Swollen Cory

[puppyduck]

I've tried to get a picture of this but its not happening so have done a diagram of whats going on so its clearer.


Our albino cory, Bunny, is growing well and has grown a lot since we got him about two weeks ago, maybe longer. We were fairly happy at his progress until I spotted a lump/swelling underneath him.

Its just behind his first set of fins on his underside and looks very abnormal.

Could this be a tumour or is the Bunny we thought we had actually the fairer sex?


Here's a picture of a (yes different species but shows the gist of it) cory which I have drawn the area and roughly the size of the lump on to illustrate whats happened.

Please help. We're worried!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Female albino cories can get surpisingly fat when they are egg laden (as corys are egg layers rather than livebearers) and often grow a fair bit larger than the male corys.
The pic of the female albino cory in this link is one that is heavily egg laden, and if there are a few males present in the tank, it will probably not be long before she lays her eggs;

http/www.scotcat.com/the_cory/species_a/cory2.jpg

 

[puppyduck]

OMG! Baby corys!

We didnt even know she was a girl!


I guess our Jack must be a boy then. They were doing a funny dance before but I thought they were just playing.

She might have got egg laden in the shop but we've only just noticed it.

What do we do if she lays eggs?

 

[black angel]

You need to get her to lay the eggs first. A few large cooler water changes normally does the trick and she will lay the eggs usually on the glass.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

OMG! Baby corys!

We didnt even know she was a girl!


I guess our Jack must be a boy then. They were doing a funny dance before but I thought they were just playing.

She might have got egg laden in the shop but we've only just noticed it.

What do we do if she lays eggs?

Yes albino corys will often get egg laden when fed on a good diet in good conditions. Males and females will sometimes "mock spawn" i.e. chase each other frantically around the tank, however its not until you actually witness the males and females get in the "T" position (when the male fertilises the female/eggs from her side) that you actually know they have successfully spawned.
Having lots of males and females will increase your chances of your corys spawning- the less corys you have, the less likely they are to spawn.

Albino corys usually lay their eggs on broad leaved plants or the tank glass, and these eggs usually hatch between 4 and 8 days into really tiny cory fry. However, a large number of fish eat cory eggs and cory fry, so depending on what other fish you have in the tank, the eggs may not even make it past the first couple of hours.

Due to this, some people carefully move the eggs (they are quite fragile and sticky) and put them in a net (with some pebbles in it) suspended in the tank next to the filter outlet (as the eggs need a lot of oxygen and good current to hatch) to hatch in the safety of the net.
This is how i hatched my albino cory fry and they are doing well, although it is advised that you should move them into a cycled/established tank with find sand subtrate and heating and filtration to grow up in as the fine sand substrate will allow them to feed normally (in a net, cory fry find difficulty feeding normally and often starve).
If the water is clean and well oxygenated, the eggs should hatch with no problems, however fungus can still be a problem with cory eggs so you should remove any that go odd looking.

You can feed the cory fry off liquifry for a fortnight or so, but as soon as you see their eyes or stomaches clearly on the fry, you should move them onto small but regular quantites of algae wafers and bits of frozen cubes of veg for fish etc. Keeping the conditions they live in very clean is essential to raising the fry successfully .