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OK I've tried to ask for a general help but it isn't working so i'll be blunt...

I think I want to start a nursery tank for my corydora fry...i have a 20gallon long and a 10 gallon, and a normal 20 gallon all available what would be the best choice?

what kind of substrate? gravel? sand? nadda?

What kind of filtration? ugf with pump? with powerhead? with hov?

what else? any and all corydora fry go in it?

or plan B leave them where they are they seem to be doing well enough?

heidid

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

If you want to go into a serious breeding program, a nursery setup will be needed. If you're content to just raise eggs/fry in the community tank whenever parents get around to spawning, you obviously won't need another tank.

If you do go with a nursery, I think that somewhat fine gravel will work as a substrate. You could use a sponge filter or a hang-on-back unit (just cover the intake) without problems, and a powerhead would add current, which cories usually like.

You can stick whichever cory fry you like in there, even if you have two species spawn at once. Though it isn't the *best* thing (allegedly) to have, say, pygmies and metaes being raised together, it isn't going to be a huge problem or anything.

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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 think I would use the 20gallon long as a grow out tank for raising the cory fry. It has a higher capacity than the regular 20 or the 10 because of the surface area and additionally has a greater floor area which if raising a larger amount of fry would be beneficial for swimming room.

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

I concur with OldTimer on this one, the 20 long would be the best choice.

Here's how I furnished my breeding aquarium/nursery (partly in accordance with the instructions from the Lambourne book). Heidi, copy & paste this lot to a Notepad file or Word document for printing and reading at leisure.

Step 1 : use a rounded gravel substrate, preferably a fairly small particle size (around 2 mm).

Step 2 : you can use an undergravel filter powered by an airstone if you wish, or alternatively use a box filter with filter wool in it. My current breeding aquarium uses an airstone-driven UGF.

Step 3 : furnish the aquarium with one or more pieces of gnarled, twisty bogwood pieces, ideally ones whose shape allows the formation of one or more caves (like my "art deco" bogwood lump does in the breeding aquarium). Make sure the wood is pre-treated and pre-saoked first!

Step 4 : drape Java Moss a-plenty over the bogwood pieces. You can also add Java Ferns, which are easy to grow, and whose root and rhizome tangles will also provide a haven for fry (and for the microsocpic food they eat in the first few days). If you hgave Clown Loaches or similar snail eating fishes, let them give the plants for the breeding aquarium the 'once over' to remove snails.

Step 5 : cycle the aquarium. You can use the fishless cycling method (a small pinch of food once per day, replicating the feeding régime of an occupied aquarium), which will build the filter bacteria colony up gradually if you're using a UGF with a 2 inch deep substrate, for example.

Step 6 : fire up some infusoria cultures. Leave the skin of an over-ripe banana and some de-shelled, crushed fresh peas in a one gallon pickle jar (or substitute container). Culture will be somewhat 'sweeter' if you pass an air tube from an air pump into the culture with a gentle flow of bubbles - nothing too rapid, or you won't be able to see your culture mature! This will be your baby food supply. Ideally, set up more than one culture, and mature them in rotation (space them 2-3 days apart).

Step 7 : once the aquarium is cycled, introduce the prospective parents AFTER a big water change to give them lots of nice fresh water to encourage spawning. If the parents have been pre-conditioned with live food, they should spawn readily. The Java Moss will see a LOT of use when they do!

Step 8 : remove parents after spawning (most Corys aren't notorious for egg eating, but it's wise to be cautious, and some species such as sychri ARE bad egg eaters) and add an antifungal agent to the aquarium, which will now become the nursery. I use Tetra's FungiStop, which is specifically formulated for egg protection.

Step 9 : wait about 4-5 days before the fry emerge. You'll have LOTS of trouble making out Cory fry against the gravel, because when they're first free swimming, they're only 4 mm long, and translucent, which means that they blend in with the gravel amazingly well. You'll need VERY keen eyesight to see them! However, when they move, you'll see them. At this point, it's time to start adding infusoria from your matured cultures to feed the fry. Intersperse infusoria feedings with feedings of Liquifry preparation, as this speeds fry growth (something Lambourne mentions in his book, and which worked for my Panda fry too).

Step 10 : once the fry are about 8 mm long, they should start becoming bolder and emerging from their hiding places during the daytime. At this point, powdered flake food and newly hatched Brine Shrimp can be added to the feeding régime.

Step 11 : water changes. For a fry nursery in a 20 long, you should look at changing small amounts of water often. 2 litres twice a day is a good régime to adopt. May not seem like much, but when performed that often, it makes a BIG difference. Don't perform gravel vacs until the fry are big enough for you to see clearly, so you avoid sucking the poor things up into the siphon!

Step 12 : once the fry are about 12 mm or larger in size, you can start moving over to weekly water changes and gravel vacs as per a standard aquarium. Exercise caution though, because a bunch of Cory fry milling about the aquarium will make for some interesting logistics with respect to avoiding catching them in the siphon!

Step 13 : Once the fry are approaching 12 weeks of age, they should start looking like miniature versions of the adults. You'll see colour changes as they grow: in some species, this colour change is pretty spectacular. Corydoras rabauti is an extreme example: the youngsters look so different from the adults that at first, they were named as different species! At this point you can start feeding live Daphnia and Bloodworm to speed up their growth even more.

Step 14 : Once your fry have adult colouration, keep them and grow them a little longer in the nursery. By 20 weeks, they should be big enough to take to your LFS for sale.

Hope this little lot helps


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I vote for using the 2g long for a fry tank. Other wise your guppies will end up taking over all your tanks!

Thanks Cali, and the answer to your question Leslie is yes the 20 long is fixing to be put to use again

Now comes the question, of where shall I set the silly thing up at:%)I'm thinking about going to go and get another stand for the other side of the bedthat way I can watch the mayhem of cory fry in my ventures of going to sleep

I'll let ya'll know how it goes:%) heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Oh, and Heidi, that thread you asked me to look at ... infusoria culture recipe replicated there. You might like to take a look.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002