Unsuccessful with pygmy corydoras

**troy** · 04-13-2009, 02:39 AM

I've tried breeding them for several months. Here are the setup details. It is a 5 g tank with sand as a substrate. I've got a clump of java moss, a java fern, and a large anubius. For filtration I have a sponge filter. The temperature is kept in the low 70s. There are five pygmy corys in the tank. I have hard water so I added oak leaves to soften it some. The water has turned yellow from that. They refuse to breed. I've fed them live blackworms, but they wouldn't eat them. Their staple is hikari micro pellets. I also feed them broccoli occasionally. They liked frozen bloodworms but aren't they bad to feed a whole bunch to fish. I've added cooler water as well as rain water to stimulate spawning but it didn't work. Anybody have an idea why they haven't bred yet?

**MCHRKiller** · 04-13-2009, 04:27 AM

Personally Id suggest a larger tank and upping your numbers. Pygmy cories are much more finiky than their larger cousins...If your serious about it I would get atleast a 15G long(2ft*12*12) and atleast 8-10 cories. Pre-treat your hard water prior to putting it into the tank, and Id also keep up with the leaves or peat they do like the murky black water effect. Other than that just keep doing what your doing keep a good flow threw the tank but a gentle one...a small canister with a spraybar would be most efficient IMO.

**korith** · 04-13-2009, 04:43 AM

About 2 months ago, the pygmy cories (pygmaeus corydoras) I had started breeding. I did absolutely nothing different from my normal feeding of the tank. I do try to give the community tank a variety of feed other than just the flake. I did remove the eggs and put them into a small tank by themselves afterwards though. Had 2 large batches of fry about 2 weeks apart I think. Not sure how many fry originally but got about 60 of them past 5 weeks, and ended up selling them at the fish club.

Have about 20-25 pygmy cories in a 55g tank. I did move them over eventually to a 20g long to see if I could keep them breeding. They haven't though since being in the new tank. Both tanks are fairly planted, using ecocomplete.

**Northernguy** · 04-13-2009, 01:30 PM

With my Pepper corys I do a water change just before we have either rain or snow.They start sticking eggs to everything in site within hours of the weather starting.lol
I don't know if its a coincidence or they breed according to a built in berometer but it works for me!
I have never owned dwarfs though.

**gm72** · 04-13-2009, 03:35 PM

I agree that the tank and school size are both too small for them to be comfortable enough to breed.

**wolf_eyes** · 04-13-2009, 06:50 PM

Fish can feel the barometer changes in the atmosphere as a storm front is moving in. People can also feel this through aches in arthritus and headaches. In the wild the cories will breed during the rainy season so doing a water change with colder water right before a front is about to move in makes them go crazy. If you don't live in a heavily populated area you could also possibly collect some rainwater in a bucket that hasn't been used before. There are pollutants in the air that can contaminate the water so this is why you don't want to do it if you live in a city. People have also suggested running a filter that only has carbon in it on the container with the rainwater so that you can get out all contaminants.

I also agree that you should bump up the tank/school number to encourage them as well. This may be harder to do if they aren't sold all the time in your area but it will definitely give you more of a chance to get them comfortable.

**troy** · 04-14-2009, 01:24 AM

Thanks everybody for the help. i had a feeling this was this was the problem.

**toddnbecka** · 04-14-2009, 04:29 AM

Getting them to spawn is one thing, raising the tiny fry is another matter altogether. I'd suggest having decapped brine shrimp eggs and microworms handy for feeding the wee buggers.

**troy** · 04-14-2009, 10:25 PM

Originally Posted by toddnbecka

Getting them to spawn is one thing, raising the tiny fry is another matter altogether. I'd suggest having decapped brine shrimp eggs and microworms handy for feeding the wee buggers.

I was under the impression that the fry would survive off the microorganisms in the sponge filter. I guess not then. I've got some brine shrimp eggs but they aren't decapped. Are they useless to pygmy cory fry?

**korith** · 04-15-2009, 12:43 AM

Originally Posted by troy

I was under the impression that the fry would survive off the microorganisms in the sponge filter. I guess not then. I've got some brine shrimp eggs but they aren't decapped. Are they useless to pygmy cory fry?

You can use the shrimp when they get a bit bigger. I used hikari first bites, and a mixture of flake that I ground up into a powder. If you can toss some java moss in there, the fry will eat the microorganisms off of it.