Baby Cory Dora Hatched/lived 6 Weeks In Fluval Canister Filter

Ok y’all. If I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it. I’ve got 2 Albino and 2 Bronze Cory’s in my 29 gal. Along with a couple other fish and some snails (both the purdy ones I’d purchased and the hundreds of hitchhiker ugly pond snails of which I’m now ‘enjoying’ after buying some ghost ’scrimp’ at the LFS a few months ago). But that’s a tale for another day. And don’t forget a ginormous pleco-thanks to my DH who didn’t know that cute little ‘algae eater’ would grow into a 14” long African monster who will consume half a zucchini every 2 days- just a year later.

Anyways, my Cory’s have laid eggs several times before on the leaves of my artificial plants. I tried to rescue them to breeder tank once, but they ended up covered in fungus, so I just decided to let nature take it course with subsequent eggs. I always hope for the best, but usually by the next day, the eggs have all been eaten. And to be honest, I’m not even sure if they’re fertile anyways.

Please don’t judge me when I say that I do 30-50% water changes (almost) every week. And change part of the media in my Fluval fx4 canister filter (almost) every month or so on a rotating schedule. The ammonia seems to stay under control pretty well thanks to my pathos plants, water changes, and maybe now with the hundreds of snails helping eat the junk in the canister.

So with this canister filter, I just drain the water out of the bottom of the filter, not directly from the tank. About 2 gallons into my 1st bucket of draining water, a clump of algae came through the hose into my bucket. But as I’m about to dump the water on the grass, that algae clump turned out to be a 6-8 week old BABY BRONZE CORY!! I haven’t see any Cory eggs since mid February. Last time I removed any filter media was about 4 weeks ago. And remember, for water changes, I drain from the bottom of the filter. The intake spaces are pretty narrow-sometimes even a zuchinni seed gets stuck. So this little guy either hatched and got sucked up in the filter, or his egg was somehow sucked up and hatched in the filter. Either way, he’s been GROWING INSIDE A CANISTER FILTER FOR 6-8 WEEKS. In total darkness. Eating only what the filter sucks up. Not to mention, the canister is completely filled with the plastic rings of filter media so there’s no room to swim. And the water goes through that filter at about a million miles an hour.

Needless to say, he’s getting acclimated to a much big, brighter world on this side of the filter system. Seems to be doing well so far. On the other hand, I’ve had fish go belly up for no apparent reason at all. This little guy is a survivor!

Has anyone else ever have something like this happen? Seems a little traumatic to me. Guess I need to start those scraping eggs again.

Here’s Junior next to mom/dad.

 

Tough as nails! That is one resilient fish!

 

No kidding! Can’t believe it myself!

 

Yay good for you!

I posted a thread on here a couple years back with photos of a single baby tiger barb that hatched and grew out underneath my undergravel filter and eventually swam up out the output tube. No idea how the egg got down there and hatched, or how the fish survived in the quarter inch space under the filter plate with nothing but poop and algae to eat, but it did! Unexpected babies are the best... fish babies, anyway.

 

Cool story, glad he made it. A nylon stocking over the filter intake will help keep more fish, eggs out.

 

Good idea! Just never expected to have any ‘slip by’ like that. That would also stop random zucchini seeds from embedding into the filter media too.

Lol!! Good for you and your baby. And yes. Unexpected FISH babies are pretty cool!!