7 Day Until The Arrival Of Some Rare Corys

Yes, I know.........C. aeneus and trilineatus are two of the most common corys available..........but I had to start somewhere.  Would hate to kill off $20 to $40 fish instead of $3 fish!  SO, my 4 new Corydoras eques and 10 Corydoras sp. Black are one week away from arriving.  I am in a race to set up my new 20L tanks but am on hold waiting for my double tank stand to arrive.  Meanwhile, my other half, Mike, now tells people "We have FOUR fish tanks now!".  He has no idea I have plans for a 55 Gallon grow out tank for the living room wall.  Shhhhhh, he'll love it ;)

Who knew how hard it was to find a good old fashioned sponge filter for a fry tank?!  Not one store on my end of Spokane County, WA OR Pend Oreille County, WA OR Bonners County, Idaho carries a simple sponge filter for a fry tank.  Finally just decided to order some from a store online, but shoot you only get free shipping for orders over $75..........they sure know how to suck us bargain shoppers in!  Sponge filter shopping turned into this:

Quantity Name SKU Each Total Ken's Premium Earthworm Sticks ZZKS00110 $5.25 $5.25 ATI Sponge Filter Mini AATI900 $5.00 $5.00 ATI Hydro Sponge Filter #3 AATI930 $6.00 $12.00 Kordon Methylene Blue 4 oz. RRKD37344 $2.95 $2.95 Tom Mini Rapids Filter ADTO1300 $28.95 $28.95 Seachem Flourish Plant Tabs ACASM505 $6.25 $6.25 Deep Blue Silicone Airline Tubing AA12050 $3.25 $3.25 Kordon Airstone Fine ACAKD62503 $1.45 $5.80 Lee's Airline Suction Cups 6 Pack ACLE10560 $1.65 $1.65 Penn-Plax Lok-Tite 2 Gang Valve ACPVN2 $2.25 $4.50 Lee's Airline Check Valve ACGIACV2B $1.75 $3.50 Ship to Zip/Postal Code Ship to Country Choose a Shipping option Free Ground Shipping $0.00 UPS Next Day Air $109.83 UPS Second Day Air $58.97 UPS Three-Day Select $44.02 Priority Mail(R) $30.15 Express Mail(R) $73.65 Subtotal $79.10 Shipping $0.00 Tax $0.00 Total $79.10
Oh come on!!  LOL ;)  And yes, Don, that is Methylene blue........I listen.  Sometimes.

The Day The C. Trilineatus Hatched

 

Partway through the video you can see one of the fry wiggle in the egg on the middle left of the leaf.

                                                                              You can see a few wriggle around when I move the container

My experiment of no anti-fungal treatment, just using frequent water changes to keep the water from being stagnant seemed to work as there was no fungus visually present on the eggs.  Algae actually started to grow on the sides of the container.  I gave the fry a water change as they were hatching which promoted a few more to burst out of their eggs.

C. Trilineatus Eggs Show Fish Embryo

Small dark embryos appearing

I noticed today, during a water change, that the Cory fry are becoming visible in the eggs. Kind of excited!   I've had no eggs fungus.  I did however drop one egg back in the parent tank during yesterday's water change.... which I was unable to locate again. Oops......I felt pretty bad but I'm kinda old and blind at this point, so I let it go. 

Corys love sunlight.  Will go sit in it for a while, basking.

New plant, Anubis "Nano"

The Corys spawned again late last night.  I did not collect the eggs this time .  I figured I should see how I do with these twelve eggs first.......bet egg #13  would like to alert FPS (fish protective services)about being dropped back in the parent tank......have my tanks inspected, maybe even my eyesight and sanity scrutinized.

Experiment:  I never did add methylene blue, or an air stone, instead I wanted to see if they would hatch and how the fry would do without it.  So far 100% egg fertilization and viability in a small cup with three complete water changes a day. Should be hatching within a day or so.  Then I'll be scrambling for what to do next!

Morning After

5 year old C. aeneus male

I was pretty sure when I awoke that the C. trilineatus eggs I collected yesterday would be a mass of cottony fungus this morning.  I, of course, being the type of person that likes to experience failure first hand, did not follow the implicit instructions of a guru cory breeder. He assured me that by adding 5 drops of methylene blue and vigorously pumping air into the water it would prevent fungus  and other awful things from overtaking the eggs. Instead, I left them in a small plastic cup and changed the water with fresh water from the parent tank about every 3 hours because I was too lazy to drive to Spokane for the needed supplies.........Probably not a good sign for a budding superstar rare Cory breeder!

Why yes, that is carbon under my thumbnail

I creaked out of bed and stumbled in totally expecting to see white on every egg, but every single egg was tan and clear with now a little visible darker sphere inside.  (Hmmm, maybe I should get in my car and head out for needed supplies rather then kill my meager crop of Cory eggs.) I have to purchase my two 20 long breeder tanks from Petco before the sale ends anyway.........BUT will I manage to come home without rescuing all the starving sick Corys?  Stay tuned!

C. Trilineatus eggs

 My first Cory egg collection in over 20 years! A meager 13 eggs from a very young female. You can see a small cluster on the leaf.

Progress And Rare Cory Purchases

 Its been just one day shy of two weeks since I added the new 36 gallon bow front tank .  During those two weeks I've ordered and received Corkscrew Vals, Regular Vals, among many other types of plants.  I will be posting a new photo in a few days.  I also just performed the first water change (50%), scraped algae off the back glass, added a nice topping of sand to the substrate, and moved the Nerite snails in to help with algae control.

Young female laying an egg into her fins

T position spawning

Mystery C. Aeneus

 Meanwhile back in the 20 gallon, in the last few weeks the C. Trilineatus decided to spawn.  They are still quite young and the female only laid one egg at a time probably laying 10 eggs in all.  They spawned again just today after a cool water change and laid 13 eggs total.  I was recently in Petco and spotted 3 starving young C. Trilineatus.  Of course I brought them home, along with another older large C. aeneus type male they said was up for "adoption".

From Don Petty, I have ordered an albino male Ancistrus for my very ripe female. I've also have 10 very young Corydoras sp. Black on order to be the permanent dwellers of the 36 gallon bow front.  Don has also offered to take the large Rainbows off my hands for his living room 120 gallon tank.  Guess this means the lone male Sakura shrimp won't be flipping them off from the tank next door anymore.  Don is taking pity on him and sending some women shrimps. This should be interesting as he just grew himself a nice new suit.  He was so excited the day he shed his old suit that he streaked around the tank the entire day convincing me he might go belly up........

As you can see in the photo above, I decided to give my corys in the 20 gallon some sand to play in.  At first they were hanging mid tank pretty convinced I was trying to kill them but after watching mystery Aeneus plow throw it like snow, they were all out front eating when the lights went out. 

I put in an order for a double 20 gallon long tank stand, some filters, air pumps, etc for my upcoming cory projects.  Petco $1 a gallon sale here I come!  I figure the 20 longs will provide some rearing tanks for my newly expected upcoming eventual fry.  Counting my eggs before they hatch!  Guess I better be on the look out for hard to find or rare cory buys........  Oh yeah! Just ordered some Corydoras Eques so that's two types of hard to find corys purchased in one month.  There's hope for me yet. 

36 gallon bow front tank

At Petsmart I found a 36 gallon bow front tank kit.  I brought it home along with two bags of Flourite gravel and 3 C. Trilineatus.  I set the tank up in a southwestern facing window and promptly moved the 5 Australian Rainbows and 5 Zebra Danios into their new digs.  Both spawned the next morning and promptly ate each others eggs.........

C

The next day I decided to aquascape with a large broken clay strawberry pot and a big flat stone coming up with the above design of a mudhole.  Note to self:  Aquascape BEFORE you add the water........Flourite is some dirty substrate.  

I know, plants like dirt but YUCK look at that swamp!

I went onto a couple of sites and Ebay (waiting for my tank to clear up) purchasing some quality plants for the new aquarium.  I added a filter sponge out of the 20 gallon into the chamber of the new hang on back filter for the 36 gallon do add beneficial bacteria. And proceeded to rinse the filter media numerous times during the day to get the clear water you see below, after a day and a half.

Meanwhile, back in the 20 gallon tank, out appeared a red Sakura male shrimp.  Guess he felt safe after the (giant big mouthed eat anything that moves) Rainbows moved next door.  Made me wonder if he sat looking up at them through their new curved world (would sorta be like the view above) thinking "neener neener" as he picked through the leaves in his new found freedom.