# Albino Cories Spawned - What to feed?



## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

I accidently forgot to plug in the heater Sunday after my weekly 60% water change and Tuesday evening I noticed that I had over 100 cory eggs on the back wall of my 38 gallon planted tank. I got my trusty Citibank credit card out of my wallet, scraped as many eggs as I could and put them in a hang on the tank small net covered breeder with an airstone and java moss in my 30 gallon shrimp tank. I didn't think that the eggs would hatch but tonight I noticed 3 babies in the net breeder.

Some of the eggs have fungus and won't hatch but I predict I will end up with about 30 or so babies. What should I feed them? I don't have any live food or access to live food. I do have some freeze dried brine shrimp and some Hikari first bites. When should I start feeding them and how long should I keep them in the net breeder? The tank they are hanging in has some guppy babies, snails, RCS and Amano shrimp but is heavily planted with lots of java moss and ground cover.

Thanks,

Mike


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Remove the fungused eggs ASAP or else they'll kill off the others too.

I had goldfish that spawned. I thought they were done so I moved them to another tank...welp, they weren't, and laid more eggs. In one tank, a few fungused eggs led to the death of all the eggs in that tank.  I have maybe 100 fry from the other tank though. 

As for food, goldfish fry eat from their yolk sac for about 3 days and then after that, they readily took Hikari First Bites. Doesn't really help you much though.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Congrats on your spawn!

I agree that it's best to remove the fungused eggs, so you don't have trouble with the rest.

Once they're ready to eat, if you don't have access to live food, you can boil an egg and strain the yolk into a fine form, then feed them with a dropper using just a little bit. The first bites will also be helpful once they are a little older. 

As for the net breeder, they don't develop as well in them (although it's better than leaving them in a community tank), so if you could set up another small tank for them and gradually acclimate them to the old tank water, that would be much better.

Keep us posted.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

Thanks for the input JanS and Epicfish. I will do the egg yolk through a cheesecloth tonight. I have about 60 babies that are starting to move around in the net breeder. A lot more hatched that I thought would. I also made a slurry by mixing some finely crushed freeze dried brine shrimp and first bites and will alternate feeding them that and the egg yolk mixture.

As soon as they are taking the First Bites, I will release them in the 30 gallon heavily planted tank that they are hanging in now. All I have in the tank are a few amanos, a bunch of red cherry shrimp, 5 baby endlers (about 1/4" long) and of course snails. I don't think the endlers will be big enough to eat them but I might move them to another tank just in case.

Anyway, thanks again and I will keep you posted.

Mike


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Wow, 60 babies? That's great!

If that's all that you have in the tank, they should be fine when you release them, but I would wait at least 3 or 4 weeks to do it, just to be sure.

I'll look forward to hearing how they are doing.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

Yea, I have 4 albinos in my 38 gallon tank and it appears I have 2 males and 2 females. I collected eggs from 4 different locations in that tank.

Thanks for the advice, JanS. I will keep posting my progress.

Mike H.


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

I found that it is easier to keep and feed fry in a small (eg 10G) bare bottom tank with a sponge filter and walmart artificial spawning grass as a hideout. The survival & growth rate is much better. 

I use a turkey baster to drop the food in front of the fry until they can move around a little more freely. First Bites tend to foul the water pretty quickly, so the small sized tank lets you do water changes more easily or suck up waste with the baster. 

Once they have reached over 1/4 inch in size you can dispense with the smaller tank but I still find it convenient.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

Thanks bigtroutz. I do have a baster that I used years ago for some Ram fry. I will concoct my solution tonight and feed them with that. I never thought about using it to collect waste! 

Thanks,

Mike


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

Yeh, the baster works slick on a bare bottom tank for cleanup but not so well if you have gravel. 

Beats doing a full water change every 2 days - I just suck up the goop every other day or more often and refill to the same level as before, then do the usual weekly water change. Its fun to watch the fry go ballistic on the food as it comes out of the baster  You can also ensure that you feed enough and not too much by watching as well. 

The thing about fry in a normal tank is they will get eaten by other fish, not be able to find the food (since they can't move around too well), get sucked into the filtration system, etc. You don't have any of those problems with a fry only bare bottom tank with a sponge filter tho. I don't even fill the tank all the way so I don't get my fingers wet while feeding and sucking up waste with the baster. Works great and cheap to setup. I leave the top open and just use a desk lamp for light. Here in Montana, a heater is needed but if you keep your house warm there, you might even get by without.

After you get some growth on the fish, you might consider picking up a mortar and pestle at the local hardware store( <$10 ). I grind up a mix of the usual flake foods, algae disks, and shrimp pellets and switch to basting that once they are big enough to eat it, which doesn't take very long. For whatever reason, the FirstBites food fouls the water much more than any other food so I switch as soon as possible.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

Thanks all. Here are some more questions from a paranoid instant father.

How often and how much do i feed 50 - 60 albino cory babies (doubled in size after egg yolk sac was used up)? Unfortunately in the net breeder, the egg yolk and first bites seems to go through the mesh. I have some powdered Freeze brine shrimp and FD bloodworms that have a lot of powder in the bottom of the can and bag. The net breeder is approximately 8" by 5 ". I have an airstone in the net and also a medium amount of java moss. I also have some Tetramin and Omega One Color Flakes that I could grind up to mix a paste or powder.

The net breeder is directly in front of the AquaClear return.

Temperature is 76 Degrees. Is this ok for Albino cory babies?
Thanks, 

Mike Herod


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Hmm, you must have a different type net breeder than I do because my mesh is very fine and nothing goes through it. Maybe if you add some more moss it would catch more of the food so they have a better chance to eat.

You can try most of the foods you mentioned ground up into a fine form, but just be sure to suck the uneaten stuff out between feedings.
If you can, your kids will have the best chance at a good start if you can hatch some bbs for them.

Yup, 76 degrees should be just fine for them.


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

76 F should be fine. Anything from 72 - 82 F should be fine and I have had no problems raising fry even when the tank temp fluctuated wildly between those temps (I used an old inaccurate HOB type heater for a while to save money)

FD brine shrimp, Firstbites, etc, and your regular Cory food are all suitable for the fry and the only problem you need to solve is making the food particles small enuf for them to eat. I like to provide a variety of food.

I feed my small fry 3 - 4 times a day but 2x should be ok, especially if there are some leftovers on the bottom for them to graze on (the net sux at this)

I recommend you fit out a 2 - 10 gallon fry tank to grow out the babies since the net breeder is not an ideal tool for the job:

small tank $2 - $10
sponge filter < $5
Air pump - free
Java Moss - free
small heater eg <= 25watt < $10
mortar and pestle (to grind food) < $6
-----------------------------
total < $30

Place tank water from the existing tank in the new setup. Add moss, heater, filter, and fry. Done. No gravel. You do not need to cycle the tank because you will be performing frequent water changes and the bioload is tiny. But I also add a fair amount of floating fast growing stem plant like hornwort to remove any extra ammonia. I clean the tank with the baster and then feed with the baster, replacing the water sucked up with fresh dechlorinated water. Major water change once a week minimum, more often if you like.

Growing out the fry to a saleable size will take at least several months, so eventually I add a cheap HOB filter like an Aquaclear 20 that has run on the main tank for a week or two to develop 'cycle' bacteria. This is not really required since the floating plants like hornwort will grow like mad if you place a desklamp with a screw in 'daylight' compact flourescent bulb over the tank.

My platy fry tank 4 months on (I used a tank divider to spawn the parents on the side with gravel)


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

Thanks for the replys.

I setup a 15 Tall I had sitting around and moved about 7 gallons of water from the 30 gallon they were in with the net breeder. I then moved the heater out of the 30 into the 15, a sponge filter with a power head attached from one of my cherry shrimp tanks (I also have an HOB on that cherry tank so they still have a filter) and moved the shrimp over. I counted 65 baby corys scooting around the bottom. I also bought some frozen baby brine shrimp and frozen daphnia at Petsmart today (along with another heater) and am alternating feeding those and the Hikari first bites. The babies are already looking like corys, whiskers and big heads. I guess the next 2 weeks will be critical.

When I got home tonight from bowling, I noticed that the darn albinos had spawned again!!! I have close to 50 eggs so I moved them to the net breeder that I just emptied in the 30 gallon shrimp tank. I don't know whats got into these albino corys. This is 2 Tuesdays in a row they have laid eggs (after a Sunday water change).

Anyway, wish me luck. I will keep you informed JanS and bigtroutz.

Mike


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

heh, it sounds like you are in the Cory business. I know how you feel about excess production of eggs. I finally stopped saving the Tiger Barb eggs and raising new Platy fry or the house would be over-run with fry tanks. The platy tank in the picture had 3 spawns of various types of platys at one time for over 100 fry at the same time. I have been sending them off to the LFS in groups of 20 for some time now.

I very rarely get any mortality once the eggs have hatched or live fry born, which surprized me alot. Less than 1% typically depending on the species and brood.

Now I just lets the other tank inhabitants have a free meal and whatever lives until I see it is good. If 1 to 3 platy fry live from a community tank brood, its a good deal. A far cry from the 40 to 60 fry I was getting from a typical brood in a separate tank.

Good luck and enjoy watching the babies grow !!! Its alot of fun.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

Looks like I've lost about 15 babies. I added some snails and small red cherry shrimp to the tank to help in the cleanup of old food and poop that I miss with the baster. Don't know if I'm feeding too much or not enough. No ammonia or nitrites. Will continue on plan, feeding frozen bbs 3 times a day (1/5 of a cube each time) and frozen daphnia once a day. I might put a small amount of First Bites in every other day in place of another feeding. I have counted 42 still alive.

They have barbels and are swimming just like adults. In a couple of weeks I can get a good macro picture with my new Nikon D50.

Mike


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## riverspryte (Sep 16, 2006)

*Excess food*

For the first few days after the fry hatch they might not eat the food that you give them. If they have access to live plants, then they will eat little, tiny organisms called infusoria. So if you find a lot of wasted food on the bottom of the tank, it might be because of that. Also did you put a plant in when you moved them? If you didn't, I suggest that you do; the success rate of raising my betta fry increased greatly when I started to use live plants.

You can also check for small live foods with local high schools. In my biology class we studied vinegar eels and daphnia, so I just asked the teacher if I could have them when we were done, and she happily gave them to me. My betta fry really enjoyed them.


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

As long as the ammonia and nitrates test very low, I never worry about over-feeding. You remove most of the old food with the baster anyway so it should not be a problem.

I would expect the shrimp to eat any small fry they can catch though, so that may be a factor in your losses.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

I have about 35 babies and they are eating well. I notice red bellies on most of them after feeding combo of BBS, Daphnia (both frozen) and Hikari First Bites. They seem to be growing at different rates.

Do you think 1/4 of a frozen BBS cube, 1/8 of a cube of frozen daphnia is the right amount to be feeding this many cory babies at each feeding?

bigtroutz - the shrimp seem to get out of the way anytime a baby gets close but I will remove them. Don't want to take a chance. Ammonia and nitrites are 0. Nitrates are closer to 10 than 20. Should be ok but will monitor. 20% water change tomorrow. I am feeding 4 times a day. 

riverspyrte - I added more live plants (about 5 different low to medium light). Since I have no gravel, they are all floating.

The new eggs hatched today. I have about 50 more new babies! Yee Ha... I think this will be my last batch. If they lay any more eggs this next Tuesday, I will see how they do with the parents.

Thanks for the help.

Mike H.


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

Congrats on your new brood. That should keep you occupied for a few months !!

I *always* see differential growth rates in the fry I raise. Considering the effort fish breeders spend on selecting for maximal growth rates I suppose it's just part of the normal variation within species. In some species the males lag the females in growth as well (like platys), but I don't know if this is the case in your Corys.

As long as they are growing well, you are feeding plenty but I have never used frozen foods mostly because of cost. Grinding up the regular fish foods I have around works just fine and doesn't mean extra purchases of food.

Having never kept cherry shrimp, I don't have any real experience to know if they will catch and eat the fry but my ghost shrimp have and will eat fry if they are able.

If you want to, you can place potted plants in the fry tank. In the pic I posted I am growing out a dwarf Pond Lilly from a bulb. It can help to grow the plants to a good size before adding them to other tanks and the potted plants can be moved from tank to tank just as is. Tank real estate is always needed around here. The floating plants and mosses are probably more than enough tho. All the hornwort in the pic came from 3 short pieces placed in the tank when it was setup. You should see it now, a veritable jungle in there, hehe, even more dense than in the picture.


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

*Update on Albino Corys*

Well, they are now 5 weeks old and eating on their own. I had 42, now I have total of 33. I have given 9 away at the last dfwapc club meeting. They are out of their 15 gallon grow out tank and I have moved them into 3 different shrimp tanks. They are starting to grow fast. I have two that are bout 1" in length. Most are about 5/8 to 3/4. I feed them ground up Tetramin flakes and ground up HBH Shrimp Pellets.

I tried an experiment to try to get the albinos to breed again. I unplugged the heater, water change with cooler water and did not plug the heater back in. We were in the middle of a cold snap (temps about 18 degrees). On Wednesday, they laid over 6 different batches all round the glass. I moved them into the now vacant netbreeder on Wednesday. They started hatching Saturday and Wednesday I moved them into the 15 gallon grow out tank with a bare bottom, sponge filter/powerhead, heater and airstone (and lots of floating plants and java moss). I have about 5 cherry shrimp and some snails as cleanup crew. I will feed them frozen baby bbs, daphnia and ground up FirstBites and Tetramin. I just counted 150 moving babies. Most of them with slightly red bellies.

Plan on taking some pictures Thursday.

Mike


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

Nice experiment. I will have to try that with my spotted cories and see if it works for them as well.


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## peace_aquarium (Mar 17, 2007)

*Crazy Cories*

I have two cories, one is a bit larger than the other and have just put them in a new tank this week.

They have been in it for two days now and seem to be doing laps in the front of the tank across the front glass. I have been conditioning the tank and fine tuning it after cycling it once.

When I first setup the tank I put a baffle at the pour spout of the filter to keep it from sending in too much water at once. (biowheel filter set for up to 30 gal but this is a 20 gal long profile short tank)

I took that baffle off today as the Ph seemed a bit high and I was trying to get it down with API Ph down. I put in the recomended dose(1/2 half tablespoon for 25 gal) and then they took off to the races.

What did I do to these poor defenseless fish?


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## CrownMan (Sep 12, 2005)

My 3 week old babies do that along the front glass in my 15 tall. I have an aquaclear that has good flow and they like to go with and against the flow. If I drop some food in the tank, they settle down. Maybe they're hungry? Who knows. I don't know anything about ph down though or if it could cause some hyperactivity. If they're gills don't look red and the aren't in any other obvious distress, this could just be normal cory activity when playing in the current. My adults also do that after a water change and just prior to egg laying on the front glass. They are fun to watch. Check the ammonia and nitrites just to make sure.

Mike


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