phone call to me announced the arrival
of Corydoras barbatus to the North East of England.
Off I went to the shop to purchase them. When I arrived at
the shop there was only about a dozen left. 1decided to take
a gamble and select a trio, thinking back they looked fairly
healthy and I chose the largest which was a 2" (50mm)
fish which I considered to be a female as it was very robust,
the other fish were all around 1" (25mm) and very slender
and two of these made up the trio. No apparent differences
was seen in the pelvic fins and this is why I selected by
size and shape. To date I still cannot see any difference
in the pelvic fins but the males pattern differs considerably,
they have a gold band along the lower part of their sides,
I find that only certain Corydoras can be sexed by
the pelvic fins. Returning home the trio were put into a 24"
10" 10" (60cm x 25cm x 25cm) tank with some healthy
Corydoras aeneus (great care was taken with the water
acclimatisation). My water is P.H. 6 - Temperature 70o - 72o
F - Dh - ?. I have found that new Corydoras settle
in better if I put them in an established Corydoras
tank.
After a few weeks they were
put into a 40"x 12"x 12 inch (1000mm x 300mm x 300
mm) Corydoras community tank where they grew well during the
summer months. They were fed on a mixed diet of flake, beefheart/spinach
mix, white worms, and tubifex worms. My judgement had been
good - one female 3" (75mm) and two males 2" - 2½"
(50mm - 62mm).
September:
On the Friday afternoon of our Bank holiday weekend the barbatus
decided to spawn, the female was laying eggs 1" (25mm)
below the water level, all the eggs were placed in a tight
clutch which is unusual with Corydoras. It was not
possible to move the fish therefore the eggs were moved to
a 4"x 4"x 2"(100mm x 100mm x 50mm) box and
light aeration was used, somewhat later than intended the
family set off for Blackpool for the weekend. Returning home
on Monday night my first concern was for the eggs, but alas
all had perished, so there was nothing for it but to try again.
This time the trio were placed in a 24" x 12" x
12" (60cm x 30cm x 30cm) tank with ½" of
gravel which was planted with Cryptocorynes in pots and subdued
lighting, (water conditions were P.H. 7 - Temperature 70o
- 72o F - Dh ?). A week passed , then a month, Christmas came
and went, and by this time the trio did not look happy at
all, so they were returned to the 40"Corydoras
community tank.
January:
One evening the female was very active swimming up and down
the front of the glass and showing great interest in one of
the males and butting him on the side, after a time the male
began to chase the female around the tank, eventually they
settled on the gravel in the characteristic 'T' position.
The male gripped the females barbels with one of its pectoral
fins, after 5 - 10 seconds they broke away and she swam to
the top where she placed 10 - 15 eggs, she rested for a few
minutes and then went looking for the male. Sometimes she
rested on one side clasping the eggs in her pelvics and seemed
to be fanning the eggs with her pectoral fins, 70 eggs were
laid 2" (50mm) from the water surface in a small clump
as previously described., the spawning only lasted for a ½
hour, (P.H. 7 - Temperature 70o - 72o - Dh ?). I decided to
remove the eggs as the 40" tank was unsuitable for rearing
fry. The eggs were creamy coloured and about 2mm in size,
a 10" x 6" x 4" (25cm x 15cm x 10cm) tank containing
3" (75mm) of water taken from the community tank, a sponge
filter and some gravel was set up for the eggs. Two days later
the eggs had a slight tint as though they had a covering of
algae, only a few turned white and these subsequently fungused.
After a period of five days all the remaining eggs hatched
but the fry were not visible as they had taken refuge in the
gravel, by the second day the yolk sac was absorbed, the first
day some 'Liquifry' was added and on the third day some Microworm,
newly hatched Brine Shrimp, and some powdered flakewas added.
At this stage it is essential that all uneaten food and mulm
is removed and so I siphoned off one pint of water topping
up with mature water each day.As soon as the fry are ready
(normally in the 4th or 5th week when they start to look like
little catfish) the fry are removed to a 24" x 10"
with 6" (15cm) of water, growth is rapid if the fry have
a good diet, normally by 10 weeks they measure 2cm and may
be divided up or removed to larger tanks, I feel a 24"
is big enough with frequent water changes as it saves the
fry searching for food. As they grow larger they can then
be moved to larger quarters. I remove the eggs because I feel
it is pointless to disturb the adults when they are settled
in an environment that suits them.
For the last 9 months the barbatus have been housed
in a 36" x 15" x 12" (90cm x 37cm x 30cm) tank
with 8 Corydoras blochi and have regularly produced
eggs every 6 - 8 weeks, the fry being raised as described.
Remember these two important points which should help you
on your way to success.
1. Keep the fish in tip-top
condition by changing the water regularly.
2. Keep them happy by including
other Corydoras as they do not like being alone and
prefer to live in larger groups of at least 10, they are
naturally a shoaling fish, so it is better to buy several
of one species rather than pairs or trios.
