Cordyoras hastatus spawning success VIDEO

[tickie]

Well I finally found some C. hastatus a few months ago. I bought 9, and at least 7 are still going strong. I set them up in an 18"x10"x10", with a small breeding group of ~ 8 cherry shrimp, and a couple of 1cm ancistrus fry. Set up is quite well lit, with sand substrate, a couple of mid sized java fern clumps, a small Anubias and a near complete blanket of java moss. I've put a pile of filter substrate in the corner, with small pieces of broken slate, to provide hiding places for fry.

Regular water changes, big water changes, little water changes... didn't do the trick. Leaving the same water in there for three weeks did! I found about 15 eggs yesterday evening, as I had noticed increasing pre spawning behaviour (males regularly chasing fatter females, increased leaf/glass cleaning). These were mainly deposited around the periphery of the tank, in the Java moss and anubias very close to the glass, as well as a few on the glass itself. Some of the eggs have already started colouring up (brown, not white cloudy )so are at least 2 days old.

Any tips on raising them? I've never spawned these guys before, though have had success with C. pygmaeus, and all the usual easier species. I'm assuming they'll be very similar to the pygmaeus. Also, thoughts on keeping shrimps and eggs together? The cherry's don't appear to be touching the eggs yet, but has anyone got any first hand experience here? From what I have read, it is an oft disputed question, but the shrimps do a great job in the clean up crew.

Thanks

[pleco_breeder]

With regards to the cherry shrimp, I keep them in all my tanks and have never seen them attack a viable egg. They will eat dead eggs or those that develop fungus, and seem to do a good job at keeping other eggs from being effected. They didn't seem to either help or hinder my Syno lucipinnis spawns, but I believe that was more a matter of having so many eggs at any given time. They just weren't able to keep up with the cleaning.

Congratulations on the spawn BTW. I've been working a group of them for about a year now with only minimal results. By paying attention to the water parameters at the time of spawning though, I believe I've got my problem figured out. Mine seem to do well for 2-3 days then die in the egg. Only a couple hatch from every 40-50 eggs, and those appear to be weaker than other corys I've worked with. I've got no "rhyme or reason", but am setting them up in one of my tetra breeding racks this afternoon to see if softer water or lower pH may help with hatching. They've been spawning in pH 7.9 and TDS 250 for nearly a year, but I'm not happy with the results. The pH in those racks runs around 6.5 and TDS 20ish. I'm waiting for definite results to say whether this works, but all the articles I've read of successful rearing seem to show a trend of at least slightly acidic water. I just can't figure why I waited this long to attempt changing their conditions.

As an aside, my group consists of 25 wild and F1 fish so it may just be quantity, they seem to go through spells of spawning nearly daily for 3-4 weeks and then take a short break before going at it again. I've seen the same female spawn three consecutive days, so I believe these are naturally more accustomed to small spawns spread out over a longer time-frame.

Larry

[tickie]

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll leave the cherry shrimps in there then, and see how they get on. The shrimps do seem to be predominantly vegi, even when I feed the adults frozen cyclops/brine, they don't eat it (though do eat flake food, pellet food, cucumber, all the algae). The pH in my breeding tank is currently sitting around 7.0, I'll let you know how I get on with the eggs developing/hatching.

Interesting to hear about them spawning over a few days, but is certainly what they've done here. I'll hopefully find a few more eggs when I get in from work today. I guess only laying one egg at a time makes the whole spawning process slower. I'm hoping to slowly build up the size of this group so that I can maintain a viable breeding colony in a 30" I've been maturing, as they are really charismatic little cories.

Will try and get some pics at some point.

[mummymonkey]

My hasatus are in with crystal shrimps and plenty fry are produced. Leave a pile of ceramic noodles, broken crockery or large pebbles in a corner. The fry will escape the worst of the predation in there until they are big enough not to be eaten.

[tickie]

And here is a short video shot on my phone this evening of them continuing to spawn:

Watch the pair at the top right of the group adopt T-position, male swims off, female then lays single egg in her pelvic fins at 15-16s (watch closely you can see her lay it). She then goes off to clean an area to lay it on, and at 1:08 deposits it in the big clump of Java moss I have in the tank.

I've left most of the eggs in the java moss, but have put a few in a clear breeding tank to watch them develop. Note the filter media on the sand bottom left that is used to give lots of hiding places for the fry (thanks mummymonkey, I do exactly the same thing!) Will try and get some fry photos with my SLR in a few days