Cory Eggs! How Long Do I Leave Them?

[snazy]

Here are a couple of my old videos of a baby cory that grew up to be cory N.13 in the main tank

He's over a year old now.
I too like you ended up with one cory only from that hatch. On the videos you'll see that I hadn't covered the entire bottom with sand but I recommend you do because a later hatch bar one cory got eaten.
 
Here when newborn:
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWlOfU36DpI
 
Tiny bit older here. You can see him on the left sifting around
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=maiCExQjlEc
 
The same cory after I left him out in the main tank:
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZJFaplHdtE
 
And this was another few that I raised. Just to give you an idea of the setup of the box. Daily water changes(flush with tank water slowly after cleaning up food left overs)
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ANOmOzbwM

 

[Wildbetta]

I normally put my eggs in a separate container to hatch them.  Normally a Kritter keeper with an airstone and one or two cherry shrimp to keep the fungus down.  They hatch in 3 days to tiny swimmers and I feed frozen bbs from day one.  I use a turkey baster to suck up any uneaten food and to do tiny water changes on the Kritter keeper daily.  I have never used the breeder net with cory fry but in my opinion most of them have fine enough netting to keep fry even as small as cory fry in the net without too much problem.  I almost bet you have more fry in the net than you think you do since the net does make it hard to see really small fry.  I have used the breeder net with some of my wild betta fry which are extremely small as well and I lost none of them out of the net.  Feeding in the breeder net is a problem since it does tend to go right through the netting though which is why I prefer to keep my fry in a separate small tank.  I move my small fry with a turkey baster which I have found is the easiest way to do it without hurting the fry and making a big mess. 

 

[Joshwainwright]

Those videos are brilliant, snazy! He's really cute in the second one after being a little dot in the first. 
 
A nice little achievement for you
 
Hopefully you'll be able to raise the one, greenmumma

 

[greenmumma141]

Well, I've been searching for the one little fellow and I can't seem to find him... maybe I just need to let it be for a while instead of poking around in there every two seconds. I will for sure be using the hard plastic one from now on and if i find any.  
 
Thanks for all of the input and the videos snazy. Seeing your tiny fry tank really gave me good ideas for next time
 
Thanks for the suggestions as well wildbetta
 
I'll give an update tomorrow or if i see any activity tonight, cross your fingers!

 

[greenmumma141]

Well, the breeding net is definitely empty  ... After giving it a day or so to be certain, I am for sure that something went wrong, whether it was my other fish getting to the eggs somehow, or something else, I'm not sure.  Next time I will be using the hard plastic breeder's box and set it up like a mini tank, as Snazy showed in her video.   Doing a water change now and moving on.  This one was a little more disappointing than I expected, but at least I know my cories will continue to spawn, so that's a plus.   
 
How often can cories spawn? I've counted a for sure 4 out 7 females, should I look for more males to up the chances??
 
I'll just continue to update this thread with any future spawning events Thanks again everyone, hopefully I get a successful outcome one of these times

 

[snazy]

When mine get into gear, they don't stop for months. Afterwards they just slow down for a while but still spawn. So any time in a week time expect another batch. Mine tend to do it in the mornings around 10, so I miss a lot of times but see egg marks on the glass. They don't always spawn big batches too so just keep an eye. They are normally extremely active prior to spawning.


Edit:
Also, the last time I connected an airline tubing running from my trickle filter directly into the breeder box, gravity being my friend.  I adjusted the flow so the water doesn't overflow the box and manages to drip down through the bottom holes(the sand is no obstacle). That saved me doing any water changes and the corys loved the mulm from the filter because I just put the tubing into one of the baskets. I've seen it done even via the external filter outlet with sillicone depending on the filter you have and if you are into DIY.

 

[Wildbetta]

I must say Snazy -- I was never one to use a breeder box for cory fry but I LOVE your little breeder box setup and will definitely have to try it out when my cories decide they want to spawn for me this time around.


Oh and greenmumma -- the more males the better in a spawning group.  3 or 4 males per female is a great number to have.

 

[snazy]

Believe it or not, the corys I raised in the breeder box grew up way faster than the ones I raised in a separate tank. I think when newly born, they are too small to find food in a bigger place and one need to overfeed but that leads to other problems, plus one never has a properly cycled breeding tank and water parameters may fluctuate a lot more.
I was on top of the daily flushings with tank water, even twice or three times but not always, and it only takes pouring some tank water very slowly on top of the box until you decide you've put enough, and cleaning up once a day "fluff" on top of the sand. Very easy, and even easier when I connected an airtubing dripping water into it constantly.

 

[Mamashack]

Believe it or not, the corys I raised in the breeder box grew up way faster than the ones I raised in a separate tank. I think when newly born, they are too small to find food in a bigger place and one need to overfeed but that leads to other problems, plus one never has a properly cycled breeding tank and water parameters may fluctuate a lot more.
I was on top of the daily flushings with tank water, even twice or three times but not always, and it only takes pouring some tank water very slowly on top of the box until you decide you've put enough, and cleaning up once a day "fluff" on top of the sand. Very easy, and even easier when I connected an airtubing dripping water into it constantly.

Sounds simple but ingenious at the same time, snazy!

 

[Joshwainwright]

These posts have made me want cories now to try and breed them! 

 
Time to think about stocking!!
 
By the way... good luck for next time greenmumma

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Congrats and condolences greenmumma141.


If I may interject a slightly different viewpoint than the rest. I have successfully "raised" about 10 panda cories in my community tank with absolutely no interference by me whatsoever. Growing up I tried to save all the live bearer fry born in our tanks, but failed every time. In my current tank, the cories spawn rather frequently, and I have done nothing and they just keep popping out of different places. These young have all been born over the past year or so, and the only thing I've done is provide small caves for the cories to hang out in. They are slate lean-tos, nothing fancy. I am always surprised to see another small one pop out, but it really is far less stressful for me to "let nature take its course". I'm rather surprised that this has happened in my tank as I never expected.


I don't want to discourage your efforts, greenmumma, just offering a different style. If you want to try to raise them in a breeder I'll applaud all efforts, but this may offer you a less stressful alternative. Just add some extra small plants, especially those with small leaves for them to hide in and around. Small critters we can't see will live there and be food for the fry until they are big enough to venture out more.



My other fish are neon tetras, harlequin rasboras, zebra danio, and a Bn Pleco. They are all plenty active in searching for food yet the cories keep being able to survive, well one or two at a time from a spawn every so often.

Again, not trying to dissuade you, just offering a different take on things. My point is you might be more successful if you did "nothing".

 

[greenmumma141]

Snazy, thanks a lot for the tip, that's something I will try and rig up for the next time, I love DIY stuff... and again, thanks for all the help
 
Josh, even before my cories spawned they were by far my fav fish and I think every tank needs a shoal of them They're a lot of fun to have and watch.
 
Eagles, I know what you mean. In my first tank, I remember finding baby platies one day. They just came out of the plants when they were big enough. It was a great feeling to just find them one day.  Somehow I doubt this tank's "on their own survival rate" lol.  When my angels spawned, I liked the idea of having the angels raise about half of the fry on their own, and putting the other half in a breeder's net.  I decided to just leave all of them to the angels as they were such avid parents. It's strange bc I've always thought I would leave all the cory eggs to make it on their own, like my platies always did. I think it was seeing my barbs and rasboras eating the eggs right after the cories laid them.. i got a little protective lol. I know there's a couple safe "laying spots" where the fish can't get the eggs, so if the eggs are there, I think i'll leave them.  Thanks for the suggestion, and congrats on your baby pandas, the one from FOTM was pretty awesome

 

[Wildbetta]

I believe the babies that grow up in the main tank grow quicker than ones that are raised in a separate container (whether it be a breeder of some sort or another tank).  I have actually had one survive in a mainly aggressive tank once which shocked me completely but if someone were really looking to breed and raise cories, then you would have to take action for a higher survival rate or have a species only tank where most times the parents are removed after spawning (as cories eat their own eggs).  I would leave mine to their own survival if my tanks didn't all have a species of betta in them which will find and eat all the eggs or fry 95% of the time.

 

[snazy]

Snazy, thanks a lot for the tip, that's something I will try and rig up for the next time,

No problem. Good luck with the cory fry. There certainly are many ways to grow them. I just shared what it worked for me consistently. I don't exclude keeping them in a separate cycled tank when we talk about a big batch, as I did that too and it works of course. I've never had cory fry survive the community tank. I once dropped some in the tank by accident and never saw them again. Eggs don't survive long at all so the problem maybe that too.

 

[greenmumma141]

Yea, my rasboras were eating them before I could get the scraper out of the cupboard to save them 

Plus I would just really love to watch the whole process. It was so interesting with the angel fry, I can't wait for my cories to spawn again, they've been getting a lot of bloodworms lol