Breeding cories

Travis · Post by **Travis** » 24 May 2003, 20:32

Hi, I have 3 albino aeneus cories (2 male and one female), 2 pygmy cories (1 male and 1 female) and 3 elegant cories (2 males and 1 female) in a 10 gallon, heavily planted tank running an aquaclear mini power filter on its lowest setting. They are also joined by 2 female blue platies in the tank. The temperature is 76 degrees Farenheit. When I do my water changes, I turn off the heater for 3 hours or a bit more, and then I add cold water to it (a 20-35% change every week). Then, I keep the heater off for the next day, and then i turn it back on and it slowly climbs back up to 76 degrees. What ways can I induce spawning with these guys? I thought that the cool water changes would do it, but it doesn't seem to be working. Should i increase the amount of water i remove and increase the frequency of the water changes maybe? Are there any other tricks? I hear that albino aeneus are one of the easiest cories to breed, so I wonder why I'm having so much difficulty.

Thanks for your time,
Travis

Travis · Post by **Travis** » 24 May 2003, 20:34

Oops, sorry, forgot to mention that I feed my cories a 5 mm piece of sinking earthworm pellets twice a day and that they get left over scraps of flake food from the platies aswell.

Thanks

zac08 · Post by **zac08** » 25 May 2003, 18:47

Some tricks I've heard....

Lowering the water level over a few days to simulate a dry hot season.... and adding cool water about 1 - 2 weeks later.... this will simulate a rainy season after a long and dry spell.... Not sure how well it works...

Good luck,

Post by **Coryman** » 25 May 2003, 19:00

Personaly I would separate the speies into their own tanks. Providing you have got both sexes it is almost certain that the C. pygmaeus will have spawned after some of the water changes. This species can be housed and successfully bred in a two gallon tank, as can C. elegans. The albino C. aeneus need a little more room.

The fact that you tank is heavily planted could be the problem. being able to see when there is spawning activity taking place can be difficult when ther are large amounts of plants. Eges can be laid and eaten in minutes.

Everything else you are doing is fine, waterchanges feeding etc.

Ian

Travis · Post by **Travis** » 26 May 2003, 01:16

Thanks a lot for the help guys, I really appreciate it. I think that the fact that it's planted so heavily means that it's a bit harder for the fish to interact and for me to see if they have laid the eggs. But, I think that I'm going to remove some of the plants in a couple of months and put the species into their own tanks. I like the dry/wet season idea, and I think that separating them will help a lot.

Thanks for the great advice guys,
Travis