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What is your personal experience with breeding Corydoras.
Do they eat their own eggs, even if well fed?.
Thanks alot.


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They usually won't eat their eggs, unless the eggs have been knocked loose and the catfish come upon them while browsing. Corydoras eggs are very sticky, so this doesn't happen often. Though they aren't known for being egg eaters, it is still best to remove the eggs and hatch them in a seperate tank.

Were there any other specific questions you had in mind, or were you just looking for a general overview? Any particular species?

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

i found them very easy to breed. The eggs are sticky and usually stick to the glass or plants however if the cory's came across them on the gravel they ate them. I just placed the eggs in a breeding net with some air flow as they get furry easily, and within a couple of days they hatched.

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Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

The majority of Corydoras species leave their eggs alone after they've laid them, but there are two species which are notorious egg-eaters in the Genus, and these are Corydoras garbei and Corydoras sychri. Since these two species are pretty rarely encountered outside of specialist catfish societies, it's unlikely that you have any of these!

Of the others, I'd be watchful with respect to Pandas, as sometimes female Pandas can snaffle the odd bit of caviar when they're hungry, but the trick with Pandas is to have something to distract them once spawning is coming to an end, usually some live Daphnia or Bloodworm, which they'll attack with relish in preference to anything else!

Most of the 'mainstream' Corys, such as aeneus and paleatus will just lay masses of eggs all over the place and ignore them. In the case of these two, they'll lay a LOT of eggs - over 400 at a time from a well-developed and well-conditioned female!

Among the more interesting variations are Corydoras pygmaeus - the female's eyes dilate during spawning and return to normal afterwards, and apparently it's quite weird to watch - and Corydoras elegans, which is the ONLY Corydoras to mate without adopting the T position! Unless of course some new ones have been discovered of late ...

Hope this answers your question!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 27-Dec-2005 19:37

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I have aeneus that lay eggs just about every other week and they always eat their eggs. I've actually witnessed them lay eggs on the glass and then either one of the males or even the egg laying female ate them! I've never had any eggs last more than a few hours. I'm not really trying to breed them, so I'm just letting nature take it's course. It's just interesting to watch them go crazy during the breeding process.

Also, my largest female is just over 2" and she only lays around 20-30 eggs each time. I couldn't imagine 400 eggs coming out of her at one time!

Last edited by renoharps at 27-Dec-2005 20:48

I have aeneus also and they eat their eggs as fast as they lay them it seems.
Also have a panda tank and they eat their eggs as well. I do get a few survivors from both types.

Well the Corydoras are Bronze & Peppered & they are in the same tank. I saw them both lay eggs & sometimes the eggs last 24 hours attached to the glass, but then they will eat them. I saw one that layed eggs & another one eating them a few minutes after.

I will try to breed them in a smaller tank & then take the parents away.

How many eggs do 1 female usually lay?.

Will 18 deg. be too low for them?. As i'm thinking of switching the heater off for the night & then in the morning i will catch the parents & switch on the heater again & leave the eggs in the tank that they where laid in.



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From a well-conditioned and fully adult Bronze or Peppered Cory female, expect at least 200 eggs, and probably more. These species both lay eggs indiscriminately, though if you have access to large clumps of Java Moss to furnish the breeding aquarium with, these will be used, and those eggs that are buried in the Java Moss will be relatively safe from any caviar snacking.

Bronze and Peppered Corys lay around 4 to 6 eggs per session after each T position. A female accompanied by at least 2 energetic males will probably keep going for a good 6 hours or more laying eggs.

To forestall any post-coital caviar dining that might occur, have live Bloodworms handy (frozen Bloodworm will do if you do not have access to live ones) and feed the Corys once it looks as if spawning is coming to an end. Doubtless after 6 hours' energetic chasing around and spawning they'll need the snack!

With Bronze and Peppered Corys, 18°C is fine as a spawning temperature (in fact Lambourne, in his Corydoras book, says that Bronze Corys can go as low as 16°C for spawning!). Make sure that the temperature transition is relatively gentle, and accompanied by a substantial water change.

If your Corys are already showing signs of gearing up for a spawning, then a good banquet of live Bloodworm followed by a 50% water change and a 2°C temperature drop from the current temperature will almost certainly result in the patter of tiny fins!

Oh, almost forgot - egg fungus. Best way of dealing with this (at least in my experience with Pandas) is Tetra's FungiStop, which is specifically formulated to deal with egg fungus. Also, here's an interesting trick you can try - if you can find the aquatic crustaceans called Water Lice (they belong to the Genus Asellus, and look like underwater woodlice) then these are reputed to actually eat egg fungus without damaging the eggs - a TFH back number in my possession features them in a news snippet in which experiments seemed to suggest that Asellus crustaceans were useful in enhancing egg survival rates among aquarium spawned fishes!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

If your cories are eating their eggs, chances are that they don't think they've been fed enough. Try the above suggestion about dosing food after spawning, that should distract them for a good while. Well-conditioned Corydoras don't eat their eggs much of the time, so that's another route you can take.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Thanks alot for your reply's. Yes, i will try to feed them after Spawning.

Do they always spawn in the morning?. (mine at least does)



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Mine seem to spawn mid to late afternoon when its stormy out. They go nuts here in the spring and fall.

I've had VERY thickset males feed on the eggs they, only moments beforehand, fertilized.

You know I have nothing to do with that. Have you ever just tried asking them to stop? They're very accommodating fish, always happy to oblige.

Last edited by sirbooks at 29-Dec-2005 09:12

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

So the best way would be to remove the parents from the breeding tank & leave the eggs attached to the glass & add some anti fungal drops.

Thanks alot for your help & i will keep you informed with any breeding.


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I've considered it, but given their passive-aggressive tendencies, and the way they scoff at me behind my back, well, you know...