I hope cory spawns soon! She looks painfully fat

[fishorama]

OMG, I've never seen such a fat female corydoras before! She looks ready to burst, poor fish. I hope today's water change triggers spawning. I'm concerned about her health right now.

I've kept several species of corys over the years but these are my first time with aeneus. I know they are fairly large for corydoras & not hard to breed. If I had to guess her dimensions I'd say not quite 3 inches long (with tail), more than an inch wide (1.5?, maybe not quite) & close to an inch top to bottom without dorsal fin.

I was given 5 adult bronze corys 4 years ago, 3 females & 2 males. The females are always egg laden, 1 is this rotund 1, she's always been fattest, 1 looks very ready to spawn at any time & 1 looks maybe just a healthy slightly chubby female. But I don't have an optimal ratio of female : males. They spawn sometimes & 1 fry survived, I'm pretty sure it's a male. He's maybe 2 years old now. I'd think he know what to do by now but maybe he wasn't paying attention when the adults have spawned. Too interested in egg snacks? He does hang out with the 2 biggest females but it's getting hard to tell him apart from the other 2 males. He is the most calm with people attention.

They are in a 75g standard 4ft tank with 2 bn plecos & maybe 1 or 2 very old rummynose tetras. There a some plants, 2 big swords & a few crypts, but mostly this is my black beard algae tank (sigh). An ongoing battle I'm losing. In some ways I should tear the tank down & start over...but my heart just isn't in it these days. I don't care so much about breeding & fry survival as I did in early fish days, no heroic efforts...But I would like my adult fish to live "happily ever after" to their end of days & that includes spawning as often as they need to? or want to?

I wish I could post a pic. I've browsed web images...I'm not seeing anything close to my very fat catfish girl.

I may try a series of small cooler water changes...Or see if I can buy some live blackworms locally (pre-covid I could). Something needs to change soon...

 

[fishorama]

Finally I saw my extremely egg laden female after several days of worry. She is still very fat but not maybe like bursting any more. I think she gave me the "feed me" look, that may be her usual cory mind meld attempt, lol. I never did see eggs on the tank glass at any time & I'm up at odd hours. But my BN pleco has been out & about more often all over the tank. He looks well fed...that's fine.

So I'm less worried now but my male corys need to step up on breeding frequency. My big female doesn't need to put her health in risk while the males think about what to do. They've done it successfully before...c'mon guys, let's go!

 

[dougall]

That sort of pep talk will surely get them into the mood!

Hopefully they do get on top of things though!

 

[fishorama]

I think as older fish they may all focus more on food than reproduction, except the youngster maybe. Hmm...less punk music, pogoing, pep talks & pellets, rock'n'Repashy gels or folk with flakes. I think it's worms they want, preferably live 1s, & they'll wiggle all over the tank together ...I guess I need to step up my blood, white & black worms game & more water changes...I may hear cory cheering! Or maybe it's just the usual dinner time fish thoughts, "feed us NOW!" (kinda sounds like my husband, lol, but more demanding)

 

[dougall]

I'm by no means a Cory breeder, but lots of them can be co-erced into breeding using some sort of trigger.

It can be atmospheric changes like a big storm rolling in

Maybe a large water change with intentionally colder water than the tank was at

It can be a long time of neglect leaving the lid off the aquarium, not doing water changes so the water evaporates and then topping back up

Or a change to live and high protein foods

It all simulates what happens in nature, and can be a mixture of different things.. maybe google for the specific species.

I would start by going for the foods though, it's normally much easier to find and feed them live food for a couple of weeks then maybe a big, cold water change

Fingers crossed!

 

[fishorama]

My fingers are crossed too. Breeding is optional, but been there, done it. I will try cooler water changes but not too cold just yet. Old people & old fish don't like drastic changes for too long.

I haven't been to my LFS since before covid. But I may still have a blackworm colony in my sewellia hillstream loach tank. I introduced them many years ago & rarely saw them after that. If I uprooted vals etc., I saw some tangled in the roots. I take that as a healthy tank sign & my 1 club friend liked both big vals & blackworms. Great minds, big tanks etc...

 

[dougall]

Blackworms are still kind of difficult to find.. it's been years since buying a pound for $15, we used to buy them from local clubs doing group buys, and one of the biggest farms of them is a couple of hours from home.

We always kept them in a tank of their own and it was pretty easy.

As for the cold water change... Think of it in the wild as a huge thunderstorm, flooding and replacing all the water in the stream or river with cold rain.

But I do agree to taking it easy too.

I'm old, cranky, and am having way too many changes of my own at once right now.

 

[fishorama]

I think the lfs worms were $1/oz & I remember seeing a 2 bag limit at a different shop. The CA guy that grew them had trouble with lack of water during our drought years. I just kept them in the fridge until they were gone, not all my fish here could eat them. Had to warn my squeamish husband not to open any paper bags. I also tried freeze dried blackworms but they were hard to soak enough to sink. My discus would hand feed them but I gave the rest away after we moved here.

I tried white worms here but it's too hot I think even with AC. I grew them in MA in my basement. They only got fed when I did laundry.

I'm slightly allergic to thawed bloodworms. I feed them sometimes as a treat but not lately.

Earlier today before the tank lights came on the 2 older males were racing around together, no female involved...

 

[dougall]

I was always too cheap to buy blackworms from the lfs. I don't remember them being less than $5 for a tablespoon or so.

I'm too lazy for live foods I have to take care of.. have done all the little worms, the shrimp, the scuds and others.

Right now I will pull mosquito larvae from the tubs outside to give the gourami some food, but that's about the limit.

If I ever start rolling with aquariums again I want to start culturing black mollies and mysis shrimp as food. Not sure there's anything I care about breeding in a freshwater tank.

 

[fishorama]

My fish, of any size or species, never liked thawed frozen mysis. I did feed live cherry shrimp sometimes but I felt bad. I did have colonies of RCS in a couple tanks. Some of the shrimplets got eaten, & if I vacuumed up a few during water changes they were food too after I nearly went blind trying to rescue the very small. Any that fell on the floor were hard to pick up without damage, they were food too.