Black Cory Deformities

[RogerL]

After finally raising my group of young black corys to spawning size, I have been disappointed by the fact that about half of the young in their first three spawns have deformities (crooked backs and fins, shortened caudal fins, etc.).
Could this be a result of too much inbreeding?
If I attempted to cross them out to wild caught c Schultzei, what results should I expect?
Would the black color disappear in the first cross?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank You.

[bekateen]

I had a group of seven black schultzei which I got as 1/2 inch babies. These came from a Czech importer to my LFS. As they grew out, almost all had one deformity or another. One was missing a pectoral fin (don't know if that was a birth defect or injury early in life, but it was missing at the time I got the fish), one had a reduced adipose fin, and several had slightly curled pectoral fins.

They grew fast and large and lovely, but they never spawned for me. They had a repeating problem of getting sick with ich or something like ich (white parasites on skin); I would treat with Proform C and it would go away. But one by one they dropped off.

If you cross back with normal schultzei, I expect you'll lose the black color, but I don't know what you'll get.

Regards, Eric

[RogerL]

Thank you Eric.