Corydoras paleatus

Corydoras paleatus (Long fin)

At the CCAC Winter Swap, I was able to obtain a breeding group of Corydoras paleatus, from fellow member Bob Hargis. These were from his long finned lined, which I have always liked but never picked up. The group consisted of 2 females and one male. I placed the group in a community 20L for a while, feeding them well and just maintaining their overall health.

A few months passed, then in July, I noticed a few eggs on the glass. So, I transferred the group to a clean 10-gallon tank. The tank had a sponge filter, a heater and some java moss. I kept the temperature at 78F, and did water changes with RO water. I fed the corys plenty of black worms to hopefully produce lots of eggs.

When I purchased the group, Bob wished my luck as he stated they were not nearly as productive as they once were. He was right about that. Over the course of 2 weeks, I only collected about 12 fertile eggs. These were placed in a German Breeder Ring in an adjacent tank. By the end of July, I had enough hatch that I felt confident that I had enough for BAP, plus a few to keep for myself. I placed the parents back in their retirement home, the 20L community tank.

In the breeder ring, the first fry hatch in about 3 days. As I collected eggs, I continued to place them in the same ring. The older fry did not seem to bother the eggs or smaller fry. I fed daily doses of live baby brine shrimp. After all the eggs had hatched, and even the youngest fry were eating well, I simply dumped the ring and all the fry in to the otherwise empty grow out tank.

Over the course of 2 months, I continued to feed BBS, but add cory pellets to their diet as well. In all, I have 12 baby, long fin cory.

I acquired a group of 10 Corydoras paleatus on February 12th 2018 at PetSmart in Avon, Indiana. They were housed in a 20 gallon long planted aquarium with a community of fish. Tank mates include guppies, 1 siamese algae eater, 5 ottos, ghost shrimp, pond and ramshorn snails. The tank was planted with val, guppy grass, pilo moss, and bolbitus. This tank has been consistently fed a mix of frozen bloodworms, bug bites, micro worms, frozen cyclops, and Hikari wafers.

This tank was setup with a layer of Eco complete covered with a layer of pool filter sand. I run 1 large sponge filter and a hang on the back filter. I fertilize this tank once a week with Easy Green fertilizer. I run the temperature at 80 degrees and the tds runs around 250-300ppm

I noticed the first spawn in June 2018 after a large cold-water change. Eggs were collected and stored in a deli cup floated in the aquarium. All eggs got fungus except 3 which raised up in a 2.5 gal and were eventually added back to the community.

The second spawn again occurred after a large cold-water change and all eggs were collected and again floated in a deli cup in the aquarium with a catalpa leaf this time. about half got fungus. I managed to hatch and raise up about 25 of the 40 eggs collected.

I have changed my setup after several subsequent spawns and having a very high rate of fungus in the eggs collected. After doing more research I have discovered that the eggs are light sensitive. Now all subsequent eggs are put into a hang on front breeder box which I cover with a towel to keep all light out. Once hatched the fry are added to the 2.5 gallon grow out tank until big enough to join the community tank. I have also witnessed smaller Corydoras appearing in the community tank which tells me that some of the eggs are that are missed are not getting eaten and are surviving and growing in the community tank.