56 replies to this topic

[kuhni]

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to let everyone know I've had two spawns in the past 3 days. Not sure exactly which cory, first spawn being 3 days ago and being around 40 eggs, the second spawn was today and a rough egg count of 100ish.
Did not witness the spawns but the eggs were laid in fairly big groups especially in the second spawn where the majority of eggs came from two big groups of eggs on the glass.
Seem to be laid in Aeneus fashion and so it would be fairly safe to presume that they come from my orange lasers, especially since these are the only cories in really good breeding condition ( Big mommas with fat bellies ) although perhaps the nattereri got in on the act as well.

Have include a photo of the two main groups of eggs from the spawn collected today.




Edit:Quick count of the eggs in the two groups shows a total of 129, there were roughly another 20-30 eggs more than this so we have a total of roughly 150 + the 40 eggs from the previous spawn. If I get a good successful hatch and survival rate, Orange Lasers for all(for a nominal fee of course )

[Scat]

Thats fantastic Kuhni

Am having my fingers crossed for you that you end up with a decent amount of free swimming fry and would love to see a progress thread kept on development/raising these fry.

Congrats mate a very nice achievement

Cheers
Craig

[kuhni]

Fry have begun to hatch, around 10 wrigglers at present. So it has taken 4 days for the eggs to hatch.
So far have not had any eggs succumb to fungus, did add some pimafix on day 1.
Only very few eggs seem to be infertile, perhaps 1 in 10 or so.

[Scat]

Have you used pimafix on eggs before kuhni ? I thought meth blue was the only way myself and would be interested in how you go.

Where are you hatching the eggs and in what ? Also did you keep the eggs in the same tank ? How are you keeping moving water around the eggs ?

Craig

[kuhni]

Never used pimafix before, but I don't see why it couldn't be used. People reccomended it on another forum and it doesn't seem to have harmed any fry.
I basically just removed the eggs from the tank and put them in a critter keeper style plastic tank which I filled with the cory tank's water, Just have an air stone going to keep circulation going and I plan to do daily 50% water changes and feed BBS, pretty easy when the critter keeper's only about half full. I use an air line for all the waterchanges and very carefully quickly siphon out the crud which was bound to get in from the leaves. Be careful though, those eggs are very quickly sucked even with the weak siphon of airline. I was just lucky that when i removed the eggs that they had been there for a few hours and had hardened, apparently you have to leave them in the tank for at least a couple of hours to harden otherwise they can easily just burst, then just roll them off with ur finger and plop em into the container and voila!

[Scat]

Sounds good kuhni,

Ive just added another clump of peppy eggs to a smaller tank ( inside a frysaver ) and added meth blue but i do like your idea ( and i have plenty of pimafix ).

Do you have a pic of where the eggs are now ( the critter keeper ? )

Cheers
Craig

[kuhni]

Yeah, I kept them in a breeder net inside the little tank at first, then i thought it didn't really matter and let them out.

Just a tank circulated by an airstone



Very good hatch rate from the first batch(40ish eggs), 30 ish fry and i suspect some are yet to hatch.

[Scat]

Thanks for that kuhni,

Im a beginner at hatching eggs artificially and like seeing other peoples methods

Good luck mate and keep us posted with your progress please

Craig

[kuhni]

Confirmation that they are my orange lasers spawning, they are spawning right now, getting some video footage

[Scat]

Did you get the video footage ?

Craig

[kuhni]

Yep, just have to convert then upload. They Will be up tomorrow, tonight I have to finish an essay :/

[kuhni]

Haven't uploaded the video, video doesn't show the t-position (fertilisation) it shows the female being looking for a spot to lay several eggs clasped in the pelvic fins whilst being pursued by 4 excited males. With added annoying commentary

Got some photos of the fry though, not closeups or anything, but enough for you to see the number. Must be close to 100 fry. Unfortunately many eggs succumbed to fungus in the second batch, perhaps due to the fact I forgot to dose pimafix after it was heavily diluted through water changes.

[Scat]

Looking good kuhni

What is your water change regime for them ?

Craig

[kuhni]

once or twice a day, 50-60%. I generally do water change a couple hours after feeding.

[Scat]

Is this with water from the tap and using a declorinator or are you pre aging your water in advance ?

Craig

[kuhni]

This is with water from my cory tank.

[kuhni]

Losses are minimal among the fry, perhaps 1 every 2-3 days.

Today I found some more eggs, I suspect these to belong to a different cory as they seem to be laid in a completely different fashion, either in pairs or just the single egg and are scattered among the java fern and java moss, Possibly from my Nattereri who were looking a little suspicious yesterday but also possible to be coming from one of the younger orange lasers who has just matured enough to produce a few eggs.

Edit:
Scratch that, found a java fern leaf covered in eggs and so it is suspected that they are indeed the orange lasers doing the deed.

[kuhni]

Spawned again today, anyone jealous yet?

5 spawns in 2 weeks lol.

[kuhni]

At least 2 females are spawning this time, one of the large ones as well as a smaller one.
Spawn is around 115 eggs and the corys are still going strong.

will add photos of the new spawn tonight.

[Scat]

Spawned again today, anyone jealous yet?

Far from jealous mate but am very excited for you !! Well done

Cheers
Craig