Pygmy cory fry

[Christine]

Ok so I managed to get my pygmy corys to spawn twice now...

The first time, I left them in the tank with the parents. Its a planted tank with sand substrate the temp was 78, ph6. After about 10 days, I never saw any fry again. I don't know if they were eaten or died as the tank is fairly well planted and they were very tiny fry.

The second time, they spawned the temp was around 72 ph 6. This time, I used filter floss and removed the eggs to a separate container containing about 1g of that tank water and a big wad of java moss. Most of the eggs hatched (about 14). On day 2 I started feeding very light vinegar eels, bbs or mw. Day 3 I started removing small amounts of their water and replacing it with clean water. Here we are about 10 days again and I lost all the fry over about a 12 hour period. Not sure why. No ammonia or nitrites. Temp/ph are the same.

Is it possible that they were not eating and it took that long for the egg sack stuff to get used up? It just seems strange that I lost both sets around the same age. Any suggestions on raising the fry should I manage to get another batch? I'm thinking about removing the parents next time and leaving the fry in that tank. Its so hard to catch the adults tho... but, I'd like some fry to live...

[violet]

Not having bred pygmy corys I am not sure the size of the fry. For what it is worth I have raised super small fry with a Mystery Snail for infusoria production (swapped out daily) and greenwater and nothing else. One trial lasted weeks and althought growth slowed as they got big enough to eat visible foods, they survived quite well. The first live food I usually try is baby moina, the motion seems to be more stimulating than MW.

violet

[Christine]

Thanks Violet. The fry were quite similar in size to betta fry actually. Perhaps a tiny touch bigger. I've never had many snails, I'm wondering why do you swap them out daily? To feed them elsewhere or ??

[doggydad38]

Definintely start them out on infusoria. You shouldn't even start thinking of anything larger for about a week to maybe even 10 days. Infusoria are the microscopic animals found in unchlorinated water. The easiest way I've found to culture this is to take and fill a drinking glass with water and submerge a leaf of lettuce. You will notice that the water turns kind of gray after about 4 days and smells. Sorry, but this is how to do this. Use a turkey baster to siphon some of this gray water out and add it to the fry tank. Good luck. I haven't had much luck in getting dwarves or pygmies to breed, so this is quite an accomplishment on your part. Good luck.
Tony

[Christine]

Thank you Tony.

[violet]

Yes Christine, that's it. I do not feed the snail in the tank with the fry, just what they can get from the greenwater. I take it out the next day and put a new one in. It's cleaner than trying to feed the snail in the tank.

violet