Corydoras trilineatus

My first Flirts with Corydoras
My batch of C. trilineatus is believed to be imported from Malaysian farms into Singapore though it can also be locally breeded as we have a number of farms around the island state. In local retail scene C.trilineatus is not common compared to C. aeneus and C. panda.

A Hobby
That's about 10 years ago in my old home. I have a window-installed air-conditioning in my room that requires me to clear the collected water almost every morning ~ half a large pail of water. In a water tight singapore, neither pouring away the water nor consuming is good. So i decided to start an aquarium hobby out of it. I got a 12" tank, gravel, pump and finally a few fishes which happen to be in the display tank within my budget which later i got to know is called corydoras. I do not think is cute when i bought it.

Figure 1: Male (L), Female(R) clamping an egg

Eggs
Fiddling inside the tank setup after a week or two operation, I found a tiny white semi-translucent shaped object sticked on the glass wall. This arouse my curiousity as i was thinking what the Hell is it !A quick search found a few more of them under the plant leaves and side walls. ( While thinking did I have an "Alien Invasion" ? )

I begin to suspect it maybe the eggs of the fish i had. At that time i do not even know the name of the fish. I search in the internet as i only familiar with guppies and they have live babies. Eggs no ? Chicken yes ! Sounds impossible. Take me a long while to finally dentify the fish as Corydoras. And before long, i have gone through a long list of names of the various sub-species to my amazement, of different band, colour, shape and size. My vocabulory is Guppies mean Guppies. What's sub-species !

To contain my excitement, i quickly expanded to a 2 ft tank, more plants and better lighting. :)

Mating Routine

As fate is, my interest went further when i notice intricate details of the dancing rountine not commonly described of the species. Here's what i have observed. The female is fat and looking lazy. She stays put on the gravel turning away everytime the male approaches her.

Fig. 2: Female(L) forms a T-Shape with Male(R), Plan View

The male i had is quite alpha. He seems to have rounded horns protrude from his forehead. I think is an abnormality or old fish. He is energetic and will circle round her in his courtship while vibrating his whole body like a helicopter in mid-air. Believe me it was quite an awesome scene even when i think about it today.

The female after a few tugs, formed a T-Shaped with her mouth sucking sperms just below the male pelvic fins area about where the anus is. She seems to have her barbs locked by the male pelvic fin the same time. At his moment, the male froze and slowly sinks down onto the gravel. See Figure 2.

At this point, she was released and an egg fell out clamped by her pelvic fins. Sometimes there are two eggs. She will then starts to search around the tanks for a safe spot with her pelvic fins clamped with the egg.

Once a location is sniffed ok usually underneath or between the leaves, she has the egg planted onto it.
is also tendency for her to swim against the current and plant them in the upstream. Once a spit is sniffed out, she will deposits the eggs like a World War 2 torpedoe planes driving through it and releasing the bomb. In the end, we found eggs sticking all over the tank.

Cory

3rd April 2012