A Tale of Five Corys by J. &. H. McGuire

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

Author: McGuire, John & Helen (John &. Helen McGuire)
Title: A Tale of Five Corys (Coydoras aeneus)
Summary: Helen found that the albino corys she had bought were all females. She borrowed a male from a club member, and the fish enjoyed his visit!
Contact for editing purposes:
email: allan@scotcat.com
Date first published: 1999
Publication: Greenock & District Aquarist Society (Scotland)
Reprinted from Aquarticles:

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A Tale of Five Corys

by John & Helen McGuire (Dictated by Helen, written by John)
First published in the newsletter of the Greenock and District Aquarist Society (Scotland), and scotcat.com
Aquarticles

It all started when I bought a bag of 5 small albino corys ( Corydoras aeneus) at Solway ( Dumfries) last October.
When I got home I put them in a tank to grow them on. Once they started growing I started to sex them out, and to my horror they were all females. As I wanted to breed them I started my quest to find a male. Now for such a common wee cory you would think, 'nae bother' to pick one up, wrong!. For a couple of months we tried... nae joy at shops, shows, auctions, even people known at the shows... still no joy. Then one night at our club, bingo! (no, I don't mean Agnes McCartney's bingo!) - Andy Morton told me he had a male. Now Andy, being the nice chap that he is, allowed me to borrow his male, and I gave it the tenancy of a 2ft.x 15in x 12in tank, complete with dark gravel, bio filter and a small powerhead to add extra current to the water, which had a pH. of approx. 6.5, and let him settle in.
The next day I picked my best female and put her in with her new friend. Now to try and get them to spawn.
I had only half filled the tank with water (approx. 7in), temp. about 70ºF. and changed a gallon of water each day for four days. Then, hey presto! they spawned.

albino.jpg (10959 bytes)

I removed the parents back to a 3ft tank, but no joy, the eggs fungused and I lost them.
Now patience (lots of it) is the name of this game, so here we go again. This time, after I took the parents out I put in fungicide at the recommended dose, and crossed my fingers and waited for the eggs to hatch. I watched them and saw the tiny little fry wriggle from the egg and dive straight to the bottom of the tank and hide in the gravel, until their yolk sac was absorbed.
After about three days I noticed they were free swimming about the bottom of the tank scavenging for food. (I had removed the small power head when the eggs started to hatch).
Now the hard work begins: to try and rear them without any major tragedy. In between my household chores, and every time I passed by the tank, it was a case of feed me, feed me now!.

Food for them was no problem, fry powder, microworm, crushed flake, with a wee treat of brine shrimp and mashed bloodworm (frozen stuff).
I am still rearing two spawnings of albino corys and my reward for all this patience and effort is my Breeders' Certificate. After all this is our "hobby"!

Epilogue: Andy's male certainly enjoyed his stay with us, (well wouldn't you? - two good meals a day, plus enjoyment) and I'm sure my females would welcome him back with "open fins". Thanks Andy.