These guys spawned a few days ago on Valentines day  

I originally bought near 20 of them from Alexyay which she had bred, then the breeding quartet they came from off her, then another two I got off another member of the forum. The main female who was producing all the eggs seems to have been the female of the two I got from another member, but there were an awful lot of small males chasing after her so hoping for a nice bit of diversity in the group. 

I basically sat in front of my tank for 4 hours watching where she laid the eggs (I know, what a great way to spend the day ), then quickly rolling them off their spots and transferring them to a spawn tank that had water from the aquarium, a spare heater and a cycled filter from another fry grow out tank. All the eggs were put on a little white porcelain bowl that I will remove later-- was easier to keep track of them and I couldn't be bothered transferring them to some java moss or something... 

They /just/ hatched today-- 4 days after being laid. All are wee round see through circles with tails, but boy do they love to bounce around the tank and are reactive to light. Learned from my previous attempt at breeding corys and have added in some IAL to hopefully have a good level of tannins in there. Not sure what to feed as of yet but I have a huge amount of greenwater sitting in an old tank that somehow ended up in the garden, so I have that at least  

Photo of the mumma carrying the eggs around in her ventral fins before placing them on the glass or undersides of leaves and one of her being chased by a male  they have such awesome spawning behaviour to watch. 

 

 

First day out and about and a bunch of them have ended up around the base of the sponge filter  

Very nice, have you recorded dates for this?

Spawn date 14th February,  free swimming 18th February,  assuming that I have at least 10 left at 30 days I'll be talking to the breeding coordinator on the 18th March  

It's diaried but keeping notes like this seems to work well for me too. 

 Haven't noticed my few remaining ones show any spawning behaviour, but I don't know how many I have left and of what sexes!

I did see you had at least 4 in there

These guys are growing *wipes nervous sweat from brow* I've got them on green water and small amounts of 'Wardley shrimp pellet' - - it's the stuff I've got that crumbles away to nothing best  

They /love/ hiding under the IAL leaves I've got in there-- disturb the leaves and a whole heap of them will shoot away into other nooks of the tank. Managed to get a photo of one,  have had a good survival rate so far it looks like  

Hey JJ, hopefully it goes well with the breeding! Will be looking to you for cories in the future =)

Thanks alienara, hopefully I get a good survival rate with these guys I'm hoping to have at least some of them to increase my shoal numbers,  but as I've already got 21 sterbai in my 200 litre,  I'm probably going to sell some of the babies (at what point do I have too may corys lol...),  so definitely keep an eye out  

Sounds like a plan mate. My tank has fairly large gravel but all rounded with no sharp edges and the coolie loaches enjoy digging into them whenever I see them in the morning. Hopefully they don't compete too much for the food if I do decide to get cories =D.

The babies looking good this morning :3 amazing how fast they grow 

Video of them all swimming round :3 

3 days until these guys are 30 days free swimming  Seem to have 17+ still hanging around  

Awesome work! 

yay - cant view your video either...

 

Whoops I think I changed the privacy settings on that video the wrong way lol  should be viewable now  
 

I've enjoyed reading your posts!

My little guys, laid some more eggs all over the tank last night 12-13th April, (actually managed to rescue some eggs, (was collecting morning snails for the dwarf puffers))....probably a 200+ eggs, not as many as previous spawnings (where the damn tank has been covered with eggs), think it's about the 3rd of so spawning since, your guys started, (have ignored the eggs... due to lack of tanks!!) & normally the chain loaches clean them up by the time I get home from work....

Spawning happened after I overdosed the whole tank with crazy amounts of whiteworms....(huge clumps of worms got down to the corys!!) (not sure if that helps)

Not sure if it was the sterbai's (20+) or albinos(5)

ugh! anyway, means I've gotta setup another tank!! by the weekend!! FUN!

Question, where did you get the Indian almond leafs? or will any old leaves be ok? what depth of water should be in the baby tank? guessing pretty shallow...

-Chris

 

Glad to hear it  

How cool! Ha yeah all my lot (looking at you spiny eel) clean up if they're spawning and I don't follow the female's every move. They /love/ it when they get fed food whiteworms/bloodworms/etc, mine also seem to have gotten into a pattern and spawn every second week after the water change. 

First thing I'd recommend for eggs are to set up the fry tank beforehand with the water from the main tank, then use a cup of water from the same tank to roll eggs off the tank and transfer to new tank  I've found if the water is different that the eggs tend to die/fungus more readily. 

Only way to find out who it was is to grow out the babies unless you see them actually spawning  Mine still haven't gotten adult markings and are near 2 months now so may take a while to tell for certain (no idea what albino babies look like) Good luck! 

Indian Almond Leaves-- Maxxi on here may have some, else you can get them at HFF and /maybe/ places like Animates, but for a lot more than you would off Maxxi. Trademe may also be worth a look. Don't use leaves unless they are dried out IAL or dried out oak leaves as an alternative (they don't tend to be as effective in the same quantity but do essentially the same thing I believe).

I haven't found water depth to be a factor, mine are all in a fluval chi tank which is over 20cms high. I basically originally filled it to the top of the sponge filter when they were just hatching, then have gradually just ended up filling it to the top. They're quite happy to swim to the top, sit part way down on the filter or on the bottom. I also have plants which I'm growing out in there atm which they love browsing  

Up to date photos of the babies  

Update photo because I was talking about this to someone today  babies are now in with their parents and are busy growing and looking adorable 24/7  I've ended up with about 15-20 babies  

Well done

Good work. They are looking good.

Nicely done!

Thanks guys Im really happy with how this breed turned out, particularly since I only got one fry off my last lot of corys