Corydoras schultzei black, photos

I have started to add additional categories of photographs, this will be a slow process but I do have plenty of shots so eventually I think it will be worth it to divide the gallery up in sections.

First of is the black form of Corydoras schultzei who have gotten its own page starting with the pictures below:

Corydoras schultzei black, first spawn!

I had a pleasant surprise today, my group of Corydoras schultzei "black form" spawned for the first time.

The group consists of two males and two females, approximately 12 months old, however only one female participated this time.

I was so delighted when I saw it and completely forgot to take pictures of the eggs, too busy collecting them I suppose.

There was no other trigger than weekly 20% water changes and regular feeding of catfish pellets, waffers and blood worms. In fact I had actually not done this week’s water changes yet. A possible trigger could have been the C. panda’s regular breeding behaviour.

Having these two species breeding in the same tank is slightly worrying as the last thing i want is hybrids. As I was monitoring the spawning today there was no interaction between the two species but I do need to move the C. schultzei group to their own tank.

Two males and one female took part in the typical cory T-position and the eggs were scattered on the front glass of the tank, right in the current of a wavemaker.

The egg count seems to be somewhere between 40 and 50, sadly at first glance many seem to be infertile but I hope the ratio will improve as the fish gain experience. They are now being kept in a breeding net in the same tank as the parents, hopefully everything will go well and there will be a positive update soon.


Readings:
Temperature: 24.5 °C
pH: 7

144 litre tank

 I have finally moved my old 144 litre tank, here's a pic:

I decided to get rid of all the stones for now and I think the wood looks better but it’s much harder to hide the caves. I have a few smaller pieces of wood to go in and some smaller stones so hopefully that will do it. The bright orange caves that stands out really annoys me at the moment.

The plants are a bit of a mess as this moving business has taken its toll but I'm sure they will recover.

The fish seems ok but a bit frightened; I'm going from a acidic pH to a neutral, that's why the tank is not fully filled yet. Hopefully they will acclimatize ok. I used most of the water that was in the tank originally and I'm adding small amounts of the new neutral water two times per day.

At the moment there are two Peckoltia compta, three bristlenoses, 25+ Corydoras panda and 4 Corydoras Schultzei in the tank. The C. Schultzei will be moved a.s.a.p to prevent hybridisation.

Plants include: one Anubias heterophylla and three small Echinodorus bleheri.

Still loads more to do as I have to set up the new tank too.

Melander