Post by MADMIKE on Sept 24, 2006 18:04:22 GMT -5
Breeding Corydoras sp. cf. reynoldsi
This pretty little Cory has become one of the most popular and challenging to breed for the Corydoras enthusiast and of course I was no different to that scenario.
It was first imported into the U.K. in 1997/98 and I purchased 2 males and 1 female in the early part of 2000.
I had housed them in my usual breeding set up which comprised of a 18" x 12" x 12" tank with a sponge filter, sand substrate and java moss as plant cover and of course usually the placement for any egg deposition.
It was quite a struggle to get them to breed even though I was carrying out 50% cool water changes and the first breakthrough was at the beginning of March 2000 when I found eggs laid singly high up on the corner of the sides of the tank, on a ceramic pot and the Java moss. In all there was 11 eggs. I measured the size of the eggs to 2.2mm and are the largest eggs that I have seen from any of the 30odd Corydoras that I have bred over the last 18 years. The tank parameters were ; Temp: 76°F (25°C) = K.H.:3 = G.H.= 1. Unfortunately all of the eggs fungused in the small tank that I had placed them in. A week later they laid a further 5 eggs but again they were not viable.
I had this problem on and off over the next couple of months and so I decided to add more of this species to form a small group to see if this would improve the situation. Luck would have it that a livebearer hobbyist friend of mine who was losing interest in a few Cory's that he had, had 4 juvenile "reynoldsi" and I dutifully bought them of him and got them settled into a quarantine tank for a couple of weeks. After this period had elapsed I then moved them into the same tank as the original trio. They grew on with the rest of the group with my usual feeding of good quality flake food, tablet food, white worm and frozen bloodworm.
It was not till the beginning of December of the same year that I found one fry darting around the tank after I had disturbed it during one of my tidying up of the tank decor. At last I thought, success, albeit on a small scale. On the 4th of December I took out 6 eggs which were placed on the glass and Java moss. I was more confident this time as the eggs looked more viable, they were progressively getting darker, and also finding the one fry previously. The eggs were placed into a small tank and 4 hatched out 48 hrs later and they used up their yolk sac after 3 days, that is when I started to feed them firstly on egglayer fry food and then on to microworm. Things were going at a pace now as I was picking out eggs every week with the yield going up to 30 eggs on occasions.
Summary:
This Corydoras is currently under revision by Dr. Isaäc Isbrücker of the University of Amsterdam as it has similar properties to Corydoras reynoldsi, Myers & Weitzman, 1960 but differs slightly in colour pattern, size of produced eggs and the length of the males dorsal fin which to my mind is longer in the true Corydoras reynoldsi. Corydoras sp. cf. reynoldsi or "Asher" was imported to the U.K. just after it appeared in the Japanese magazine "Aquamagazine" in 1997 from the port of Manaus, Brazil by Asher Benzaken who has a fish farm in this area. This is a main centre for exporting fish from Amazonas so we really do not know at present where this fish was collected for export. It is bred quite often now and you can usually pick them up in the more specialized catfish shops or at catfish auctions.
This pretty little Cory has become one of the most popular and challenging to breed for the Corydoras enthusiast and of course I was no different to that scenario.
It was first imported into the U.K. in 1997/98 and I purchased 2 males and 1 female in the early part of 2000.
I had housed them in my usual breeding set up which comprised of a 18" x 12" x 12" tank with a sponge filter, sand substrate and java moss as plant cover and of course usually the placement for any egg deposition.
It was quite a struggle to get them to breed even though I was carrying out 50% cool water changes and the first breakthrough was at the beginning of March 2000 when I found eggs laid singly high up on the corner of the sides of the tank, on a ceramic pot and the Java moss. In all there was 11 eggs. I measured the size of the eggs to 2.2mm and are the largest eggs that I have seen from any of the 30odd Corydoras that I have bred over the last 18 years. The tank parameters were ; Temp: 76°F (25°C) = K.H.:3 = G.H.= 1. Unfortunately all of the eggs fungused in the small tank that I had placed them in. A week later they laid a further 5 eggs but again they were not viable.
I had this problem on and off over the next couple of months and so I decided to add more of this species to form a small group to see if this would improve the situation. Luck would have it that a livebearer hobbyist friend of mine who was losing interest in a few Cory's that he had, had 4 juvenile "reynoldsi" and I dutifully bought them of him and got them settled into a quarantine tank for a couple of weeks. After this period had elapsed I then moved them into the same tank as the original trio. They grew on with the rest of the group with my usual feeding of good quality flake food, tablet food, white worm and frozen bloodworm.
It was not till the beginning of December of the same year that I found one fry darting around the tank after I had disturbed it during one of my tidying up of the tank decor. At last I thought, success, albeit on a small scale. On the 4th of December I took out 6 eggs which were placed on the glass and Java moss. I was more confident this time as the eggs looked more viable, they were progressively getting darker, and also finding the one fry previously. The eggs were placed into a small tank and 4 hatched out 48 hrs later and they used up their yolk sac after 3 days, that is when I started to feed them firstly on egglayer fry food and then on to microworm. Things were going at a pace now as I was picking out eggs every week with the yield going up to 30 eggs on occasions.
Summary:
This Corydoras is currently under revision by Dr. Isaäc Isbrücker of the University of Amsterdam as it has similar properties to Corydoras reynoldsi, Myers & Weitzman, 1960 but differs slightly in colour pattern, size of produced eggs and the length of the males dorsal fin which to my mind is longer in the true Corydoras reynoldsi. Corydoras sp. cf. reynoldsi or "Asher" was imported to the U.K. just after it appeared in the Japanese magazine "Aquamagazine" in 1997 from the port of Manaus, Brazil by Asher Benzaken who has a fish farm in this area. This is a main centre for exporting fish from Amazonas so we really do not know at present where this fish was collected for export. It is bred quite often now and you can usually pick them up in the more specialized catfish shops or at catfish auctions.
