Pygmy Corydoras Breeding!!

My Pygmy Corydoras started breeding and laying eggs after almost eighteen months of no activity. I'd given up on them and was making plans to sell them and try breeding a different type of fish. After being out of the country for three weeks, I came back, resumed water changes and feeding live food, and now they're laying eggs all over the place. I even spotted some juveniles in the main tank that are large enough to be several weeks old or more. The stuff they get up to behind my back...

[@jasongrimshaw-smith8369]

Thanks for sharing your story and well done! Happy fish keeping

[@briansmith7256]

Haha. I know this is an old video. But I have been hoping to breed my pygmy corys too. After watching your video I suddenly realised that what I thought were baby cherry shrimp are in fact baby corys! Can't tell you how excited I am. Thank you! 😂

[@jaymiller3238]

It’s such a great feeling,isn’t it? Wish me luck; I’m making another attempt with a new group.

[@briansmith7256]

@@jaymiller3238 🍀🍀🍀👍

[@rebeccaj6603]

i'm fkn dying at this voice over Jay LOL i'm a subscriber now

[@jaymiller3238]

Glad it was entertaining!

[@brianbuczynski3555]

Congrats on the babies!

[@andreametcalfe5316]

I’m so happy for you I’ve only got three. One is twice the size of the other two. Today, the two smaller ones were rubbing all over the bigger one. This went on for several hours. Then I saw the smaller one wrap itself around the mouth of the bigger one. Then I saw them lay an egg on a plant stem. Sadly it’s not a species tank so the eggs will get eaten. I think that once a tank has matured ( 12 plus months ) they go for it. I’m now saving to buy more and put them in a same species only tank THEY ARE SUCH ENDEARING WEE FISH

[@jaymiller3238]

That must've been exciting to actually witness the spawning activity. I've only seen it on video.

[@Aquafinity]

Great video! The hornwort tank looks so amazing! Thumbs up from a fellow fishtuber!

[@jaymiller3238]

Thanks! I need to do an update on the Pygmy Corydoras. It's been six weeks and a lot has happened.

[@Aquafinity]

@@jaymiller3238 Cool! Did you see the collab vid that I made? :D

[@davidcooper9432]

That's great news and I'm pleased for you. Our paths have followed similar lines with our choice of temperate species. I have been trying to 'deliberately' breed CPD's, Peppered Cory's, WCMM and Pygmy Cory's for a while now. I have had a lot of success with the CPD's and peppered so ticked those off, but minimal success with the WCMM and zero with the pigmy's. I have been trying to work out how to deliberately trigger spawning as opposed to finding the occasional fry. For most fish keepers, it seems more of a challenge to stop these particular fish spawning! So, did you do anything different to get the pigmy's to spawn? I have tried lower temp water changes, lots of BBS and bloodworms, dedicated tank, different temps and dropping the pH with RO water. Despite this I rarely see any actual breeding activity from my group of eight pygmy's and no eggs. There appears to be a mix of male/female. Very frustrating but I'm pleased you have had more success of late. All my WCMM's, and some of my peppered Cory's and CPD's are now out in the garden pond for the summer.

[@jaymiller3238]

Yeah, lol, change the species referenced and I could have written that paragraph myself. I'd love to have a chat about your CPS's. All my breeding projects are in dedicated tanks that are ridiculously overgrown with floating Hornwart (except for the Pygmy tank, which has a moderate amount). As to what triggered the spawning, my best guess is this: At the end of May, I was suddenly called out of the country for three weeks. For three weeks, the tanks got no water changes and no live food, just limited dry food, morning and evening. When I returned, I did 30-50% water changes in all the tanks and resumed feeding brine shrimp every morning. It could all be coincidence, but that's the only trigger I can think of. Most days I think it's just magic and moonbeams.

[@charliebrown9188]

I can empathise with you on various levels... I started the hobby '21 and collected several aquariums, all small. Until March '22 someone gave me a 10gal aquarium with a giant java fern, a ton of cherry shrimp, 2 neon tetras and 2 CPD's. So far I hit the jackpot... as time went buy I added more plants so I have something more varied to look at as I am a bit of a plant geek in and out of water. Then I added more CPDP's, more tetras and neon green rasboras. Suddenly I had pest snails, as I can't medicate against the snails without killing the shrimp, I added assassin snails, then the UK was hit with an all time high temperature summer heatwave and drought and my cherry shrimp were dying off like crazy to the point where I was left with only a few, could also have been influenced by over inbreeding from previous owner, and never any shrimplets to see. my pest snail was not being controlled either... Last month I decided to take all the CPD's, all the assassin snails, all the tetras out (all the species highly predatory) and added pygmy corries, 3 shop bought and 3 from one of my tanks where they were doing nothing, of which one was enormous. Turns out I did a very good thing here, I have shrimplets again and I'm seeing corry eggs on the glass and on the plants. I might add a few endler males to this tank as dither fish, I have a trio that produces rather small males (no females as they are eating machines). I will not remove the corry eggs to raise separately, as I literally have no more room for more tanks, and what I have keeps me rather busy, including a job lol I siphon the pest snails to the small tank where I now keep the assassin snails and I seem to be controlling the pests quite well this way... the assassin snail tank may need reviewing in the future. I was told that the Neon green rasboras are not likely to predate - and its true. My corries didn't produce because they were in the tank with WCMM and Danios = predators galore. The CPD's which are breeding like vermin, have been banished to a species only tank, where I might add a few tiny endlers as well, again as dither fish. What I'm taking from your story and mine is that perseverance pays off, and my suggestion is that you use the excess WCMM or any other excess to swap for fish food or other stuff you need/want to continue having satisfaction in the hobby 🙂 Thank you for this video, it helped me figuring out what he random white circles on the glass were 🤣🤣🤣 And keep posting

[@jaymiller3238]

Yeah, I agree, perseverance is key. I can relate to much of your experience.

[@zhenguan7394]

Such positive news for my pygmy corydora breeding project ----- I am nowhere near the start of it though...just bought them last weekend. They are still too young.

[@jaymiller3238]

Good luck! I wish you every success. It's so satisfying when it happens.

[@slee4361]

I noticed that mine have some eggs too! Do I have to separate them???

[@jaymiller3238]

You can let them hatch and grow out with the parents as long as there is suitable first food available. I ended up raising more that way than by separating them.

[@chanticleerr4441]

Is that acrylic yarn in the tanks?

[@jaymiller3238]

Yes. It's since been removed because they were ignoring it altogether.

[@RyanStonedonCanadianGaming]

Sounds like you sir need guppies!😅 I've had a booming tank of guppies but now it's just a few adults and a bunch of fry. I barely do tank maintenance and only do water top offs, maybe once every 2 months I'll do a gravel vac. I keep a bin of guppies also, maybe a hundred of them. I'm in the process of building a tank for breeding GBRs, and a separate bin for breeding Betta. It is difficult to breed fish if you don't have the patience, but most of the time I say the fish figure stuff out themselves. I have a pair of betta in a tank with some WCMM and they seem to enjoy each others company but never get their jiggy on. 😅

[@jaymiller3238]

I still might make the switch. I mean, who's gonna care for these critters when I decide to take a holiday?

[@RyanStonedonCanadianGaming]

@@jaymiller3238 (Joking:)a vacation feed block 🙂 (I recently got myself 20 cpds and now just got a dozen pygmy corydoras.) Those betta fish did end up breeding when I moved them to a different bin.) My GBR attempt failed, have the tank made though, needed a r.o. system.)

[@BeeKayCee911]

👍

[@drmaurawkela]

I wanna se the progress? I do breed them 2/3 years but after the fry born 1/2 weeks they died,,, i gave them powder food, put them in a seperate tank... change 1/3 water every 3 days dont know why

[@jaymiller3238]

Okay, I'll let you know. These fry are only 8 days old, so they're probably not out of the woods, yet. I put them in a floating plastic dish, fed them twice a day and changed the water in the dish twice a day. I did lose one yesterday, so we'll see what happens.

[@1t4ch1uch14]

How did you get the pygmy cory to breed? Tank parameters etc? Thanks

[@jaymiller3238]

Now THAT is the $64,000 question! Here's my best guess. In late May, I was forced to be away from home for three weeks. During that time, the tank got no water changes and the fish got very limited feedings of dry food. When I returned, I immediately did a 50% water change (cooler) and resumed feeding live food in the mornings. I think that's what triggered it. Once that orgy ended, I haven't seen any eggs since, which is fine since I have more juveniles than I know what to do with. Can I repeat the process down the road? I'm not holding my breath lol.

[@1t4ch1uch14]

@@jaymiller3238 did you add ro water like everyone else or did they breed with regular water

[@AshishBhoyar-pr7nj]

Today I just saw pigmy Corry 1 fry in my community tank my first egg laying fish fry

[@graceanderson16]

"I tried my best to recreate a natural habitat" ...Using plastic plants. LOL that was me 2 months ago

[@jaymiller3238]

Funny thing is, they did lay eggs on those fake plants, so laugh it up.

[@graceanderson16]

@@jaymiller3238 Yep sometimes fish don't care either way.

[@DashDrones]

Avoid water changes and fish will thrive and breed on their own

[@no-knickers-emma1112]

Is there an update to this? So pleased you have white cloud fry. You have been trying really hard to breed them.

[@jaymiller3238]

Yes! That's going to be my next video. Sorry I'm so slow at posting these things. The short story is that they're doing really well, and I have more than I can count.