PlanetCatfish.com

Hello everyone! about 2 month ago I acquired a group(11) of adult sterbai from my LFS. The good things is I had a few spawns from them since then, but each time there were very few eggs. Because I was out of country for a while and the person helps me doesn't know what to do with the egg, so only 2 fries survived from the parents' tank. And today I saw them are about 1 inch TL. So should I remove them to a 10g tank alone? or I should keep them in the 29G parents tank? Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone! about 2 month ago I acquired a group(11) of adult sterbai from my LFS. The good things is I had a few spawns from them since then, but each time there were very few eggs. Because I was out of country for a while and the person helps me doesn't know what to do with the egg, so only 2 fries survived from the parents' tank. And today I saw them are about 1 inch TL. So should I remove them to a 10g tank alone? or I should keep them in the 29G parents tank? Thanks in advance!

If you are talking about the 2 fry if you should move them, they should be okay at 1" to stay in.
If you are talking about future fry you would most likely get better results by moving the eggs at least to a breeder box.

thanks! i will try to removed the fry, i set up a 10g today by using parent's tank water with some sand on bottom. I will let it run a day or 2 first. what are some tricks that i could do to let them grow faster? more food? or WC? or bigger tank? I have read that cory grow a lot faster if kept on its own. What are your experiences?

I have about half a dozen near adult C. sterbai that I've brought up from fry, and currently 4 fry of about 1/2". I capture the eggs and put them in a fry-keeper (net-basket type), and then move them on when they have grown sufficiently. Unfortunately, the big tank the parents are in is full of greedy fish that will eat the eggs, so I may get 10 or so eggs from one spawn, of which I get 30-60% fry survive to reasonable size to move.

Edit: Pedantic note: Fries is something that is served with Hamburgers in America. Fry is singular and plural form of "tiny baby fishes".

--
Mats

Oddly, I've had three Sterbai in a 40 gallon community tank for about a year, and now noticed a 1" fourth Sterbai (the others are sig larger). I guess it's my first successful catfish breeding, though with all the plecos, tetras, raspboras, the loach, etc I have no idea how it survived.

jimoo wrote:Oddly, I've had three Sterbai in a 40 gallon community tank for about a year, and now noticed a 1" fourth Sterbai (the others are sig larger). I guess it's my first successful catfish breeding, though with all the plecos, tetras, raspboras, the loach, etc I have no idea how it survived.

I found one that was just over 1/2" (15mm) at one point in my tank - that's with Eartheaters that are over 6" long, along with several other rather greedy fish. But it's one out of probably 200-300 eggs laid, most of which get eaten immediately.

--
Mats

My Corydoras sterbai breeders are pretty bad egg eaters so whenever I want to raise them by the hundreds i remove the breeders.
I set up Corydoras breeders in a group of 12. with a male to female ratio of 2:1. Not all the females necessarily participate in spawning but it only takes 2 to end up with 300 eggs. If you only want to raise a few then remove the eggs carefully from the side glass with a single edged razor blade and place them in a net breeder as mats described above. For producing larger numbers I use a 20Long, 12 breeders, and only fill the tank to about 6 inches deep. I don't know why but shallow water has been more productive for me. It also helps keep the fry food in closer proximity than if the tank is filled. I gradually raise the water level after the larvae look like miniatures of the adults.
I feed my C. sterbai chilled newly hatched brine shrimp. The chilled shrimp sink to the bottom where the fry are. I also keep Hornwort growing floating and the fry will find refuge and microscopic live foods among the plant needle-like leaves. I also keep some Cherry Shrimp in all my Corydoras breeding tanks to help keep uneaten foods from spoiling. The Shrimp will eat whatever the Corydoras larvae miss and they do not harm egg or fry.
Since I have begun keeping Cherry Shrimp in my Corydoras breeding tanks my fry survival rates have improved quite a bit. I first began doing this with my Corydoras hastatus which is a species that lays among the smallest of Corydoras eggs and produce the smallest of Corydoras larvae. By larvae i mean the fry from newly hatched until that finally take on the morphology of the adults. This is typically when they are between 3/16" to 1/4" depending upon the species.
It is amazing how sometimes the occasional fry manages to survive in a community tank.
Last time I bred my Corydoras sterbai on purpose i raised about 1000 to salable size. It gave me the chance to take this photo of them schooling and is one of my favorite Corydoras photos.

Love that pic

They only school like that when a large number are newly introduced to a large tank. They settle down and work the bottom within a few days.

Thanks for all your great tips! I moved 2 little guys into a 10G yesterday. And they seemed to be OK by now. I hope they can thrive in this tank.

I have set up spawning groups of 6 Corydoras sterbai in 10 gal tanks many times or just maintained that many adults in one so your couple of juveniles will be fine. You could keep a school of Black Neons or whatever other small peaceful fish you like along with these 2 sterbai and they will grow rapidly to adults. it would be easier to correctly feed a small community of fish than just 2. I have had C. sterbai begin spawning at only 8 months old. Young breeders are less fertile but are still capable of producing viable young.

Hi Apistomaster, thanks for your reply. but your tips actually raised an interesting question for me. I have read somewhere (maybe is this forum, or elsewhere) that one guy was saying that corys grow faster if only keep in its own sp. Do you find that is true? or you have disapproved it? Thanks!
.

cmstwc wrote:Hi Apistomaster, thanks for your reply. but your tips actually raised an interesting question for me. I have read somewhere (maybe is this forum, or elsewhere) that one guy was saying that corys grow faster if only keep in its own sp. Do you find that is true? or you have disapproved it? Thanks!
.

Generally, fry are better of without competition for food - if there are other fish in the tank that also want their share of the food, it's likely to be detrimental to the growth. Also, of course, higher bioload from having more fish in the tank will reduce the growth-rate. I think this is more important than whether they are kept in a tank with their own species or with other species.

--
Mats

I have never tried raising combination of different Corydoras fry since I normally have all the fry from a given species I planned to obtain from spawning set ups I want so I raise them in large groups of their own kind. I would usually recommend raising each species separately. If you had poor results among the spawning of several species and only had a few of each then I wouldn't hesitate to rear the mixed group together assuming they are close in age and size.
Alternately, as soon as young Corydoras are 1/2 to 3/4 " TL they may be normally raised with their parents.