from the mountains enters their streams. Do you recall anything like this happening?

If you can see to it that the fry now gets a good amount of high protien food, you will be doing all you can to help him grow big and strong. Good luck with him!

 

[Texaswoman]

Thank you for your responses. Yeah, I probably never even thought to look for eggs. Only time temp could have fluctuated is during a water change possibly, which I'm not for certain exactly when that would have been. Sometimes I will feed leftover frozen foods from my bettas in that tank, so, they could have gotten some good quality foods, but not enough to condition though. I'm just amazed that it is there and made it without getten eaten, or me even adding fry foods. The pair of Adolfoi were very close and cute and were the size to breed I think, so they must have paired up. The baby is over 1/2 inch now and just one of the gang. I think that I am going to have to get me some cories to breed now. If I can spawn and raise bettas, then I can do cories I hope. They seem to take a considerable less amount of work, so that is nice for a change. If anybody knows where I can get a colony for breeding, any species, I'm not picky, can you please link me. Thanks.

 

[ral]

I have 5 Panda Corries in a 5 gallon, originally meant to be Betta tank mates. The little guys bred quickly (got them 3 weeks ago only) and I now have seen 4, maybe 5, 5-6mm Panda's.

I need to get these guys a larger tank.