Cory Catfish

Recently, I was given a 55 gallon tank that came with fish. There were different breeds: 3 Red Parrots, 3 Cory Catfish, 3 of one breed I'm unsure of, and another set of 3 I am also unsure of. =) It also came with 2 LARGE Albino frogs as well as 1 African frog and 2 dragon fish. So as you can imagine when I found some eggs stuck to the glass tank, I started researching online to figure out which fish had laid the eggs and what I was to do to ensure the survival of these fry even before they became so.
I txt'd the person that gave the tank and fish to me and told her one had laid eggs on the glass and she said it was the Cory Catfish and that they do it all the time. She had never separated the eggs and fish thou. So, I got a tank divider and and let them do their thing. Only, they just grew mold. So, I removed them after 6 days. Apparently, they weren't fertile. It made me wonder if maybe all the 3 of the catfish I have are female.. So here is my question... How can I tell, LOL =) Thanks!! p.s. two are brown and one is albino.. don't know if that helps or not =)

I don't know much about cory spawning but I did find the following site. Looks like cory's have a fairly interesting spawning behavior to say the least. All I know, personally, is that I've always heard you can encourage them to spawn by changing water with slightly cooler water to simulate a rain shower. Hope this helps and maybe someone can shed some more light on it.

http://www.aboutfishonline.com/articles/corydoras.html

check with FERN on cory she been raising them for a long long time... lol
and i am not saying that Fern is old.. LOL

Can you get me side pics of all 3?

Next time they spawn get a razor blade and at a 45* angle or less gently scrape the eggs off the glass and stick them to the side of a 10g tank and treat with methylene blue and set air stones under the eggs so there is good water movement over the eggs. Some eggs will fall off the glass but that's fine, the fresher you get them the better they stick. I tend to get them as soon as I can, some times while they are still doing their thing. You will need to have a sponge filter in the tank, of a HOB with a sponge on the intake tube. Run some carbon as soon as the hatch and fall off the glass. It will be a few more days before they use up all of their egg sack. Once the egg sack is gone then you can feed with well softened shrimp pellets or whatever you are feeding the adults.

Good luck!

That's a cory fry between 1-2 weeks old.

Awww! Awesome! Thanks for the tips guys/gals =) MUCH appreciated!!

No problem, That's what we are here for If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!
Corys are pretty easy once you get the hang of them, the first 2-4 spawns are the hard ones because you will need to learn what methods work well for you.

I can also tell you the best ways to trigger a spawn

I have some corydoras shultzei (black) that laid eggs all over the place just 3 days ago. The viable eggs are slightly darker than the bright white of an unfertilzed egg, BUT compared to the other eggs i've dealt with, the difference is much more slight.

I pulled them all from the glass/plants, some using a razor blade, some using my fingernails. As an FYI, a turkey baster works really well for this process also.

I put mine in with an airstone and a drop of h2o2 twice a day, this kept the fungus down, and I've separated any eggs that i thought were fungused or unviable to a separate container. At first I just tossed the fungused eggs out, but by a stroke of luck I kept them in a container to throw out later. So a few hours later, I go to empty the container out, and lo and behold, there are wigglers in there. So apparently I'm not good at picking out viable cory eggs! lol.

From first glance, all of my eggs looked white and unfertilized, but thankfully I kept them going and now I have 20-30 wigglers out of it.


As far as sexing, one thing that never fails me is if the corys are all around the same age, the males are much more slim and usually a bit smaller than the females, who tend to be round and plump. The females also seem to have curved pelvic fins, cup shaped, this helps them transport eggs, and I think this also plays a factor in why they look tp be in an awkward position when they are resting.

A turkey baster is a very necessary tool to raising corys!

With meth blue the bad eggs turn a dark blue, it makes it quite easy to pull the bad ones out.