Apr 28, 2012

Ceramic Pipe Set

Ceramic Pipe Set


Was seeking a good shelter for my corydoras and found one in a LFS selling at relatively cheap price.
It has Breeder, Filter and Decoration purposes as well.

Finally has time to place it inside my two feet tank today. To my surprise, all my corydoras were quite afraid of it and keep themselves onto the other side of the tank. The juveniles will play around it but will not dare to step through the tunnels. I saw a foraging adult get spooked at the entrance when it unwittingly explore to the entrance and make a quick getaway.

This is incredible ....





Cory
28th April 2012

Corydoras duplicareus frys update

This batch of frys have high losses ~ about 75%. As now only about 6 lives on Day 13.
Few areas which i have taken note to improve subsequent batches as i re-learn ....

Issues with Frys

1. Infertile Eggs
Inexperience young female

2. Insufficient Eggs Collected

Likely eaten by other species of corydoras like C. atropersonatus who is known to eat their own eggs. I have seen a dying fry got eaten up today when i let it down into the main tank.

3. Dies inside it's shell before hatch
Occur in my first batch. Suspect too early retrieve of eggs and fungus.

4. Anti-fungus solution
Not really effective and eggs still go bad.


5. Unable to detach it's head from the shell.
Do not attempt to help remove it. At this stage the fry is very fragile and may cause more harm.

6. Fry refuses it or swirl around
Brine shrimps are not clean enough from salt. Rinse many many times.

7. Blood streak in the stomach
Looks healthy but will die suddenly. Suspect constipation from brine shrimp eggs.

8. Weak Frys and turn white
Suspect poor ventilation. I moved the floating hatchery nearer and ensure the sides are open to flow.

9. Feed too early
Will wait till Day 11 next time for closer observation.

10 Major water change
Even on main tank, 50% seems ok and will not impact frys. Cutting down on food to the adults will help.
Daily changes even small amount may helps.

11. Day 14-17 period, Frys are truly free swimming and observed to eat external foods.
This may mean prior weeks to avoid feeding unless necessary as rotting or fungus foods will weaken the frys.

12. Oil formation on the the surface
Hatchery without it tends to product more active frys. Just enough floating plants and ensure near to filter turbulence will minimize their formation.

This list will be updated subsequently.

Cory
28th April 2012
3rd May 2012 on point 11 and 12.



Apr 25, 2012

My Two - Two Feet Corydoras Tanks

Here's my latest setup of my two tanks.


Tank One :  Is a two-feet tank. There is two long sink-woods interlocking with some bush plants.

The wood underneath is a favorite place for them to hide when i am busy with the tank.

Air bubble pumps are used. Not in picture is a 58cm LED light on a timer and an auto-feeder hooked up.



Tank Two : Another two-feet tank with two small pieces of sink-woods separated.  Is a breeding tank currently and able to take a lot of punishing fish load so far. Some moss over the surrounding area and floating plants on top.

Have a plastic holder to hold used  filter stones and air pumps on both ends. I have another filter sponge added on one to increase filtering capacity. One feet LED light and a small planted lamp.






Cory
25th April 2012








Apr 23, 2012

Corydoras Eggs - C. duplicareus - Day 8



After incubating for days, they hatched on 5th. Photo is the 8th day.

Their bellies are getting smaller and is time i try to start  feeding them some live brine shrimps. They are not eating yet but i hope in 12 hours time.

While I am doing all this, i have already collected about 3-4 batches of dozon eggs each time during this 8 days period. The batch size is a bit small as they are known to lay about 50 eggs a time..



Anyway I have the different batches separated into a number of hatcheries till i ran out of space and decided to move some to the guppy mini breeding plastic box on the left photo.

However the slit holes are only slightly smaller than the fry on the first day. Once the bellies start reducing, they will easily pass through them and fall down to the tank bottom which is almost a death sentence to most frys. Therefore do remember to move them out once hatched.




Cory
23rd April 2012

Apr 22, 2012

Corydoras similis 紫羅蘭鼠




C. similis - (Smudge Spot Cory) availability is limited but not rare as they are now wider breeded. However i am not sure whether is from fish farms or hobbyists.











Similar looking species are C. guapore , C. caudimaculatus , C. ourastigma  and C. spectabilis.

For C. caudimaticulous, the blotch is better defined at the caudal and of taller body variety instead of the slender smudged blotch of C. similis.

Left photo, the pinkish cheek made them so adorable.



Bottom photo, a pair of C. similis in a planted tank setup.



Cory
22nd April 2012

Apr 20, 2012

Corydoras Eggs - C. duplicareus - Day 5

As expected, Day 5, frys start to hatch. A few of them has their tail out first.:)

Notice the big bellies with yellowish substances inside? Those are the york that will last the initial growth stage of the frys. During this period, external foods should be avoided.

Cory
20th April 2012

Planted Corydoras Tank


This is my 2ft tank 8 years ago as a planted tank for my Corydoras.

Cory
20 April 2012


Corydoras Eggs - C. duplicareus - Day 4


Day 4 - C. duplicareus

The frys can now be clearly seen. Another egg failed. Left 10 eggs for this batch. Yesterday my brine shrimp eggs arrived (Russian Export Produce). I have my brine shrimp hatchery setup. Another batch of eggs laid as well. This time about 20.

Need to click the picture on the left to be able to see the fry in the shell.


Cory
20 April 2012

Apr 18, 2012

Corydoras Eggs - C. duplicareus - Day 3

Day 3 - able to see the fry developing inside. One infertile egg of the dozon which is quickly removed to avoid fungus from developing. Depending on temperature, the eggs expect to take about 5-6 days to hatch.

The next challenge stage is to maintain the water quality as frys are vulnerable to nitrate build-up. Therefore I will have to cut down my feeding to the adults below. During this period which last a couple of days, the frys do not have to intake external food. Their large belly has nuitrition to keep them fed.

Day 3 - Fry can be seen in the egg


Make sure to click on the photo to see close-up of the eggs.







Cory
18th April 2012

Apr 16, 2012

Corydoras Eggs - C. duplicareus

Did a major water change last night and when returned this evening, a dozon of eggs found on the glass edge.
A few of them were stucked in the filter sponge. Instead of using my finger to roll them, i used a sucker this time round to avoid direct human contact.

This is the first time i try spawning them in an "Amazon Like" condition. The shells were translucent red at the outer ring due to water.

I have my breeder net, brine shrimp eggs and salt prepared. Moss was a recent addition to suck up nitrates and place for the eggs. However C. duplicareus do not believe in moss.


Cory
16th April 2012


Tubiflex Worms 紅蟲

Visited a LFS owner today and he warned the danger of feeding precious fishes with them.
Such worm is also called the sludge worm or sewage worm. They may contain harmful bacterials and will bring about serious diseases.

Tubiflex Worms

As fish loves them, some fish breeders may use drips method to clean them for 24hr. However how clean they are is hard to assess or quantify. Risk is always there.


Cory
16th April 2012


Apr 15, 2012

Taipei LFS - Datong District

Taipei aquarium shops open and close pretty dynamic. And is not easy to track them if they are at isolate location. I plan to comb Da Tong district area.

Here's the LFS Target list.
DistrictLast VisitedShop NameAddressRemarksTelephone
Da TongMarch-12巧意水族台北市中山區民生東路2段124號2樓Planted, Cory, Cichlids02-25621415
Da TongGoogle慶豐水族(台北店)台北市 中山區 錦州街119號台灣Not there.02-25617197
Da TongGoogleFu Jian 水族台北市中山區錦 州街. Opposite 慶豐水族02-25617197
Da TongGoogle信宏水族館台北市中山區農安街243號台灣Planted, …02-25025614


Just copy the address and you should be able to google it. Let me know if you have suggestion.
Cheers

Cory
15th April 2012

Apr 13, 2012

Corydoras brevirostris

Corydoras brevirostris

From the original batch, three left in my community tank. Two females and a male i believe.

C. brevirostris looks similar to C. melanistius which do not has dotted lines on the caudal fin (tail).







Corydoras brevirostris



So far no known breeding yet from the internet. I check my tank, the only male is not eager either ... but the C. atropersonatus male seems horny and is courting her right now as i type ... lol











After so many years she is getting fat. Here's the latest photo. She looks shorter as it is taken at an angle. What a beauty anyway. Corydoras looks best either when they are small or when they are fully developed.

Notice the spines on the dorsal fin. For this photo I counted 9 in total. The first spine which is the largest, is the one which can stun just like the pectoral spines.



Since i happen to have a classic photo on differentiating sexes i will show them. Take note that not all species are same but generally for Corydoras, this is the primary way.



On the left is the female. As you can see from the top, the fat stomach is a good indication.


Right is the male and as you can see it is smaller and thinner.



Cory
13th April 2012

Apr 12, 2012

Corydoras sarareensis



C. sarareensis is one of the few species with acute snout that i have kept. They are harder to keep and do not like to take man-made food. They prefer sandy gravel and cool temperature weather.

Hobbyist who likes to keep them need to be ready for such a demanding fishes.






Eye Sights

Ability to roll their eyes help to clean it off dirts and sands. This action give us an illusion that it has eye-lids as below photo.

Corydoras uses their barbels to help locate food and feeling their way around the tank.

Even though they have large eyes, I often see consistent behaviours during feeding that they will wiggle their way around with their barbels. As long the food is not near to it, it won't bite even when the food lies right infront of their eyes at the sides.

This results me to suspect Corydoras has poor eye sights and likely limited to catching movements and shades of  large object such as when i attempt to approach the tank quickly. A slow approach will ironically freeze them often hoping that i did not see them. However they will dart away at fast speed if i exhibit aggressive behaviours. 

Caution : Becareful of "Aggressive Action" that startled them as this can cause significant stress. I have seen cories knocking the glass wall injurying themselves seriously. As cories are timid creature, when stressed, they are not thinking well and make mistakes which are harmful to itself.


Cory
12 April 2012

Apr 11, 2012

Corydoras ehrhardti

Corydoras ehrhardti belongs to the Corydoradinae sub-family of the Callichthyidae family. When she was found in LFS Da Lung Street, Taipei, she was already a sole fish in the tank already. However she is extremely healthy. Perfect fins, actively swimming and survived the stressful journey from her homeland, she is likely to be stronger after. The only regret is that i could not purchase more as she is in excellent condition and beauty. 

Corydoras ehrhardti

Often in the internet, people commented that she looks like C. paleatus, a common grey species which I feel do a great de-service to this poor species rarely found in the market. Her elongated sturdy body, shiny greyish-green camouflage with clean-cut patches and hyper-activeness will instantly be recognised by any hobbyist in her own rights, a separate and beautifully unique.

She is still alive and kicking in various eco setup that i designed for my tank depending on my mood for the past 3.5 years. And she is also the typical stronger ones who is able to swim to the surface to suckle the terta bits flooding on the surface, for a period of time. When she does this, you will hear the "Chip" Chip" sounds made by the inhaling of water and air in the night.

Even today she behaves like a dog swimming in the water. She still looks exactly the same as the above photo and is time the owner reminded himself that he owes her a life partner for the remainder of her days which can be 20 years ....

The above is a rare photo where i manage to get enough light at the right location and her staying motionless for the few seconds to snap.

Cory
11th april 2012

Corydoras Foods


Tetra Bits

One of the better food my Corys and I like are Tetra Bits. They like to eat and i ofcourse like to buy and feed them. Is clean, crispy to handle and can be feed through feeder machine. However they don't sink as well in recent years. So lazy corydoras has to wait till they come down if no one is helping them.


Blood Worms

You can buy the lives one but i think is getting harder to source for them in Singapore. Normally is sold in froze pack. Corydoras like them as well but is quite messy and messup the tank water quality. I have yet seen any LFS in Taiwan selling Live ones.


Tubiflex Worms

This are potent food. They condition the fish very fast for breeding however need to beware of "alien organism" that comes with it. I am ok with bare bottom tank use in farming. But for home tanks, not hygiene in my personal opinion. Usually sold lives in singapore but i did ever found a Taipei LFS selling dried cube version which is alot better but it doesn't sink. What i did is to dip it into the tank water and squeeze it slowly. After a few trys, the cube will break up and sinks. The foods will cause some mess and cloud the tank for some period of time.

I understand from a LFS owner that such worms are harvested from pigs's waste with knee level water waste. yucks !


Food Tablets
This are ok but relatively expensive. Some Corydoras may need some coaxing. A good alternative if you cannot find tetrabits.


Link of Cory care which i thought is useful http://www.corydoras.net/care.aspx



Cory
11th April 2012






Apr 9, 2012

Corydoras aeneus



Corydoras aeneus
 One of the more popular retail species in the market commonly known in the trade as Bronze Cory. Come with different body pattern varieties as they can be found in many river systems in south america region. It is commonly breeded in farm now so you can hardly seen any wild versions and even so will have special prices to pay for the higher transportation fee and taxes to be paid. They are so well suited in many tropical regions that not surprisingly they are easily spawned.



Corydoras aeneus
 





The variety i first had probably "peru" locality. It has reflective body patterns rather than dull ones. Notice the beautiful "Armoured Shield" reflected from my camera shot in the right photo.

There are also laser varieties of orange or green neon stripes which are now identified as separate species. I believe rightly so as they also have very unique body shapes.

Farming

Notice the bare bottom tank setup. Quite simple and maybe an idea for my ZEN apartment. The advantage of such "farming setup" is minimal effort needed to maintain the tank to support heavy feeding and water viscosity. The few prerequisites to condition the fishes and ignite spawning.


C. aeneus, juvenile

Species breeded in 2002 by author.














Cory
9th April 2012

Apr 8, 2012

Corydoras sodalis 網鼠


A perfect photo of C. sodalis to show anatomy of corydoras.


Corydoras sodalis

C. sodalis has a femine look in the face and swim rather quietly in the tank. She will nimble probes gently the surrounding area despite her size ~ 6cm. A similar looking species is C. reticulatus which has a black blotch in the dorsal fin. With reticulated pattern and silverish undercoating, her scutes structure are visibile to observation.

Corydoras do not have scales instead they are famously known for their armoured plates, the lateral scutes overlapping, that gives them their name. They form two rows of bony plates running along the flanks. The name Corydoras is derived from the Greek kory (helmet) and doras (skin).

Cory
8th April 2012

Corydoras haraldschultzi


Another elegant species of corydoras not commonly found in the hobby. C. haraldschultzi is a rather large specimen with unique long snout of ~ 8cm size (caudal to snout) from literature. The one i had is only 5~6 cm size. It is a known syntopic with Corydoras sterbai which has a round snout. Both are found in a number of brazilian and bolivia waters with few other similar looking species.


C. haraldschultzi
 
Callichthyida

Corydoras belongs to the Callichthyida family of the Catfish which has six known genera. All such categories are technically man-made definition.

It is broadly classified under Catfish though they look very different from typical fish we know except for their barbels probably.

In nature, broad diversity of fish species evolved over long period of time in waters like Amazon River where creeks and ponds are formed and isolated with rain seasonality allowing localized population with their own unique characteristic to develop into unique species through natural selection process. That's one main reason why we have so many Corydoras species today that we can enjoy.

In the relm of hierarchy levels of scientific classification, order of grouping on evoluted species are needed to manage thousands of them in the world today to study systematically.


Corydoras haraldschultzi

Snouts

Often among the sub-species, the main differences can be just snout types. Namely Round, Long and Acute with the body pattern almost exactly the same or slightly varied and likely syntopic. Commonly collect and sold in the hobby is the round type of the fish.

Acute snout corydoras is known harder to survive in aquarium setting let alone breeding them. They are peculiar to temperature and possibly water ph to thrive.



Cory
8th April 2012

Apr 7, 2012

Corydoras hastatus


 
Community Tank
A dwarf species and the third mentioned so far in the blog. C. hastatus are quite easy to spawn without much effort in planted aquarium setting probably due to they are more accustomed to it as their nature habitat. Likely you may not even know when they did.
About an inch at adult size, C. hastatus is a good mid-swimmer and are a welcome addition to a mainly bottom dwelling corydoras tank.


C. hastatus pair on the upper left of the community tank in the right photo. As you can see they are quite small compared to the other corydoras species - C. seussi pair and C. agassizii in the foreground.




L-Pic: C. hastus egg - almost translucent
C-Pic: C. hastatus egg (L) C. duplicareus egg (R)
R-Pic: Different stages of fry development
   Their eggs are relatively small of about 1mm and about half the length size of C. duplicareus. At birth and days after,  babies are bottom dwellers.

Notice the unique pattern of few days old fry in the extreme right of the left photo, R-Pic. Do remember to click the photo to get a close-up view because seldom we get a chance to see them. (Miracle of Life Forming).


Brine Shrimp

C. hastatus, Adult (L), Juvenile(R)
Breeding is easy. The catch is how to raise the frys to adulthood since at birth they are much smaller and quite picky on the food that they will eat. Hunger strike till death is not uncommon. :(  Micro live brine shrimps have to be specially hatched to ensure their survivals as they prefer live food that are able to fit into their small mouth. Alternatively small daphnia or some micro organisms which are found in ponds may do but will not be as clean.

The process of hatching Brine Shrimp is a bit tricky and tedious if you do it the first time. There are different methods and quality of the eggs to consider. If you are interested to do an internet search, there is also complete kit on sale. The hard part is ability to purchase quality brine shrimp eggs locally and timing their hatching to support the first few feeds critically needed to ensure the frys do not die of hunger.

Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_shrimp

Normal C. hastatus juvenile

After a few weeks, the fry developed colouration of their parent. Once they start to take-off, they are almost ready to be released into the community tank.











Dark C. hastatus juvenile



In natural condition, fry abnormality (See right picture) is not unknown but chances of survival is small. However in a breeder enclosed eco-system another sub-species may emerge.

Breeded in 2005. Hope you enjoy my article today.


Cory
7th April 2012

Apr 6, 2012

Corydoras habrosus

Another pygmy corydoras slightly larger than an inch size and half in adult. Unlike C. pygmaeus it is a bottom deweller like most other corydoras.

My experience with them is not good. They seem much more fragile and their size is not helping.

I would like to attempt them again one day. From known literature, the female is considerable larger in size.







Cory
6th April 2012

Corydoras pygmaeus


A pygmy corydoras roughly an inch in adult size. Unlike most corydoras, C. pygmaeus is more of a midstream swimmer and will constantly nibbles the surrounding plants. They like to swim in shaol and very friendly to other inhabitants like most corydoras do. When disturbed they may sink to the bottom and hide.

Due to their size, if fed bloodworm, likely will need to chop them up into appropriate size for them to suckle. Avoid adding any fish that can fit  pygmaeus to their mouth into the same tank.

An easy mis-identified sub-species is C. hastatus despite they can look very different except for size, when placed side by side.

I have yet get the chance to breed this species. It will be nice to record the fry development stages.





Cory
6th April 2012

Apr 5, 2012

Corydoras agassizii


Known to be found in Brazil and Peru waters. There are many corydoras of similar patterns to easily mis-identify and there are also a number pattern varieties within the sub-species. As for C. agassizii, this species was identified in 1877.

Planted or Sand floor works well for the species. Primary as a collector species for me to say i have it !

Food
As most corydoras, they are fond of blood worm, daphnia, micro worms and once they are use to it, will need some encouragement on sinking dry sucker food or tablets.

For Microworms, make sure to wash them clean and search for foreign parasites before feeding as they can bring in unwelcome "alien" visitors into the tank. Microworms are good for breeding and typically you would want the tank to be empty of plants and gravels for ease of cleaning.


Competition
Often in mixed species tank, one common complain is that corydoras can't get the food in time since they are not mid-swimmers nor use their eyesights to do it. If there are other fish species who seek for food in mid-stream or floating on water surface aggressively, there maybe need to ensure sufficient leftover foods are available to the bottom dewellers as by nature they are scavanger in the wild and rather timid to compete effectively. In the wild, often dead insects are found in corydoras stomach however in confined aquarium setting, there may not be much food to be found in the debris.

One possible alternative is to off the lights so that the bottom dewllers have a chance to fill their stomach or throw the food at different locations hoping to buy sufficient time for the food to sink to the bottom before getting the attention of other fishes.

In a all corydoras tank, we do not have this issue.


Cory
5th April 2012




Corydoras panda



Does it looks like Giant Panda ? :)

C. panda is one of the favourite species of hobbyists commonly available in the market. Probably the species that kick-start the Corydoras revolution into the aquarium hobby.
Corydoras panda

Due to their abundance now despite their beauty, they are not as well respected as before. It is well breeded in farms to market demands,  and juveniles are typically on sales before they have a chance to be stronger. Adult sizes range from 4-6 cm in length but is not commonly available.

For New Hobbyists
At this point of their fragile lifes, juvenile death rates can be rather high. Buyer needs to ensure the fishes are healthy such as no broken fins, active and do the basic necessity like acclimatization, and isolation from other corydoras species for about 6 weeks. The tank also has to be cycled ready.

Acclimatization means to minimise large temperature and water ph changes to newly bought fishes which can be significantly different from the tank you intend to release into. This can cause stress and shock to the fish and increase chance of sickness or fatality. Steps to do this is pretty simple. Open the fish bag and add some of the tank water into it, then float the bag on the tank water surface for an hour. Do this 2 more times before finally netting out the fishes into the tank.

Cycled means the tank has gone through the few stages of the bacterial cycles which typically last about a month with a few expandable fishes or snails. The logic behinds is to allow Nitrates eating bacterial to thrive in the tank to support life. I will go into further details next time.

Isolation needed to avoid harmful dieases from spreading to other fishes that you already owned for some time. Tank fish can get wipe out by newly introduce fishes so be aware of the risk if you have expensive fish being kept.

Conventional recommendation is to have a shoal of 6 or more. You will tend to see them swimming happily together exploring and probing from one area to another. Add a little vegetation and drift wood for them to hide. Do not overfeed them. Ensure the water is chlorine and chloramine free.


Cory
5th April 2012

Apr 4, 2012

Corydoras schwartzi 舒瓦茲(蝙蝠俠)鼠

This sub-species have so many vareties that is not easy to confirm them by just looking at them alone. Is not that rare and can be found in a number of aquarium shop along the famous Dun Hua Nan Lu Sector 5 Aquarium Shop Belt if you look hard enough for them. Do take care of the health condition before you buy. It has Dark Mask across the eye,  banded lines across the body, claudal and dorsal fins. The lines maybe zaggard at certain portion of the body.

Identification

Most people do not know which river or creek the fishes are captured. Neither do the shop owner since it typically goes through one or more distribution channels. We just see and buy !

Have a heck of time trying to identify them correctly and need to constantly reference to a few books. One of the clearer books i have is from famous Ian A. M. Fuller & Hans-Georg Evers "Identifying Corydoradinae Catfish". I got Ian signature in it numbered 041. Yeah !

I do not believe the book is widely available since is quite specialise and relatively expensive. If you read this article and manage to buy one after, please let them know i helped to introduce the book to you !


Cory

Corydoras gossei 金翅帝王鼠

I found them in a taiwan corydoras speciality shop. Relatively small size of about 1.5cm. Known to grow to about 5cm in the wild of Brazil water. Very similar to Corydoras seussi (long-snout) body pattern which i happen to have except it has short snout.


Corydoras gossei
 They are quite colourful with proper background contrast and lighting. One thing i learn from the trio is juvenile corydoras do not survive easy and extra care has to be taken to ensure they survive to adulthood.

On the right picture, the pair looks comical and cute. I would like to try this species again for the right price if available again.

This is from snyderguy: As the lady says, "they're like puppies! With their sniffing through the sand and wagging their little tails to move around"

Cory
4th April 2012


Corydoras atroperonatus 白豹鼠


C. atropersonatus is my personal favourite. Known to be collected in wide distribution in South America. It does not travel well and losses are high. Hardly any imported into Singapore when i had them that time. They do not do well in tropical weather.

Price do not come cheap in Taiwan. 
I personally kept a dried specimen in good condition after it passed away.

C. atropersonatus has dotted black spot on the body with a masked black band across it eyes. When netted out of water, you will be amazed with the high quality leopard skin texture.

 Atropersonatus means black mask. Another common name is fairy cory.

Quite a few similar corydoras sub-species are known to have similar pattern so we need to be careful if one attempts to have a breeding group. I have a few which has much softer blurr dots which faded out with slightly different body shapes. They don't really mix together if you observe them long enough. There are also others with different snouts which are easier to spot. Best done by putting them all next to each other. some people in the internet believe by counting the number of lateral scutes. I will try and provide update later.

 I have strong suspicion of at least 2 of the females are C. sychri which are much stockier in body. Despite mating with C. aropersonatus, their eggs are infertile so far.

C. atropersonatus suckling a bloodworm




Poison
Corydoras dorsal fin has a spike bone which known to stung on on any attempts to eat it whole. What is even more interesting is the toxic secretions filled through the opening of the glands when people is injured by the pectoral fins or stress-induced.

However in captivity when stressed or disturbed, the chemical emitted will also harm itself unfortunately. And C. atropersonatus seems much more vulnerable to it when bagged up for transportation. I rush home in a cab but still there are a fatality.


Flight Transportation

Caution on using below advise as this is still testing.
  1. Excite the fish in big pale of tank water. Theoritical assumption is to get them to excrete the poisons. Change the water10 minutes later. Do it a few times to really purge it but make sure those fishes are already in good health.
  2. Stop feeding them for at least a day.
  3. Add carbon fillets and some moss into the bag before bagging them up just before leaving for airport.
  4. Do not let them expose to light throughout the journey so that they stay calm.
  5. As home packing has less oxygen, only pack 1/3 of the bag with water.
  6. Two fishes in each bag maximum so that there is enough water.
Corydoras atropersonatus

Handling Corydoras

Handle with care and use a net. The pain is like a needle stun if you ever get poked. Another caution is the plastic bag may get punctured during transportation. Ask for double bagged if is an expensive buy. Do not put all of them in a bag. Try to spread them out to be safe from killing itself.






Breeding C. atropersonatus

Successfully breeded on a typoon day in Taiwan in 2005.

The male and female are quite obvious when mature. Females are much larger in size ( underbelly and wider ). Males are also shorter in length.



Newly hatched frys. (Left)








One month old juvenile. (Right)








Can't help myself to show again the cute little brothers. (Top)


C. atropersonatus juveniles. (Top)


Cory
22th April 2012 - add breeding section
4th April 2012