f the approximately 35 species of
Corydoras that 1 am currently keeping in my fishhouse,
Corydoras burgessi rates fairly closely to the
top of my all time favourites list. I am aware that this
species was spawned by several members of the Northern
Area Group approximately 2 years ago, but 1 thought members
may be interested in this account of breeding the species.
1 have had a pair of C. burgessi for approximately
5 years, they were mistakenly labeled as C.adolfoi
in a shop in Romford, Essex. The female at the time was
about 50mm (TL) so at a conservative estimate she must
be now around 6 to 7 years old. 1also came across my six
other fish by accident. About 2 years ago Wholesale Tropicals
at Bethnal Green imported several boxes of C. adolfoi,
and one day while looking through the tank in the shop,
1 found these C. burgessi and a lone C. imitator
in amongst the C.adolfoi. Fortunately the six fish
turned out to be 3 pairs. Eventually all eight fish were
placed in a 24 x 15 x 18 tank which was filtered by an
Eheim internal filter and decorated with bogwood and Java
fern. Here they stayed in the back bedroom of my house
until my fish house was completed in mid January this
year (1994).
At this time 1 moved this and many other tanks outside.
The basic set up remained the same except that the Java
fern has been removed from the tank.
On the 2nd of February this year whilst in the fish house
1 became aware of an increased activity in the C. burgessi
tank. On having a quick look 1 found about 8 - 12 eggs
stuck to the glass in the far left hand corner of the
tank. The fish spawned as four pairs each male appearing
to chase "his own female" around the tank before
coming together in the usual 'T' position. Each female
would carry 1 and on occasions 2 eggs in her ventral fins
and the eggs were placed in either the corners of the
tank or around the rim of the live food bowl at the front
of the tank.
From the first spawning 1 removed 105eggs which were placed
into a small heated tank of filtered rain water. The tank
was filtered by a small sponge filter and a drop of Myxazin
was added to try and reduce the number of eggs becoming
fungussed. Of these eggs approximately 70 were fertile
and at a temperature of 78' ~ 79' F the eggs hatched in
3 to 4 days.
The first food for the fry was liquifry for the first
2 days followed by microworm and Aquarian fry food. After
about day seven 1 started to lose quite a number of fry,
which 1 have put down to the fish not getting enough "substantial"
food early enough. As a result subsequent spawnings now
receive newly hatched Brine Shrimp at about day 4 and
fortunately this problem, has not reoccurred. From this
first spawning 1 raised 35 fry. For growth they were fed
3 to 4 times a day. This normally consisted of Brine Shrimp,
flake and frozen Bloodworm and when slightly larger chopped
live Tubifex worms.The growth rate of C. burgessi
is far quicker than C. adolofi, which as any aquarist
who has spawned them knows is painfully slow. But it doesn't
seem to be a species that races away in the growth stakes.
On this point about 2 weeks after this first spawning
a group of C. ellisae spawned for me. This species
which lays eggs of only 1 mm in size have produced fry
which have passed C burgessi in size despite it's
2 week head start.
The tap water in the part of Kent where 1 live runs at
about 7.2 - 7.5 pH with a 15 - 18 GH hardness and the
fish spawned at a temperature of 77' F. At the time of
writing the C burgessi are spawning about every
7 - 14 days and on average they are producing between
20 - 50 eggs per spawning. The average size of the broods
raised are about 75% of the eggs laid. Furthermore they
do not appear to favour a particular time of day to spawn.
I have observed them spawning during morning, afternoons
and evenings and have even found eggs that have been laid
over night.
This Article first appeared in the
Catfish Association of Great Britain Newsletter in the third
issue of 1994.
