Cory Diary : Sterbai Eggs

Been a long time since I last breeded Corydoras from my hectic schedule. This is a batch of 4 sterbai. They are quite small size maybe 1.5" inch and I would say stunted growth due to limited space with full grown plants.

The eggs are quite small maybe 1.5mm only. They start appearing after I do a more thorough cleaning of the dirty old sponges and sucking up debris at the bottom ( half the tank ). In-addition I did 35% water change. Due to the hot weather, the newer water is actually higher.

Glad to see eggs which mean continuity but I won't be giving special care for the babies, if any.

Cory

2022-0714

Cory Diary : Thinking of mini setup filtration system - Part 2

Got it done in a mini-tank. The water is quite cloudy so did a 50% water change. Adding Seachem Stability daily for a week.

As above the design is cylindrical shaped and much smaller than the square box design. Right behind this UGF filter, I have a mini-sponge filter for maintenance needs.

Cory

2022-0713

Cory Diary : Thinking of mini setup filtration system - Part 1

 After watching Shrimp Mania YouTube video, I like the under gravel filter setup a lot. However, I am thinking of DIY one myself to cut cost.

There are soils in reserve which I could use. It is somewhere deep in the storage. Maybe the size is not perfect but it can still works.  There is also some spared standalone UFG design cylindrical flat filter box. See picture below.

With the cotton filter media removed to avoid clogging

What I can do is to fill the soils on top of this filter. Probably a net mesh between them. Think I can use the cloth mesh use for cleaning my toddler. I would also need a vertical pipe to guide the bubbles up through the soils. 

Next, I need to find a cylindrical container that can fit the filter setup nicely. The height needs to allow probably about 4 to 5 inch of soils. The whole system will be placed inside the tank.

Finally, my plan to fill the bottom of the container with filter stones to lift up the UGF about an inch.

Part list

1. Soils

2. Vertical tube

3. UGF Standalone filter

4. Mesh separator

5. Cylindrical Container

This setup can be use for mini tank, shrimp tank or even corydoras tank.

Cory

2022-0703

Cory Aquarium Diary : Disaster Strikes my Blue Bolt shrimp Tank

Cloudy Tank

The tank turned very cloudy. This is not the first time, however this time that night the shrimps were resting on the surfaces in orgy. I did not think too much as maybe they are having some special routine.

Shrimps on surface

The next morning something is seriously not right. Some of the shrimps climbed on the side of the glass above the waterline and saw a dead shrimp resting on the plant which doesn't look right. The air line sponge filters and overhang filter are quite weak too coincidentally as debris and bio material growths have jammed them up. As I need to send my toddlers there is nothing much I could do immediately.

Water Change

Once I arrived back home, I do immediate water change and clean up and found the main culprit. One of my large Corydoras died which I am quite sure because it has been lethargic for some time before all this happens. Usually when the weather turns warmer. This Corydoras virginiae has been with me for more than 5 years I guess from original batch of 7.

A number of Corydoras died in the past but they are smaller and the cloudy water will go away a few days later. So I did not do much except for maybe once a fortnight water change. I am able to get away from this because the tank is fully packed of plants. Really full such that there is not much space for the cats to swim.

Stability and Prime (Seachem)

The water change is large about 35% but I felt is necessary to provide a remedy shock. Added enough Stability to control the water parameters. That night about 10 shrimps dead. The next day about 5.  Then 1 or 2. Every death I will remove it instead of letting it tear apart by others as I do not want the water to be damaged. The tank have hundreds of blue bolt shrimps from original batch of 7 which likely comes from 3 parents. 

Each of the day I will add Stability and some Prime with reduce dosages. Per instruction New Tank requires 7 days of Stability. Not taking chances. I have been adding about 2 to 3 times a day of reduced dosage. Will monitor closely still.

The shrimps are now actively foraging. Looks like I managed to save the tank. Phew !

Cory

2022-0630

Cory Aquarium Diary : Blue Bolt Eggs

I bought 9 blue bolt shrimps from the internet. They are really small. Takes long time for them to grow up.
Ended with 5 adults. Recently I accidentally lost 2 of them. Suspect they have themselves hidden in my air filters and got washed out into the dirty pail water ..... darn ...

I was doing major overhaul and introduced black water due to recent water quality issue. To my surprise, a day later I found 1 of the 3 surviving shrimps is berried. The other two shrimps are males.

Hopes to see the shrimplets survive in this corydoras tanks.


Cory
2019-0331

Cory Diary : Spring Cleaning

Winter has passed. The weather getting warmer and I think is time to scrub my glass from algae. I also decided to move all my Corydoras into a single 2ft tank for easy maintenance.

I have another air filter moved over to support the increase loading despite many of the red shrimps have disappeared due to acidity of the water from the Indian almond leaf. In total I have 4x duplicareus, 6x virginiae, 2x sodalis, 5 atropersonatus, 4x sterbai, 10x elegans. That's the max I would go for now. I like them so much.


Cory
20180314

Cory Diary : Corydoras virginiae

Species: Corydoras virginiae
South America: Ucayali River basin in Peru


Got them this weekend. They look very healthy and reasonably prized. Requested for two initially but decided to get another two more on impulsion as I seldom see them on sale. I would love to get more but I think maximum i would allow at a time has to be limited to avoid water quality issue.

Probably will consider two more later once this batch settled down. One of them got caught in the net and the shop assistant has to manually handle it in order to remove the pectoral fin from the mesh. I could hear the rag sound which seems quite loud when separated. Likely serrated.

The translucent white on the body frame looks clean and nice. Faint Black lined the top edge of the body. They swam in group immediately and their size are relatively large. Beautiful fish. According to ScotCat web site, is a hardy species of corydoras so I am glad to have purchased four of them.

Cory
20171126

Cory Diary : Acquired three C. duplicareus

I am back on this species. Just acquired 3 of them from the famous fish street in Taipei. The aquarium store provides professional service. The fish is bagged individually and double bagged with newspaper in-between. I am please with their knowledge.

Plan View of the Species

The species I got is the higher torso variety which I preferred.  The shop marketed it as wild caught. One of them have dark botch on the dorsal. On the coloration or pattern, my criteria is to look for thicker black band sharper cut.


Above picture : The background is not so good. I would get a darker color in the future for fins clarity which will help to identify the sexes. The body shapes are not clear as I feel it needs to be fed for some period first to be more definitive.

Above picture : I did not do acclimatization as the bagging is good and the fishes are healthy. The longer time they stay in the bag may not be a better option. So I just scope them up for the plan view taking and immediately release them into the community tank.There is some rapid gills movement in one of them about an hour. Other than that everything looks normal after. I do some feeding and roughly 15% water change next morning just to keep them fresh.

Above Picture : Three new occupants swimming happily


Cheer

Cory
2017-08-21

Corydoras Origami

New species ? Nope. Is a hobby on Origami. And the species is corydoras schwartzi.

I enjoyed the whole process of making it. 6 of them. Cheers


Cory
20170705

Aquascape: Rili Shrimp 2FT Office Tank - Part 2

If it's not fun, you are not doing it right !

Can you see the baby shrimp on the right side of the foreground shrimp ?

Feeding time !

Latest picture just taken 10 minutes ago from side view

Cory

20 Oct 2013

Aquascape: Rili Shrimp 2FT Office Tank - Part 1

Here's the documentation on my tank setup.

Here's the draft concept of the landscape. Horizontal but low. Rocky terrains with low level plants.

Species will be C. pygameus and Shrimps. Plant will be small leave plants. Don't know their names.

Stones and gravels added. Pairing of stones with similar design. Gravel is for planted and black.

Looking from the side, trying to take care of both front and back view since i like people to view it from both sides of my table.

Bottom right is the bubble counter. Filled up with filtered water to avoid deposits.
If done right, water inside will remain for long time. So far 1 week already.

Top is the 2 FT LED lighting. Not sure enough. Will continue to monitor.






Here's the 1L CO2 system. Has two pressure gauges with solenoid. I like the ease of setting them up. Did some fine tuning to understand how they work.

The left gauge of mine reflects the cylinder pressure with a lower valve to control it. Open more than enough for it to flow.

The right gauge again on this cylinder, reflects the pressure to the bubble counter. Controlling the valve just below it manage the bubbles. there is some lagging to watch.

Here's the reactor. I was a little worried that my overhang filter is not strong enough. However looking on the direction of the bubbles moving across from the bounce back current coming from the opposite end means the flow covers the entire area.

Fitting in the CO2 tube is a challenge as the pressure keeps pushing it out. Finally uses drastic measure of heating up the tube and freeze the reactor to tight fit them. Follow by a lighter across the overlapping areas.

Picture with plants. I got 3 mat size of the plants, cut them up to smaller pieces and squeeze them into the gravel. One thing i should have done instead is to wet the gravel a little instead of filling up to an inch. Will be much more easier to hold down the mat into it.

Corydoras and shrimps added almost immediately without the normal recycling. Total about 10 each.

Full length view of the complete tank setup

Entering into 2nd week. Overhang filter fits nicely on the left latch. The current manages to hit on the opposite right side and back.


Cory
14th Oct 2013

Shrimps Acclimatization

Thinking of setting up a shrimp based planted tank. Spend 30 minutes to blog and research my plan.

One key takeaway i found is the need to be prepared to acclimatized Shrimp as they are sensitive to water conditions.


My Notes : Planted, CO2, Small-Medium size tank, Plants, Shrimp species, Fish types, Tank layout, Food, Lights, Soil, Shells, Mini Net with long handle, external drip hanger, Wood/Stones, Mini Canister,Scissor - 14" - Curve, mini-net.

Few things to watch,

CYCLED TANK
The planted tank has to be ready and stable before buying Shrimps

INJURY
Netting rims are hard and pressing the shrimp against the plastic bag can cause injury

STRESS
Avoid transfer that expose the Shrimps to air
Especially when they are stressed. Moss to calm the Shrimps

ACCLIMATIZATION
Spend an hour to transfer tank water to the shrimp
Do not transfer water back to the tank to avoid external introduction

SAFETY
Shrimps molt when environment parameters change. During this period their skin is very soft.
Remove fishes that will attack them.

FOOD
Do not feed them till they have settled comfortably


Cory
5th Oct 2013