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Hi, I'm reposting my post from fishindex here, maybe I'll get a better response here. The post concerns Sterbai fry.

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Hi everyone,

If you remember my last post, I had a small batch of cory eggs. Well, since then, they've hatched, and I got another small batch that has also hatched, and a third larger batch that is only a couple days old. Of the first two batches, I have remaining:

1 fry about 2 weeks old
5 fry about 1 week old.
(About 50% survival of the eggs I managed to collect)

I wanted to ask for hints on what sort of growth and activity I should be expecting. I can't tell the 2 week old from the younger ones! They're tiny! Are they eating? (They're getting liquifry for egglayers twice a day right now). I've read they should be started on larger foods pretty quick, but they don't seem to have grown at all. I don't think they could eat anything larger than they could before. When will they look like anything other than tiny tadpoles?

Their activity is pretty much sit at the bottom, but scurry around if there's any movement in the water (i.e. a water change). One or two sometimes spontaneously swim around, including up close to the surface. Is this normal?

Thanks for your help!

-Bryan

Bryan,

Firstly most Cory fry are large enough to be fed with more substantial foods such as, microworm, newley hatched brine shrimp and pre-soaked powdered flake.

The next time they spawn do not remove the eggs untill the third day after being laid. If the adult are trying to eat the eggs either move them to another tank, if you cannot move the adults use a divider or some device to stop them getting at the eggs.

Ian

I had the luck to adopt and keep some Sterbai fries.... But sadly, only 2 survived the ordeal and are now about 15mm long... I've been feeding them with Wardley's Liquid Small fry fish food and recently when they grew above the 10mm mark, I started feeding them on live tuifex worms....

Good luck to you and your babies...

Michael, remembered I left some frys balanced into the tank unattended with aided covers together into the breeding tank. Surprising they have grown to more than 10mm also. Initially thought their survival rate will be low.

They have nothing except the wafers for the adults.

corydorus wrote:Michael, remembered I left some frys balanced into the tank unattended with aided covers together into the breeding tank. Surprising they have grown to more than 10mm also. Initially thought their survival rate will be low.

They have nothing except the wafers for the adults.

Cool.... we'll see when they can get to adult size... and I'll keep you updated

Hi,

Since last posting, I've moved the remaining fry (now down to 2, currently 2+ weeks old) into a new bare-bottom tank just for them, and started feeding on baby brine shrimp. They seem happier.

The parents continue to spawn, but on watching them closely I noticed that the male follows the female closely while she lays the eggs, and eats many of them before she even swims away! Therefore, I've taken to collecting the eggs as quickly as possible and moving them to the fry tank. I tried to stick them onto the wall in the second tank, but the filter outflow kept knocking them off. So I stuck five or six eggs apiece to larger pieces of the tank's gravel (8-10mm), and placed the gravel into the fry tank. I managed to save about 35 eggs using this method, and from what I can tell they seem to be developing well, although at only 60 hrs or so it's hard to tell.

Thank you for your help; any further advice would be appreciated and heeded if it is within my power to do so.