Corydoras schultzei Spawning

C. schultzei or Gold Shoulder Cory are closely related to the Bronze Cory, C Aeneus. They are very prolific and lay hundreds of small eggs. The video was cut from 18 minutes of filming last night, the whole spawning process went on for over 8 hours. I estimated the number of eggs today at 350 from a single female, however at least 40% or more were infertile.

After a slow start things get a bit more interesting, just so you know what is going on here are some key points:

0:46 female lays a batch of eggs she has been carrying around since the start of the clip. There were 24 in that batch!! Most corys lay 1, 2, 3 eggs at a time, but C aeneus types lay more, but I never realised it was that many.

1:00 Female takes a rest, then the males (3) chase her each trying to be the one that fertilises the next batch of eggs. The eggs are fertilised by the female clamping onto the males ventral fins, whether fertilisation is internal or external is open for debate, personally I think external. Anyway this position is know as the T position and you can see it at 1:35 & 1:45.

2:00 Female attaches another batch of eggs to the glass. More frantic chasing ensues to see who will be daddy next time, someone was successful behind the plants and the female takes a rest at 3:15 before going off to place them on the glass. Meanwhile the other tank occupants a group of C trilineatus are unexcited by the activity and dont unfortunately follow the lead and spawn themselves.

3:32 more eggs placed on glass, 3:42 female picks up a white handbag which is actually a piece of white gravel that is stuck to her pelvic fin by a single egg. The eggs are extremely soft and sticky when freshly laid, within a couple of hours they become hard enough to roll off the glass with your fingers. 3:55 T position again then the female rests while a C trilineatus goes about the important business of looking for food, totally unphased by all this activity. 4:18 you can see the eggs clamped in the females ventral fins and she rest on a pectoral fin to keep her body off the bottom.

5:00 Here are some I prepared earlier. A few days ago another pair of C schultzei spawned and I put the eggs which were mainly attach to the anubias plant in a small lshow tank with a small sponge filter. 5:20 the small brown thing in the centre at the bottom of the tank is an alder cone which produces tannin and helps prevent the spread of fungus from unfertilised eggs, the tannins turn the water tea coloured. 5:33 the white and brown lump to the right is a batch of eggs, unusually for this type of cory they laid a lot of eggs in one spot like a bunch of grapes (S Barbatus do this naturally, but most Corys spread their eggs out one deep again the glass of plant) because they were so tightly packed fungus has spread to the good eggs too and most of them will not hatch. These fry are newly hatched a maximum of 12 hours old, the spinners are fry trying to escape the egg casing.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Corydoras
• schultzei
• fry
• aquarium
• spawning
• breeding
• position

[lhenry777]

Are you still breeding cories? I have Julii (or maybe Tri's) and I see you have them as well. I have 3 females and 2 males. Anything you can think of specific for these guys that I might need/like to know? Do they lay a lot of eggs or are they ones that don't lay as many?

Thanks :)

[DaraghOwens]

@lhenry777 They lay quite a few. Feed them up for a few weeks and them do a cool water change and cross you fingers.

[FishLoverForLife]

hi my two emerald green corys just bred today and i dont know anything bout breeding corys so any advice i saved 44 of them the rest my lemon tetras ate there in a lil tank for now till i can move them to my ten gallon they are fertilized i just dont know how to raise them like what do you feed them and how long does there egg yolk last any help would be nice

[DaraghOwens]

@FishLoverForLife Sorry for the delay - Emerald Green corys, are they Brochis splendens, goggle image that name and see if they are the same, if so, well done, not many people have managed that! Either way small live food like baby brine shrimp (sea monkeys) are great first food, feed two days after hatching, then after about a week powdered flake. Keep water very clean, remove excess food. Let me know how you get on. Good luck.

[szelosza]

oh and how do you know the eggs are fertilized? cause i just removed them as soon as i saw it on the glass.

[DaraghOwens]

They will go white and cloudy if unfertised or fungused, they will darken slightly if they are good.

[PaNdeM0niuM]

wow!

this is an amazing informative video!

[solvent1989]

helloo... liking ur video alot... i have gold cories in a breeding tank... only had them for 4 months... but cant wait to get them breeding! any good tips u can give? (excluding the usual ways to trigger spawning) i also have some bandit/adolfi in my 2nd tank! i see you had/have some aswell!

[lhenry777]

Sorry, it didn't show it posted so I kept hitting post. XD

[lhenry777]

@DaraghOwens Are you still breeding cories? I have Julii (or maybe Tri's) and I see you have them as well. I have 3 females and 2 males. Anything you can think of specific for these guys that I might need/like to know? Do they lay a lot of eggs or are they ones that don't lay as many?

Thanks :)

[lhenry777]

Are you still breeding cories? I have Julii (or maybe Tri's). I have 3 females and 2 males. Anything you can think of specific for these guys that I might need/like to know? Do they lay a lot of eggs or are they ones that don't lay as many?

Thanks :)

[muratcanesra]

very nice cory babes

[sherryazure]

Amazing how you captured the actual egg laying... they do deserve a rest!

[FishLoverForLife]

@DaraghOwens yes theycare the Brochis splendens but sometimes called tht lol and thnks for the help there going to hatch tomorrow i can see them in the eggs about 44 of them still maybe i will have fry soon