Corydoras Pygmaeus Breeding Journal

[WaterPond]

Im going to start breeding these guys in my 5 gallon planted. I was thinking a group of six, maybe?
Here is my tank.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l117/WaterPond/Picturesoftank064.jpg

Ph-about 7.2
temp-74*F (i have gotten used to using F from all the american forums i am on :laugh: )

I just have a few questions

1-how big of a group should i purchase?
2-how do i induce spawning... i have been reading water chnages with colder water.
3-are there any plants that they like especially?
4-how old do they have to be to reach sexual maturity?
5-i have read that parents rarely eat the fry, is this true?

I think that is all i want to know for noe. I was hoping to get some tonight. Only getting three at first.

[madattiver]

1 - 5 or 6 would be fine in a five gallon tank. That is pretty much what i used when I spawned them.

2- to enduce spawning with them it was fairly easy.. sometimes all it would take was a normal water change.. sometimes i would do water changes with cooler water. they really were one of the easier corys to spawn.

3 - my pygmaeus spawned in the javamoss mostly, or right behind the javamoss on the glass. they really weren't too picky on where they would spawn.

4 - they will reach sexual maturity at around a years again approx.. maybe a little sooner.. or a little later.. hard to really pinpoint an accurate date. If you were buying them in a lfs.. most likely they will be at the age they will spawn any time.

5 - that is true, I could leave the fry in with the parents and they would grow up with them. that being said, you still have to make sure you feed small enough foods for them to eat, such as newly hatched bbs. with all those plants, it would be a perfect breeding ground for the pygmeaus with all sorts of goodies within the substrate and plants.

I would recomend you get more then three to start... I would recomend you get at least 6 as these guys are more of a schooler then other corys.. and you will get some group spawning action with more of them in there. especially since they are not always available.. get them now while you can. I have learnt that the hard way many times in the past. Now, if I see a cory I want... I grab 8-10 of them right there and then.

[WaterPond]

I got three... just bacause i couldent afford any more... There were about 20 in the tank i was buying from. He guy at the store assured me that they would still be there in a few days. Im getting three more then. They are only about 2cm, so i think they are full grown. Very active little fellas... The guy i bought them from told me that he bred them himself, and he picked me out a trio of 1m/2f. I will keep updating this when new stuff happens. :P

THanks for your help. I have christmas moss in the tank. I am sure they will like to spawn on that. I also put a sponge over my filter. :)

I am so excited... these guys are cute. Hoepfully i will have some luck with breeding them.

PICS!!
only one came out of hiding, so thats all you get to see :P
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l117/WaterPond/Picturesoftank182.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l117/WaterPond/Picturesoftank180.jpg
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l117/WaterPond/Picturesoftank174.jpg

[Melody]

They're adorable! Lots of protein and you're on your way! Its great that you found someone who has bred them in the store. :smile:

[hp10BII]

That little feller is cute. I have 2 myself, I'm always on the lookout for more to make a nice little school.

Good luck with the breeding program.

[WaterPond]

if you can see, the last pic. That is supposedly a female with loads of eggs. Hoping to enduce a spawn with a water change this weekend. Hopefully all will go well.

Any more tips for me... i am new to breeding egglayers.

More pics to come :) i am lovin these little fish :P

[madattiver]

it probably won't happen that fast.. with the stress of living in a pet shop.. and adjusting to their new tank surroundings, it may take a few weeks for them to become even close to spawning.. even if they are adults.

[WaterPond]

OK... thanks. more pics to come. I did some minor rearangements in in the tank too. Made them a little cave. pics coming.

[WaterPond]

ok... i have a question for you guys (and gals)

Will snails eat the cory's eggs? I was thinking of throung in a few MTS, but i dont want to if they will eat the eggs. I had one that att goldfish eggs before.. so i know they have the ability to.

I was also thinking of getting some nerite snails, only if they will be ok with these cories and especially with the eggs once i get them to spawn.

Heres another pic that i thought was really cute.
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l117/WaterPond/Picturesoftank192.jpg

[Edgezilla]

Snails will not eat corydoras egg unless they are unfertilized. Shrimps do not touch the eggs either.

[Melody]

I don't think I'd trust the larger snails with them, but I've never actually seen them do it so I could be totally off-base.

[WaterPond]

Its just that i have a few pond snails in there... i dont want to risk loosing eggs.

I picked up 2 more today. They had been moved in a tank with discus fish in it, so i went to the tank where i had seen them before and freaked to see that it was olding feeder guppies!

LOL, i only got two though. I had enough money for three, but i saw some really nice sword tails so i bought a pair of them too :P

So here is an update...

They are schooling alot, and rarely ever rest on the bottom. They howerver, wont eat prepared food. But they love to graze on algae:confused: oh well... whatever floats their boat.

Lots of breeding behavior, but no eggs that i can see.. I swore i saw a tiny little thing dart along the bottom, but it must have been my eyes playing tricks because i thoroughly search the tank for eggs evey morning...

I am now totally obsessed with these fish.

[Melody]

Well there's your problem then - feed them well, keep the tank clean and otherwise forget about them. Every time I obsess about a fish I either can't get them to breed or I kill them :wideeyed: ....lol.

As for food, they prefer to eat at dawn or dusk, but mine usually eat whenever the opportunity arrises. I'd guess they're eating after lights out until they're more comfortable.

Five is a nice group - good luck with the breeding!

[Edgezilla]

What are you feeding them? corydoras dislike (almost hate) hikari brand food and quite a few more readily available dried food.

Unless corydoras are kept in a planted tank, I wouldn't recommand having substrate deeper than 1 cm. Deep substrate seems to cause problems for them. When they are grazing on algae, they are probably getting the infusoria off the algae and not eating the algae itself.

I do a gravel vac each time I do a water change (once every few days). Of course, this isn't possible with planted tank, but the plants take care of the gravel by oxgenating the gravel through the roots.


I picked up some wild Corydoras yesterday and they are already eating in the middle of the day. Not as piggish as the more established corydoras, but still eating dried food.

[Melody]

C121 is one of those Cory's with colour that I keep my eyes open for. Prolific little buggers - you should find them easy to spawn.

[Edgezilla]

I am guessing they are pretty rare in the market right now if people don't mistake them as adolfoi. Rather expensive to get...

How do you know they are prolific? I guess all cories are pretty prolific once they are in the groove. :pompom:

[Melody]

How do I know? That's a very good question - I have a weird memory that retains bits and pieces that I don't even realize I know until someone mentions it. :rolleyes:

I like Cory's with color and researched the species at some time or another. For Heaven's sake don't quote me on any of this, but from what I remember, they can be spawned easily and constantly using the normal water change methods & conditioning, they surfaced in the hobby around 2001/02... I think in Europe, they're very closely related to the actual Adolphi.... that's all I remember.

It was a breeder experience that I'm thinking of.... I'll go through the bookmarks and see if I can find it. Nice find!

[Edgezilla]

I found it.

http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article89.htm

Good thing Big als usually brings in wild caught corydoras and not local bred. They make great spawning group or trio.

[Melody]

That's the one! Good article. BA's definitly has a good start on the variety thing but as you know, they have to be isolated for a long time. Wild-caught fish are even more susceptible to captive bred diseases, which run rampant in most chains by default. They have no immunity to them.

I can't wait for the birth announcement!

[Edgezilla]

*knock on wood* I am lucky the only disease I have come across so far are sunken belly (worms), fin rot/body fungus, and ick on corydoras, nothing fancy.I am not too surprise about fin rot though. Since they are so close to the substrate, any dirty substrate or deep substrate trapping toxic gas can caused that. I do find adding some of the older established hyper corydoras to new fish tends to get them out of the slump. Of course, this means I am taking the chance of exposing them to disease.

I love tetra tablets. They make wild caught transistion a lot easier onto commercial ready dried food. Best way to tell if they have worms when they are eating at full force.

[Melody]

I have found internals to be very difficult to erradicate completely. Prazi does the best job, but I always have stubborn cases that I usually end up euthanizing in isolation. :no: I had many more problems before I got the UV sterilizer, didn't seem to matter how long I quarantined them. My tanks would be fine, I'd intro a new fish and all heck would break loose. That last bug was vicious - took a full tank bleaching to get it out of the tank.

One trick I've found which is far from fool-proof, is to catch them as soon as the shipment comes in. I had much better luck with chains when I started doing that. They're not exposed to the nasties long enough to pick them up, for the most part. I don't expect any store to be disease free 100% of the time, but I do expect them to make every effort to avoid it.

Regardless, I'll be hoping for yours - I wouldn't wish those superbugs on my worst enemy.... well maybe my WORST enemy, but I'd want them to catch it themselves....

Did I say that outloud? :laugh:

[hp10BII]

Regardless, I'll be hoping for yours - I wouldn't wish those superbugs on my worst enemy.... well maybe my WORST enemy, but I'd want them to catch it themselves....

Did I say that outloud? :laugh:

Yes, you said it outloud! Now I know why I felt compelled to take a peak at this post!!:laugh:

[Melody]

It takes a very big person to appreciate my sarcarsm... er... dry sense of humour ;) .

Admit it, there's people in everyone's life whom we'd love to see get a really stubborn case of internal parasites:laugh: .

[WaterPond]

My thread has been hijacked!:laugh:

Just thought i would give you an update.

Now that i have five i think i am ready to start trying to get them to breed for me. I have been doing water changes every week, but i might step it up to twice a week.

I have a question about temperature. what should it be? i think i am having a problem with my lights heating the tank too much.

Tanks still looks the same.. All is well. I stopped dosing though as i am afraid it was hurting my cories in my 50 gallon. I lost 2 pandas about an hour after i dosed with greg watson ferts... :confused:

So, i will try to minimize how much i dose in here.

more updates and pictures to come

[Edgezilla]

What I do is keep them at 78f or so and do cold tap to bring overall temp down to 70 to 72f. This can stress out other type of fish in the tank. Really though, The first spawning is the hardest to trigger. After that, they will spawn regularly with large 50% water change.

[WaterPond]

I am bored. so i am thinking od fing a water change right now, LOL.

An ideas on snail control. My pond snail population has quadrupled in the the last three days or so. I have spotted about 50. Dunno how they got in there seeing as how my dwarf puffer used to live in this tank :P

Ok. So the temperature is about 80... cant bring it down because of the lights, they just heat it to that temperature.

Thanks for the help.

[Melody]

Your thread wasn't hijacked, it was expanded :laugh: .

As for pond snails - cut back on your feeding. The population grows according to the food supply. Otherwise, a few Yo Yo Loaches or any loach of the Botia family, will get rid of them in no time.

[Pamelajo]

Those little guys are awesome. I was going to get some more pandas, but think I will try to get some of these guys.

[WaterPond]

UPDATE:red_dance:
Sorry i have been gone for so long. Been pretty busy, but i am back now.

I lost one cory... A female i beleive. It's stomach got very very red and it just died a few hours after i noticed that. I have been doing alot of water changes and eveything seems to be better. All the water parameters were perfect too, it was weird.

No signs of any interest in each other. Sure they school alot, but no breeding, yet. I am thinking of getting a few more, just to up my chances.

I did a pig water chnage and rescape today because i had one plant that just couldent live in my tanks, it made a big mess.

Everything is going well overall. I have seen a decrease in snail numbers too, so thats a good thing. :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail: :icon_snail:

Thanks for all the help everyone. Updates will keep on comin'

[Melody]

Sorry to hear that you lost a Cory. They'll breed when the urge hits. Make your waterchanges cooler than the tank water, even if the lights warm it up. If you do them first thing in the morning and then leave the lights off for even an hour or two, it should still trigger something. In fish more difficult to spawn it might be a prob, but these particular Cory's should be fine with that. Some need no fluctuation at all, but it allows you to control the timing better if you induce it.

They may not be mature enough yet - stores often have young fish.