FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Ok its late here and my son is awake making it hard for me to get pictures of this, but one of my peppereds is wider than the others so I am going to assume its a she. I also read somewhere and I don't know where so it may be false but I heard that they can get red bellies when ready to spawn. This peppered is huge and not looking dropsyish. But her belly is a bright redish orange. Is this strange is it just her being engorged on food (never has looked like this before) or should I be preparing for a cory dance?

If it's orange, then you may be seeing eggs stored inside the fish. There are a couple of pictures of female Corydoras paleatus on Planet Catfish which show their girth, and you can use them to compare and see if your fish is full of eggs.

[link=http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/271_14.PHP]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/271_14.PHP" style="COLOR: #808080[/link]
[link=http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/271_6.PHP]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/271_6.PHP" style="COLOR: #808080[/link]

---

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

ok here are pictures
puffycory
and my main page for those intrested its totally bug free i think

Looks like they're fine to me. Probably just getting female chunky.

---

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

Here's your acid test.

Step 1 : Get some live food. Live bloodworm is ideal for this. Feed LOTS so that your Peppered Corys get to munch on some. Feed several feedings of live Bloodworm to your Corys over the next few days.

Step 2 : Do a 50% water change with gravel vac, and slowly (I emphasise this) reduce the temperature by 2°C.

If that doesn't trigger a major spawning frenzy in your Peppered Corys, I don't know what will. Works with my Pandas and they're usually a LOT more fussy than Peppered Corys about their maintenance conditions. In fact, I suspect mine will be getting ready for their next spawn any day now, given that they've had the big water change around 48 hours ago and two big banquets of live Bloodworm since then


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

i usually feed flake in morning with a few sinking pellets then the worms

I will switvh to full worms i need to chage the water today anways so i will see if i can get them to spawn. shoulkd i remove the molly to the 55?

I've never had issues spawning them, and I merely dump in cold water, mixed just prior with the appropriate amount of dechlor.

how cold are we talking?

I need to change the water so now is the time I am going to bring my water bin to the store and pump it full of quarters cause I dont have any 5 gallon jugs i need to go to the flee market and get some.

I'd aim for a 50% water change with cold tap straight form the faucet. Paleatus are not tropical fish. The Argentinian slopes which they inhabit contain waters that can dip below the sixties. A good, stable water temperature to keep them at is 68ish, give or take. I kept mine with standard SA fare, primarily as "bottom-strata cleaners" for spawning pterophyllum at around 78ish, and they never once spawned for me--in fact, of the corydoras I've spawned, they are probably the most demanding (which really isn't saying much, because I've only merely touched upon egg laying with the easiest three species to spawn-aeneus, panda, and the fish in question, plus sterbas). After moving them in the unheated "junk tank", they began laying like clockwork, so much so that even in a tank with two tadpole madtoms, there were still a few fry that made it to adulthood.

EDIT: Why do you need to bring your jug to the store? Can't you use tap water?


Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 08-Jan-2006 00:33

Our tap water though low in everything including a total lack of clorine it has a nasty supply of silicates and diatoms are becomeong far more of a nusence than anything else in all of my tanks so I am going to have to get purified water or something that has the silicates removed. Our water is high in ph usually around 8.4 and the hardness is about 10ish so thats ok for most of the fish but some of my fish need lower ph not that its a big deal but that stuff is easy to deal with the silicates i have been told can only be removed by using purified waters.

Well, with the purified stuff (which I assume is RO), you'll only make the spawning process easier, so no complaints there.