Cory Eggs - Journal - Update 5/4/06

[Dakota Ice]

Over the past week I have been trying to spawn my rather small (largest is a little over an inch) panda cories. They were showing spawning behavior except for the T position. Anyways.. I changed their water daily with cold water. However, the house is relatively warm (90 outside) and I'm sure it never stayed cool for long. Well last night I tossed in some shrimp pellets and then turned the air way down (wasn't trying to do anything with the fish, I was just really hot) and low and behold - the tank was really cool the next morning! While trying to fix my blasted C02 system, I noticed four little eggs scattered over some of the mossier plants. I have lots of snails, but these are bigger than any snail eggs I've seen. I've also never seen snail eggs seperated or in any kind of "nest" other than a sack.

Here is a picture:

What are these? They take on a tanner hue when they're in really good light. The only inhabitants of the tank are 4 panda cories.

Any help is much appreciated!

 

[guppy_man]

well i have albino corys and their eggs look like that so i think that you do have cory eggs, my eggs hatched nearlly 2 weeks ago and have around 50 of the little buggers.
what you should do is scrape the 4 remaining eggs from the tank so they dont get eaten and put them in a container with an airstone you could add methalyn blue to stop fungi attacking the eggs or you could keep doing water changes around 30% everyday, and then 3-4 days later they should hatch

good luck

 

[Lynz781]

Look like cory eggs to me too.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

They are cory eggs. I haven't had panda eggs before, only bronze, but I have read on plenty of info on them, and they supposedly, a different colour from say bronze, tan like you described. Good luck, hope you have some fry! I have 5 pandas, for about 6 months now, and nothing, not one egg. They might be spawning and I haven't seen because my husband has planted a lot in the tank, and it's wild in there.

 

[Dakota Ice]

Thanks everyone, I ripped apart my tank to get the eggs into a bowl before I even knew what they were, lol. I eventually gave up and cut off all the plants that had eggs on them and put them into a small, clear tupperware bowl with an airstone, what you see in the picture.

I'm so happy! This is my first step up from breeding guppies, lol! I tried to get them to spawn and they actually DID! Wow. This is great, lol.

Oh, and, aren't mine a little small to be making babies?

The biggest is barely over an inch and the smallest is barely an inch!

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Well, time will tell if they are fertile. You should know in about 3-5 days. Good luck and keep us posted

 

[Dakota Ice]

What do unfertile eggs look like?

And is there a way to know how old the eggs are?

I don't remember seeing any before this morning, meaning they had to have done the crime last night, but who really knows when they laid them.

I found a couple more, one being on the glass, so I had to rub it off gently with my finger. It was really, really hard. I thought they'd be cute and squishy, lol. Are older eggs hard?

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

It will take a couple of days before you can see if they are fertile. Normally in a fertile egg, you will see a black dot, and by the time they are ready to hatch, you will actually be able to see the fry moving (I saw this only when we had the eggs on the tank glass, and it was while I was watching the eggs hatch). If the eggs are unfertile, they normally get fungus, go completely white. Best to wait a few days before deciding. The eggs were probably laid during the night or early this morning. My cory's normally laid in the morning (but they are all different). Only freshly laid eggs have ever felt soft and sticky to me. I have removed eggs laid hours before, and they were a lot harder and not sticky. Sounds like you are doing everything right. Good luck and hopefully you'll have some pics in a few days of your new panda fry

 

[Dakota Ice]

Thanks everyone for your help, I'll be sure to post pics of the fry if the eggs are fertile.

 

[Dakota Ice]

How long does it take to see the black dot?

I've shined a light through them and they look completely empty - but they were just laid yesterday. Also, all of them are tan and have not gotten fungus yet.

Are they fertile?

I'm gonna cry if they aren't. =(

 

[Dakota Ice]

Also, I was messing around with the plants the eggs were attached to, trying to see if they were empty and 3 of 6 dettatched from what they were stuck to. Does this mean they're infertile also?

The three are floating around the current/sitting on the bottom.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

I'm not sure with Panda eggs, but it was about 2-3 days that I saw the black dot in the bronze eggs. It does all seem to happen really quickly, so just hang in there. As for eggs dropping off leaves when you touched them, I have the same happen and actually seen the eggs on the bottom hatch. But don't get too upset if they aren't fertile. If they have started laying, chances are they will continue and eventually you'll have more panda fry than you know what to do with. When our bronzes started, I hunted around the tank for hours collecting every egg, but in the end when she was laying over 200, it was like, where to put all that fry! Obviously they didn't all survive, but I still ended up with quite a few corys, since she spawned every 8 days at one point. Keep well, Carmen

 

[Dakota Ice]

So eggs are supposed to look completely clear for a while? I can see a second smaller "circle" inside the egg, but nothing else.

http/www.vtluu.net/images/cory_eggs.jpg

They look exactly like those, except for tan.

(btw, that picture is not mine. )

Theyd fungus and turn white by now right?

lol sorry for all the questions, thanks!!

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Hi
Well, I suppose it's a good sign if they haven't fungused yet. I have to admit, I only ever noticed when there was dark spot in the eggs (By the way, the dark spot is eyes ). I have read that panda eggs will darken over their 5-6 day incubation period. That is longer than the bronze cory, so it may take longer for things to appear. As I said before, I have unfortunately not bred my pandas yet, so don't have first hand experience. Just keep the faith

But, it sounds like all is going well, and don't worry about asking questions, we're all on here to learn. Good luck
Carmen

 

[Dakota Ice]

I can finally see the dark spot! I turned off the annoying air stone and then went to sleep.. I woke up and went to school, and this afternoon you could see eyes in the eggs.

I don't know weither or not to turn the airstone back on, it seemed to me as soon as the water calmed down the eggs started developing. This is the 4th day and I'm just now seeing eyes. How much longer do you think?

The adults also spawned again. =)

I'll try to take a macro shot of the babies in the eggs..