should have added that first group of venezuelanus I had was only producing like 25% of fertile eggs. I thought it's common as I had two female fish spawning and four male. Now, I have their "kids" spawning after not even a year, maybe just one female spawning and have like 95% of fertile ...

Although I have no aeneus (albino or regular should not matter I think), I have venezuelanus which are almost the same species I'd agree - whitish eggs are not fertile. Sorry I have not followed this thread fully but how many fish you have? Have you actually seen them spawning? Might be you have a p...

Hi, are the eggs actually viable? They almost all look white on the picture which can be a sign of non viable eggs which are much more prone to fungus. Picture might be misleading and eggs are not that white in reality but...

I think it's too early to definitely sex them. Feff looks like female really but I wouldn't bet on Jeff being male. Not from this picture. Difference in size/length is pretty obvious when they are fully grown. Maybe if you tell us their total length and provide pics from top, we can be more accurate.

Yes, that is for sure. Just look around the tank for eggs. Most probably on leaves.

Picture would definitely help here. It can well be that it's female and that it's also well fed. My oldest oto female was very "fat" this spring and I thought she's about to spawn or die. She was also breathing more frequently. But then, she was spawning for like a month and her belly got ...

So would you think something like this should work well? http://phytoplus.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=58 Looks like UK brand. For comparison, these are the ones that work for all my catfish, shrimps and even mini crayfish liked them http://www.rataj-spk.cz/www_eng/index.htm ...

Hi. Don't want to discourage you from buying Hikari Algae wafers but these didn't work for my otocinclus and hisonotus (and all of my corydoras). They just didn't touch it. I now have one Nannoptoma sp. Peru too but got rid of Hikari so can't confirm it's appetite for it. My one is also like 2.5-3cm...

Congrats to new fellows! The day I saw their photo for the first time, they jumped onto top of my list fish to get. But it's more like dream as I haven't heard anyone ever had or seen these around here :-( Good luck with them! BTW - got my o.cocama for almost 15pounds too so I'd not consider it a ba...

Heh, I just put it into the tank Boiled leaves go to the bottom no need to put any weight on it (not like pieces of zuccini or similar stuff). I don't really care where it lands and stays.

My experience is that from all kinds of algae wafers, otos only participate on local brand ones called minitabs which contain 20% of spirulina. Hikari, JBL, Tetra, SERA algae and pleco tabs simply don't seem to attract them at all. Other than that, I'm currently raising 8 o.vittatus purely on SERA M...

Chritiansen I'm sure you are spot on by saying "there's no magic method" because my experience is quite different. When I had my 2F+3M pandas, they spawned for two month, once a week, sometimes twice a week, sometimes I was able to collect about 35eggs per one female spawning (still quite ...

Hi James. How are things with you? Have some news my end. Firstly, I'm successfully raising oto negros (either they are hisonotus or otothyropsis, can't really tell). Again, great difference between fry left in comunity tank and fry raised in small breeding tank where they could find some spots of b...

I'm not an expert on bronze cory but isn't 26C a bit high for them? I raise my c.venezuelanus (similar fish) at 24C. The higher the temperature is, the quicker water quality drops so might be an idea to go a bit lower, just keep it the same as in your comunity tank. Have their pectoral fins develope...

I'd agree. This kind of pronounced belly was quite usual for panda corys I used to have. I wouldn't worry about it. What is a bit strange to me is body shape. Fish look unusually short compared to body high but this might be caused by camera and fish look a bit different in reality. How old are they?

I'd agree with this identification

Hi. My experience is that frozen tubifex contains too much waste that spoils the water a lot. Depends on the brand of course but I simply prefer blood worms. Also it's better to put cubes into some small container, pour some water in, let it melt and then pour "dirty" water out. Only then ...

They might be listed under different name usually with sp. Orange etc as well as some other species are offered under c.venezuelanus so be carefull.

BTW, this is one of my adult females

Finally some pics...

0.5" wouldn't work in my case. C.venezuelanus are like rocket and even 1" is sometimes not enough. Splashes they do are just amazing, water is everywhere around tank even though I leave only 0.5" gap between cover glass and tank sides. Depends on the species of course.

Ilanos form looks nice but the one attached to the post which started this thread is also nice and that is the one I have. However, these cories change color with mood and water conditions a lot so to get the picture of them in full color (especially nice orange) is quite difficult and rare.

Thanks for these! I already had first pdf printed out before so will compare with Otothyropsis one.

Just came across this topic which I'm a bit interested in as I have some "oto negro" too. Some time ago, I posted some pics for identification here ( http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=32976&p=219734&hilit=hisonotus#p219734 )and it was suggested by Silurus,...

Rob, first of all congrats to nice corries and to amazing number of them in newly hatched batch! Have a question - what do you feed them with from very beginning please?

A bit off topic... Yes, they're excellent algae-eaters, much better than any fish I know. However, there's some significant downsides with Neritina : they'll starve if there isn't heavy algal growth as they will not scavenge or accept any replacement feed, and they deposit white egg cocoons (which n...

There is nothing better than neritina or clithon for algae on rocks tank walls and other flat surfaces! You just don't have to clean the tank walls. It's a must to have them in my aquariums I'd say.
And they don't touch plants at all. And can coexist with assasin snails too.

What is your experience with algae eaters - Neritina and Clithon in this respect? I've seen Clithon crossing corydoras eggs on the tank wall and he didn't seem to pay attention to them, it just ran over them and left them behind but still, I'm not very sure

Hi. Just wanted to report breeding of c.venezuelanus. I have a group of five, definitely two females, probably three. They are spawning in my display tank at water cond. temp 24C, dGH=7, dKH=6, pH=7-7.5. No special treatment to get them spawned. They always lay eggs between 9AM and noon local time, ...

Hi folks, I have to admint that I've failed to keep small otos alive. They've all died within two weeks despite very good start they have shown. They simply stopped eating even though feeding conditions have not changed. If it was a water quality, I'm not sure. I've only started daily water changes ...

Hmm, sounds like an idea with pouring it over the plants. I was not grinding pelets but I'm mixing Sera micron (which is very fine powder also good for the youngest and smallest fry and contains spirulina too) with water. I only started doing this recently and I stop the filter for short period to l...