Cories, lots of cories.

[CassCats]

Are those eggs?

They're nerite snail eggs lol

Cory eggs are rounder and opaque.
These are corydoras pygmaeus eggs collected from the main tank to hatch.

 

[CassCats]

Got a bunch of photos to dump off!!
I picked up a couple more cories off a local who was giving them away due to outgrowing their tank

2 albino aeneus girls and 1 albino paleatus boy were taken in. The aeneus girls are huge chunky ladies!! I named them Bessie and Daisy. The paleatus boy is Charlie.

This guy is Charlie. He has made friends with all the other paleatus, hangs more with the albino versions.

Daisy, the smaller of the two big girls

But Bessie is the chonkiest

Both together

Mix of everyone

Lately Bulldozer has fattened up. Definitely gravid. I think she was jealous of Bessie.

Solo, my juvenile trilineatus

And one of my pygmaeus females

 

[CassCats]

Just a small bit

Corydoras Ambiacus

Corydoras Weitzmani

Corydoras Aeneus

Corydoras Pygmaeus

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Ambiacus (1). Love him but unable to find more anywhere. Ive tried looking, asking for special orders, online (limited in canada), no luck. Unfortunately this is a by-catch corydoras, not one target caught for the hobby.

Love seeing all these photos of lovely healthy cories, thank you for sharing! Apart from being gorgeous photos in their own right, they help beginners like me learn to identify the difference cory species. While I love seeing the markings and things in the side on shots, and the group shots are sweet too, I can't help smiling at the face on shots like theone below. So cute!

sterbai
View attachment 107870

Hmm, this is making me wonder if the pair of bronze cories in my dad's 55gal have spawned before, and I just didn't know it. Apparently he bought three and lost one - this was before I moved back and took after tank maintenance. I think they're fully grown, but one is definitely much bigger and chonkier than the other, and the bigger one sometimes gets that sorta bulge that this one has. I thought something must be wrong the first time I saw it, but it didn't look unwell otherwise and went back to normal after a while. Could they have been spawning and I just had no idea? There are plenty of other fish in the tank that wouldn't hesitate to eat any eggs.

He would go mad if I bought more bronze cories to up his school, but if I saved some eggs and reared the fry, he'd likely be softer about keeping them. Hmmm.... Any ideas/tips? If I could induce them to spawn and add spawning mops, then remove those the next morning to hunt for eggs maybe? I've seen the tips you gave @mbsqw1d about how to rear fry, but it's getting the eggs with all the other fish in there that concerns me. Unless I could put the pair of cories in a 15 gal as a temporary spawning tank? Too small long term of course, but maybe as a breeding tank it could work?

Lately Bulldozer has fattened up. Definitely gravid. I think she was jealous of Bessie.
View attachment 111972
View attachment 111964

 

[mbsqw1d]

Love seeing all these photos of lovely healthy cories, thank you for sharing! Apart from being gorgeous photos in their own right, they help beginners like me learn to identify the difference cory species. While I love seeing the markings and things in the side on shots, and the group shots are sweet too, I can't help smiling at the face on shots like theone below. So cute!


Hmm, this is making me wonder if the pair of bronze cories in my dad's 55gal have spawned before, and I just didn't know it. Apparently he bought three and lost one - this was before I moved back and took after tank maintenance. I think they're fully grown, but one is definitely much bigger and chonkier than the other, and the bigger one sometimes gets that sorta bulge that this one has. I thought something must be wrong the first time I saw it, but it didn't look unwell otherwise and went back to normal after a while. Could they have been spawning and I just had no idea? There are plenty of other fish in the tank that wouldn't hesitate to eat any eggs.

He would go mad if I bought more bronze cories to up his school, but if I saved some eggs and reared the fry, he'd likely be softer about keeping them. Hmmm.... Any ideas/tips? If I could induce them to spawn and add spawning mops, then remove those the next morning to hunt for eggs maybe? I've seen the tips you gave @mbsqw1d about how to rear fry, but it's getting the eggs with all the other fish in there that concerns me. Unless I could put the pair of cories in a 15 gal as a temporary spawning tank? Too small long term of course, but maybe as a breeding tank it could work?

I don't believe they require spawning mops, live food and a temporary reduction in temp (usually after a water change) seems to do the trick. Whether they're picky about water softness and PH too though I dunno

 

[CassCats]

Love seeing all these photos of lovely healthy cories, thank you for sharing! Apart from being gorgeous photos in their own right, they help beginners like me learn to identify the difference cory species. While I love seeing the markings and things in the side on shots, and the group shots are sweet too, I can't help smiling at the face on shots like theone below. So cute!


Hmm, this is making me wonder if the pair of bronze cories in my dad's 55gal have spawned before, and I just didn't know it. Apparently he bought three and lost one - this was before I moved back and took after tank maintenance. I think they're fully grown, but one is definitely much bigger and chonkier than the other, and the bigger one sometimes gets that sorta bulge that this one has. I thought something must be wrong the first time I saw it, but it didn't look unwell otherwise and went back to normal after a while. Could they have been spawning and I just had no idea? There are plenty of other fish in the tank that wouldn't hesitate to eat any eggs.

He would go mad if I bought more bronze cories to up his school, but if I saved some eggs and reared the fry, he'd likely be softer about keeping them. Hmmm.... Any ideas/tips? If I could induce them to spawn and add spawning mops, then remove those the next morning to hunt for eggs maybe? I've seen the tips you gave @mbsqw1d about how to rear fry, but it's getting the eggs with all the other fish in there that concerns me. Unless I could put the pair of cories in a 15 gal as a temporary spawning tank? Too small long term of course, but maybe as a breeding tank it could work?

A 15 would be fine in a breeding tank.

Just keep a sponge filter in it, some sand, a little bit of hornwort/anacharis/moss for shelter....

Feed the pair very well. 2 times a day with a high protein food (frozen foods are good for this)

Daily 50% water changes with water cooler than the tank water.

Eventually they will spawn, remove the pair back to the main tank and leave the eggs.

The rest you know.



But that's assuming both are actually male and female! Two females can still lay dud eggs...

Females are larger than males, have broader pelvic fins (the paired fins on the belly) and are often chunky, especially when gravid.

Not the best photo, but shows a male. My one eyed boy is going to be the example for you. More streamlined body shape, pointed pelvic fins, smaller than females.

The girth of them is better viewed from above. Males are widest at the point of their pectoral fins and then taper out towards the tail. Females are widest at the belly and then taper out.

I find it can be trickier with some species than others, while some are super easy to sex (trilineatus and paleatus have a pretty big size difference between males and females alone)

 

[mbsqw1d]

Can it ever get a bit too much for the female? Mine don't seem to have stopped harassing her lately

 

[CassCats]

Can it ever get a bit too much for the female? Mine don't seem to have stopped harassing her lately

honestly I've wondered that too. My gender ratios on some of my cories are pretty skewed lol

My paleatus, I've got 12 total... 10 are male!
My trilineatus, got 12. 7 are male, 2 female, 3 juvenile lol
Weitzmani 3 males 1 female


My girls never seem bothered even if the boys start dancing in their faces. They just keep trucking along the sand.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

They really are not easy to photograph! The bigger one is bolder, so I managed to get more photos of her. The other one tends to move away faster, so got a lot of blurs of that one. Photos are terrible so don't worry if you can't confirm sexes, I can try to take photos again another time Just the way you described the gravid cory and seeing the photo, made me wonder if that's what I was seeing.


Chonky at front, smaller behind

Smaller one, sorry out of focus

Mega chonk:

bigger at the back, smaller at the front

Smaller one sorta in focus

From behind... wide load! bigger one

In case you think the cories are small, those big black/blue mollies are massive. Here they are next to adult platy and adult guppy

The yep mollies are mature adults too, but the black/blue ones are beasts that are more than fives years old. The sharks of the tank, and they make cory photography difficult since they eat everything I use as bait. Also yes, the santa mickey mouse platy has one eye, she's Cyclops.

 

[mbsqw1d]

Definitely a little chunk. If you can get a look at the pelvic/ventral fin, its almost round on my girl and pointy on the boys.

@NCaquatics yeh I'm quite sure I'm the same with these peppereds, 2F:10M

Oh, also, these eggs still haven't hatched yet.. are they a bit late?

 

[CassCats]

Definitely a little chunk. If you can get a look at the pelvic/ventral fin, its almost round on my girl and pointy on the boys.

@NCaquatics yeh I'm quite sure I'm the same with these peppereds, 2F:10M

Oh, also, these eggs still haven't hatched yet.. are they a bit late?

3-5 days is the normal range

Take a photo of the eggs they get really dark before hatching

 

[CassCats]

They really are not easy to photograph! The bigger one is bolder, so I managed to get more photos of her. The other one tends to move away faster, so got a lot of blurs of that one. Photos are terrible so don't worry if you can't confirm sexes, I can try to take photos again another time Just the way you described the gravid cory and seeing the photo, made me wonder if that's what I was seeing.


Chonky at front, smaller behind
View attachment 112188
Smaller one, sorry out of focus
View attachment 112189
Mega chonk:
View attachment 112190
bigger at the back, smaller at the front
View attachment 112191
Smaller one sorta in focus
View attachment 112192
From behind... wide load! bigger one
View attachment 112193
View attachment 112194
View attachment 112195View attachment 112196

In case you think the cories are small, those big black/blue mollies are massive. Here they are next to adult platy and adult guppy
View attachment 112197View attachment 112198The yep mollies are mature adults too, but the black/blue ones are beasts that are more than fives years old. The sharks of the tank, and they make cory photography difficult since they eat everything I use as bait. Also yes, the santa mickey mouse platy has one eye, she's Cyclops.

yeah I think you got a male and female aeneus there

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Definitely a little chunk. If you can get a look at the pelvic/ventral fin, its almost round on my girl and pointy on the boys.

@NCaquatics yeh I'm quite sure I'm the same with these peppereds, 2F:10M

Oh, also, these eggs still haven't hatched yet.. are they a bit late?

I'll try to have a better look at the pelvic fins when I feed them in the am So hard to get a good look at them when they're snarfing up food and all the mollies are sharing too!

yeah I think you got a male and female aeneus there

Eeeek! I thought maybe, thank you! At least, I thought the CHONKY one was a female, and the other probably male, but I don't have any experience at all sexing them. But the big one gets soooo big, and they were the same size from the same batch when he first got them. Thank you for the cory consult!

 

[mbsqw1d]

3-5 days is the normal range

Take a photo of the eggs they get really dark before hatching

Starting to think only one of these is a goer (top one)

 

[CassCats]

Top one does look fertile. How many days has it been?