Trying To Breed My Cories

[Akasha72]

Hi. Setting up this thread as I don't want to hijack cezza's thread (OMG cory eggs)

I've been asking questions about getting my cories to spawn as I don't fully understand the process. Currently, I have 3 peppered cories and 4 bronze.
The bronze's appear to be 2 females and 2 males but as 2 are still quite young I'm not certain on this. One pair I have are fully grown and definitely a male and female. I regularily watch this pair circling each other and chasing each other around. From various video's that I've watched on here they are definitely spawning but I've yet to catch them go into the t position (after watching vids [thanks Harlequins] I now understand what this looks like)
I've also never found any eggs. So the way I see it is there are 3 senario's

1. they aren't furtilizing (t positioning) for some reason

2. they are laying eggs when I'm not around to see them and they are getting eaten by other tank mates

3. one of them is infurtile ?

I'd be grateful for anyone's thoughts on this.

The peppered cories - it appears I have a female for definite and I think one of the other 2 is a male. I have seen them circling now and then but it doesn't last long and they seem to get bored and swim away from each other. Maybe the male is still a bit young.

Again, any thoughts are welcome.


Spawning seems to occur after feeding frozen blood worm. Cool water changes have never done anything


Thanks guys

 

[CezzaXV]

You've already seen what I've written so all I can say is keep at it I guess.

I went through 5 days of feeding only frozen bloodworm and then did a cold water change and nothing happened. Then I kind of gave up and let them do their own thing, went back to feeding ordinary foods. Then three days later it was time for a water change and decided to do it cold for the hell of it and bam! There was a definite immediate effect on my cories and a few hours later I had eggs.

So yeah, all I can say is keep doing what you're doing really. I've heard peppered cories are supposed to be one of the easiest to breed and I'm sure you'll get some eggs soon if you keep at it.

 

[Akasha72]

thanks Cezza. I was worried I was hijacking your thread and didn't want to offend which is why I posted my own.

My peppered are still young - none of them have hit full size yet and I think that could be the reason why I'm not seeing much from them. I may get another peppered in the coming weeks so I have 4 of each - might increase my chances ?

I'll try and get some pictures but it's difficult when they blend into my substrate so well

 

[Harlequins]

Whats you tank temp? - this does make a difference...

The trouble of having other fish in the tank especially guppies & platies they will eat any eggs before you get chance to save them...

My livebearers were gluttons for freshly laid eggs

 

[Akasha72]

My tank always ran at around 26 but after doing some research I learned that cories preferred a slightly cooler temperature so I turned it down. It now runs at around 23/24. I am considering turning it back up to 26 though as when I put my hand in there it feels cold

Does 23/24 sound too cold? Is that perhaps why they arn't laying any eggs? I ask as I know a cold water change can induce spawning but if the temp stays low does that stall things?

I've just changed 30-40 litres of water as it was looking like a poop factory after only 5 days

 

[Harlequins]

Your temperature is fine at 23/24

Mines usually around 24 degrees.... your cories will be fine ,peppers prefer cooler water anyway.

Best thing is to feed them daily on defrosted bloodworm to build them up,if they start getting frisky do a cold water change,a temp drop of a few degrees lower is fine

If they are willing they will breed

 

[Akasha72]

Thanks again Harlequins. I suppose they'll do it when they are ready. I checked everything when i did my clean out. I checked the 2 large stones - no sign of any eggs on them. I turned my bogwood over in the water to check there was nothing on there before I lifted it out (I always lift it out as they push algae wafers under it and it leaves a mess). I checked all round the glass and nothing hiding there either.

It just seems odd that they seem to go so far and then stop. I wish I understood why.

They've had dried tubiflex tonight - their favourite - and so far they're just chilled out and going around checking they've not missed any bits of food.

Could that be why though? Could it be that they arn't getting enough to eat and won't lay eggs as they think they won't survive with the lack of food?
I do all I can to get enough food to them but my guppies and platies are far quicker on the uptake than the cories and it seems to me that by the time they realise it's food time all the food has been grabbed by the greedy guppies and platies!

 

[CezzaXV]

Don't worry about hijacking my thread, all the information was interesting to me. I know I've been successful but it still feels somewhat like a magic trick where I made it happen but I only have a vague idea how!

My tank runs around 24.5, down from the 25-26 I ended up having it at for quite some time (my heater is awkward and difficult to adjust with any precision). When I did my cold water change it dropped to about 20.5 both times. Nothing seemed to happen the first time but the second time it did. The only thing I did differently (not on purpose, mind) was do it a little quicker which resulted in the temperature dropping more quickly, which makes me think maybe I was doing it too slowly before to convince them it was raining. I ended up having to put the heater back on as it happened two thirds of the way through to stop it dropping too much further (though I don't really know what's an acceptable lower limit to drop the temperature to, especially considering I have other fish in there).

My cories are often swimming around in pairs and circling each other day to day, but I've never seen them like they were when I did yesterday's water change before, they were going crazy!

Might not be a bad idea to get more cories. Although they're not strictly shoaling fish they do feel safer when there's more of them so increasing their numbers may help them feel more in the mood.

 

[snazy]

If they are young corys, then they probably won't breed for a while or at least the ammount of eggs laid will be so small or eaten quickly by the other tank inhabitants.
Also, the tank may be too crowded or small for the cories to feel in breeding mood. Mine also love the air flow and lay the eggs in the most turbulent areas of the tank, the last two times on the hydor koralia powerhead itself!!

Good luck with it. I only managed to grow one cory so far but it's a very rewarding experience.

 

[Harlequins]

A good varied diet will condition them before they breed,has mentioned if they're too young they may not be ready,although i've seen my young tri's breed at 9 months old...

Corys ARE shoaling fish,in the wild they shoal together,but obviously in a tank set up its not always possible unless they have a big tank,they only time i've really seen them shoal is when i had last years young bronze juvi's from the albino parents and they stuck tightely together,when one moved them all followed - i'll hunt the vid out it's quite amusing

Upping numbers would be good,but my 3 albinos breed (2f 1m) for a pass time

Try using a turkey baster when feeding bloodworm to the corys, or feed when lights out,corys hunt during the dark and will find titbits around.

 

[Harlequins]

Shoaling bronze juvi's

 

[Akasha72]

this is all great information as I'm learning more about them. I know the basics, they bottom feed, like cooler temps, like to be in a group etc but when it comes to the more complicated stuff like breeding I'm a complete novice.

In an ideal world I'd have a bigger home and be able to get a nice 4 or 5ft tank and fill it with cories. As things are the 3ft tank is managable and is big enough for this flat (it's in my living room which is about 12ft square)

I am a little worried about dropping my temp down to 20 with a cold water change, mostly because I have oto's and I know how delicate they are and how they keel over a die at the slightest thing. I'd be worried dropping the temp that far would kill them. If someone can tell me that won't happen then I'll have a go.

I did notice last night that the two younger bronze cories were copying the older pair and also when they start chasing one of the younger ones joins in.

I'm going to feed bloodworms again tonight and see what happens. The last time I found one cube wasn't enough to get any to the cories so I pushed an extra frozen block into the substrate. By the time they realised it was there it was defrosted and they had bloodworms all to themselves. I'm going to try that again.

I'll keep you posted and if I can get a video of them I'll try and post it up and see what you all think

 

[Dieses Madchen]

THere is a good chance that maybe yours have spawned without you knowing. The first time that I know of that my cories spawned, I found the eggs when I was cleaning the tank. Never saw the spawning process. Most the time, unless your catch them in the act, like others said, its hard to save the eggs. If they do not get eaten byt hte other tank inhabitants, they will probably get eaten by mom and dad. I caught a breeding frenzy in my tank yesrday, save maybe 20 eggs.but between the red eyed tetras, angelfish and cories, it was difficult to get that many

 

[Akasha72]

okay, thanks. I've just fed bloodworms and they're a bit disinterested tonight - not sure why. I've been out all day and just got home so something could've been going on whilst I've been out. They all seem a bit lethargic at the moment

 

[Akasha72]

no interest in any of my fish last night. They all seemed pretty sleepy - they're more active this morning though.

Going to check my water stats in a bit and see if that shows any clues