Well it was time to get serious about trying to spawn some Corys. Up until this time, I had only had about six fry ever survive from different spawns. I began to search for some answers to my problems. I spoke to different club members about the “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to spawning Corys. I also contacted Birgit McKinnon from Calgary. Birgit has provided me with different species of Nothobranchius killifish and their eggs, and as a result of our common interest in killies, had often communicated with each other. However, this lady is well known for her success in raising Corys. Birgit provided me with ongoing invaluable information on everything I needed to know, from spawning, care of the eggs, raising the fry, and other critical information. With this new information, it was time to get busy and I decided I would begin with my Panda Corys.

Panda Corys are found in specific localities of the Rio Pachitea in Peru. This is a very peaceful species, growing to a length of 4.5 cm. A light sand-colored body, with very distinct black bands across its eye, dorsal fin, and in front of its tail, make this a sought after Cory amongst hobbyists. My group of Pandas consisted of the original six adults, and the six that I had spawned that were now about adult size. I placed this group of a dozen in a planted 15 gal. tank. Sand was my choice of substrates. I fed this group a mixture of brine shrimp pellets, earth worm pellets, frozen blood worms, and a flake food. There was no heater in this tank, and with the tank on the lowest shelf of my fish room, the temperature was about 73 degrees F. The ph and water hardness of my water is very similar to that of water from Regina.

As with most Corys, spawning generally occurs within a couple of days following a water change and dropping the temperature a few degrees during the water change. I found the Pandas would spawn just after the lights went out. There was still a small light on in the room, so it was not total darkness. There was a lot of action in this tank, and I am sure more than one pair was spawning at the same time. I sat back and watched the female carrying the single egg between her clamped pelvic fins, while she swam about searching for a suitable site to deposit the eggs. Generally, she would choose the underside of a broad-leafed plant. Other times, the female would deposit the sticky eggs on the side of the glass. About 2 – 3 hours after they had started to spawn, I began picking off the sticky eggs, and placed them around the sides of a medium-sized margarine dish filled with about an inch of water from the same tank. As it was getting late and time to call it an evening, and with the corys still spawning, I collected the remaining eggs the following morning before going to work. I placed these in another margarine container. A total of about 40 eggs were laid. Each container was placed on the lids of the top row of tanks in my room, away from direct light. The temperature in these dishes remained about 73 degrees F.

On day two and three, I removed the unfertilized (clear) eggs with a baster. The remaining fertilized eggs began hatching on day five. I removed the egg shells from the dishes using the handy baster. I slowly changed this water over the next day or two with fresh water of the same temperature. The fry lived off their yolk sacs for the next four days, and then I added some newly hatched brine shrimp. It was easy to see that they were able to consume this food, as their tiny bellies would turn orange. During this stage of raising the fry, water quality is critical. Twice a day, I would siphon off uneaten food and wastes, and complete 50 per cent water changes daily. I also had placed one or two small snails into the dishes to consume uneaten shrimp. If the water fouls, you will loose all the fry very quickly. You also learn how much to feed. I transferred the fry into ice cream pails, and continued raising them in these two containers for about 3 weeks, faithfully completing water changes daily, thus ensuring good water quality. I was now ready to transfer the fry into a 5 gal. tank. I set one of these up on the top shelf, with clean sandblasting sand on the bottom, and a conditioned sponge filter. I had previously learned the hard way, that a crucial step at this point, when moving the fry, is to ensure that the depth of water in the pail is equivalent to the depth of water in the tank. Corys can not handle significant changes in water depth. If they are hatched in a tank full of water, this has no bearing, but when transferring them, they don’t handle this change well, and will usually die. The temperature of the tank also needs to be the same as that of the pail. Over several days, I slowly increased the depth of the water in the pail, and when it was about 4 – 5 inches in depth, I moved them into the tank, with the same depth of water. I had to cut down the outlet tube on the sponge filter, as these are designed for greater water depths. In this new environment, the fry quickly moved about the tank, and soon began to grow and take on the characteristics of their parents. I continued feeding brine shrimp twice a day, and then began adding crushed earthworm and brine flake as well. Each day, I added more water, slowly increasing the water depth, until the tank was about an inch from the top. At about six weeks old, I again moved them to a larger aquarium.

During the following two months, in addition to the Pandas, I successfully spawned the following species of Corys: Paleatus, Napoensis ( San Juan Corys ), Sterbai, and Trilineatus. I have several more species to continue maturing, conditioning and finding all of the tricks that work. Although I have found that the care of Cory fry is very time consuming, the rewards of raising these species is well worth all of the work.