Eggs! How To Keep Population In Check?

I remember - not quite a year ago, I was SO excited to have my first batch of eggs & try to raise some young cories! Now - I cringe every time I find new eggs in the tank. So - this is what I found today - there are 3 other clusters of eggs, this is the largest one, but the others are sizable too. This time was exceptionally heavy, but I find a good number of eggs at least once a week - sometimes every day for several days in a row. We had a heavy storm yesterday - barometric pressure seems to trigger breeding here even more than water-temp change... and our temp dropped suddenly last night, so -double-whammy - pressure change & their tank water did cool just a little bit, so they got all frisky & sassy & gave me a heavier-than-usual egg drop today.... But storms/barometric pressure changes definitely seem to have a big effect - I got so many eggs throughout summer when we get storms though, totally regardless of water temp...(I'm in central FL)


I've got my four original girls that I got about a year ago - and 5 other younger corys that were their babies but are 'small' adult size now. My girls breed like crazy! I have two albino aneaus and two green aneaus, as far as my girls - the younger ones are all greens. Tank conditions are fine, they all seem happy, active, eat well, etc. My biggest problem is ending up with too many babies all the time! I love my original 4 girls - they are all named & I'm too attached to them to ever think of letting them go...

I let my original 2 males that I could recognize go in one prior 'give-away' & kept the 5 half-grown young ones, to keep the overall group at a decent number - though obviously some of those younger ones turned out to be males too...

I remove eggs as best as I can, but it seems there are always some that escape detection & next thing I know, there are little ones swimming around. I LOVE my cories but I've only got a 29 gallon tank, no room for another tank, so I obviously cannot keep too many. The only other fish in the tank right now is a small female red bristlenose pleco.

There are no fish stores around here that I could take babies to. Up to now, I've tried to rehome them/give them away via Craigslist, but seem to have increasing difficulty with that, and too many people who want to use them as feeder fish! ACK!!! (NO, I don't let those people take the cories!!!)

Is there some type of peaceful fish or other creature that would "fit" in my tank, that would eat any stray eggs or eat the babies right away after they hatch, while they're still just tiny wiggle-worms, before they get large enough to be 'cute baby cories'? (Once they get to that point, I pretty much feel obligated to raise them the rest of the way & find new homes for them once they're big enough -- but it's gotten more & more difficult to find anyone to take them!) Something to eat eggs/wigglers, but still peaceful/docile enough that it wouldn't harass my adult cories at all! I definitely don't want anything stressing them out or bothering them. (Or bothering Miss Plec either....)

Or would that even work, or would I still end up with 'stray babies'? The adults do eat a small portion of the eggs now, before I remove them - I'll leave the eggs be for maybe half a day, then remove all of those that haven't been eaten yet but still - there are always those that end up hatching, no matter what....

This big batch of eggs today, I feel sure I'll end up with some babies out of this, whether I want them or not. I LOVE my cories - I wish I DID have a massive set-up to keep dozens of the little ones, but I don't. Or, that there was *good* place to take them, as it is so fun to raise the little ones & watch them grow! But my situation is what it is & I just need to figure out how to keep the numbers down.... I got my original corys as young unsexed fish. When they bred that very first time, I didn't think that *giving away* sweet little fish would be so difficult!!! And I had no idea I'd be dealing with hundreds & hundreds of eggs on a continuous non-stop basis! LOL! If I could go back & do it all over, I would have specifically bought males-only or females-only to start with.... but ....

 

Lol if I could get some of the babies once they have hatched I’d be more than happy to take a few for you. I have 4 different tanks atm and am working on my 38gal project tank. But depending on how large your eggs are you will need to find a fish capable of thinning out the numbers for you until you can figure out what to do about the rapid spawn rate.

 

Once your pleco gets a bit of size she should help you out by cleaning up some of the eggs. Elbert, the handsome guy over there in my avatar does a pretty good job of eating them but misses quite a few.

My corys are like yours and I am constantly dealing with eggs. Fortunately all of my fish will eat the eggs. My tetras and danios are right there to snack on them as I scrape them off the glass.

Just guessing because they move too fast to get an accurate count but I'm guessing I have at least 30 bronze corys in my 55 gallon tank. I started with 3 albino and 3 bronze. Some of them usually go behind the one laying eggs and start eating them right away so that helps keep a lot of them from hatching.

 

Once your pleco gets a bit of size she should help you out by cleaning up some of the eggs. Elbert, the handsome guy over there in my avatar does a pretty good job of eating them but misses quite a few.

Oh, your Elbert certainly is a really handsome guy!!! I got my pleco when she was still too young to sex, I was hoping it was a male, but I love my girl, she has such personality & is so pretty even if she doesn't have the super bristly nose! Plecos and corys have always been my favorite fish of all. She's a bit over a year old now, so she does eat a few eggs, but doesn't seem to go after them very much. At one time, early on, I had thought of getting a male for her - but after going through the issues with the corys, I don't think I ever want to breed anything! Though I had several people who came for corys see my pretty plec & ask if I'd sell her to them - no way, at any price! She's my little princess & I love her!

I just need to figure out the best fish to add to the tank that will eat as many eggs or newly-hatched eggs as possible, without causing any stress to the adult cories or overloading my little 29 gallon tank. I want to make sure I choose the best possible fish, as I'll have to order them online & probably will pay more for shipping than for the fish themselves LOL but that's fine - I just need to make sure I'm careful & make the right choice(s) before ordering anything. No good place to go shopping in my immediate area - the local chain store here is awful.

 

Elbert says "Thank You". He was just a tiny guy when I first got him. In fact he started out life being called Ellie Mae. Once his bristles started growing I changed his name to Elbert. It really seems to fit him.

You might want to consider Danios. They are speedy little guys. They did a good job of keeping my molly fry under control. Come to think of it though. They may not do much for cory fry. The number of corys I have is pretty good proof of that. They do like cory eggs though.

I feel the same way about Elbert. I wouldn't let him go for anything. He is a very special little guy. I am waiting for a super red female as a mate for him. Just waiting until she gets old enough to know for sure she is a female. Sure hope he likes her once she gets here.

 

I remember - not quite a year ago, I was SO excited to have my first batch of eggs & try to raise some young cories! Now - I cringe every time I find new eggs in the tank. So - this is what I found today - there are 3 other clusters of eggs, this is the largest one, but the others are sizable too. This time was exceptionally heavy, but I find a good number of eggs at least once a week - sometimes every day for several days in a row. We had a heavy storm yesterday - barometric pressure seems to trigger breeding here even more than water-temp change... and our temp dropped suddenly last night, so -double-whammy - pressure change & their tank water did cool just a little bit, so they got all frisky & sassy & gave me a heavier-than-usual egg drop today.... But storms/barometric pressure changes definitely seem to have a big effect - I got so many eggs throughout summer when we get storms though, totally regardless of water temp...(I'm in central FL)


I've got my four original girls that I got about a year ago - and 5 other younger corys that were their babies but are 'small' adult size now. My girls breed like crazy! I have two albino aneaus and two green aneaus, as far as my girls - the younger ones are all greens. Tank conditions are fine, they all seem happy, active, eat well, etc. My biggest problem is ending up with too many babies all the time! I love my original 4 girls - they are all named & I'm too attached to them to ever think of letting them go...

I let my original 2 males that I could recognize go in one prior 'give-away' & kept the 5 half-grown young ones, to keep the overall group at a decent number - though obviously some of those younger ones turned out to be males too...

I remove eggs as best as I can, but it seems there are always some that escape detection & next thing I know, there are little ones swimming around. I LOVE my cories but I've only got a 29 gallon tank, no room for another tank, so I obviously cannot keep too many. The only other fish in the tank right now is a small female red bristlenose pleco.

There are no fish stores around here that I could take babies to. Up to now, I've tried to rehome them/give them away via Craigslist, but seem to have increasing difficulty with that, and too many people who want to use them as feeder fish! ACK!!! (NO, I don't let those people take the cories!!!)

Is there some type of peaceful fish or other creature that would "fit" in my tank, that would eat any stray eggs or eat the babies right away after they hatch, while they're still just tiny wiggle-worms, before they get large enough to be 'cute baby cories'? (Once they get to that point, I pretty much feel obligated to raise them the rest of the way & find new homes for them once they're big enough -- but it's gotten more & more difficult to find anyone to take them!) Something to eat eggs/wigglers, but still peaceful/docile enough that it wouldn't harass my adult cories at all! I definitely don't want anything stressing them out or bothering them. (Or bothering Miss Plec either....)

Or would that even work, or would I still end up with 'stray babies'? The adults do eat a small portion of the eggs now, before I remove them - I'll leave the eggs be for maybe half a day, then remove all of those that haven't been eaten yet but still - there are always those that end up hatching, no matter what....

This big batch of eggs today, I feel sure I'll end up with some babies out of this, whether I want them or not. I LOVE my cories - I wish I DID have a massive set-up to keep dozens of the little ones, but I don't. Or, that there was *good* place to take them, as it is so fun to raise the little ones & watch them grow! But my situation is what it is & I just need to figure out how to keep the numbers down.... I got my original corys as young unsexed fish. When they bred that very first time, I didn't think that *giving away* sweet little fish would be so difficult!!! And I had no idea I'd be dealing with hundreds & hundreds of eggs on a continuous non-stop basis! LOL! If I could go back & do it all over, I would have specifically bought males-only or females-only to start with.... but ....

donate to me lol

 

I feel like you hahaha! My first batch of baby was a disaster, only one on 27 survive. His/her name is Spot! Since then, I let nature take is course and I have maybe 6 or 7 wiggly little baby fry around now.
And I just found that Angel and Demon got into their love mood and I have another 30+ eggs on the glass.
I'll see what happens... I do however have a nice and friendly fish only store close to me.
I'm just worried I'll get attach too much to let them go

 

Lol if I could get some of the babies once they have hatched I’d be more than happy to take a few for you. I have 4 different tanks atm and am working on my 38gal project tank. But depending on how large your eggs are you will need to find a fish capable of thinning out the numbers for you until you can figure out what to do about the rapid spawn rate.

Yes, that's my main question - what would be the best fish to get, that would eat the eggs and/or newly hatched fry (right away, before they get big enough to be 'cute tiny corys'!) I wish you were nearby & I'd be able to supply you with all the babies you wanted, as often as my cory spawn!

donate to me lol

I wish you were nearby & I'd give you all you wanted!

 

I wish you were nearby & I'd give you all you wanted!

I would love that lol

actually I am headed to the keys on the 4th

 

Elbert says "Thank You". He was just a tiny guy when I first got him. In fact he started out life being called Ellie Mae. Once his bristles started growing I changed his name to Elbert. It really seems to fit him.

You might want to consider Danios. They are speedy little guys. They did a good job of keeping my molly fry under control. Come to think of it though. They may not do much for cory fry. The number of corys I have is pretty good proof of that. They do like cory eggs though.

I feel the same way about Elbert. I wouldn't let him go for anything. He is a very special little guy. I am waiting for a super red female as a mate for him. Just waiting until she gets old enough to know for sure she is a female. Sure hope he likes her once she gets here.

Good luck with Elbert's new mate! If I wasn't having such difficulty with the cories, I'd be wanting to find a boyfriend for my girl! When I first was setting up my tank, I'd planned on getting a chocolate bristlenose, but when I went to order, Imperial had just gotten some super-red's in stock, so I grabbed one of those! I'd planned on waiting to see if it was male/female, then getting a mate - but I've got to get this cory situation under control before I even consider that now... I hope sometime in the future, we get good news (and photos!) of Elbert's offspring!!

 

HI & congrats (or maybe not ) on another spawn. My black neon & rummynose tetras were like radar trackers when the corys were spawning, they followed their every move hoovering up every egg they could find, a group of one or the other might do the job of removing the eggs for you

 

I would love that lol

actually I am headed to the keys on the 4th

Aw, what a fantastic trip!!! I hope you have a great time! I spent a month just hanging around in Key West back in 1979 - wonderful time, but from what I can tell, it was a totally different world down there then - no big 'resorts' at all, very little 'commercialism' at all, very laid-back quirky artsy-bohemian place at that time, no big crowds, just a cool fun funky place to hang out & enjoy life.....

At the moment, I don't have any babies - just a TON of eggs & new eggs constantly being laid that I try to remove as best as I can. It was just maybe 3 weeks ago that I managed to rehome my last big batch of young ones. Based on past experience, it's quite possible that there might be tiny tiny fry in there from prior eggs that got missed -- it seems I don't really see them until they're a little bit bigger - maybe 1/3-1/2" & exploring more freely. By then, they're such cute tiny things, so I end up having to raise them up - and gradually more babies show up & then more & more... then I'm getting over-crowded & doing daily water changes & going through heck with wacky people on Craigslist again, trying to find someone who wants them & isn't just looking for feeder fish, argh!.... repeat cycle over & over..... sigh.... There's got to be some kind of fish that would do a really good job of eating up the eggs & even newly-hatched fry (while they're still just little wiggle-worms & don't *look* like tiny corys yet! LOL!) But won't bother my adult corys.

 

Have you considered a red tailed shark or a goruami maybe? Depending on how big your tank is. If you could mail me fish I would pay the shipping but I’ve never had live fish mailed because of how high the cost of the shipping is. If there was a cheaper way to one day ship.

 

do you have a local fish club?
btw it is marathon key

 

I suggest a school of fish as others above have suggested. I would not do a larger fish to remove the eggs. The group of smaller fish would probably do a better job than one single shark or gourami.

That is a TON of eggs! wow!!

 

if only that would happen to me though lol I would be so happy

 

I suggest a school of fish as others above have suggested. I would not do a larger fish to remove the eggs. The group of smaller fish would probably do a better job than one single shark or gourami.

That is a TON of eggs! wow!!

This one might be a better idea actually!

 

if only that would happen to me though lol I would be so happy

I know, right? It does make me sad - I know there are other people with larger setups who'd love to have their fish laying all these eggs! I wish I could just magically transfer my cory's mad spawning behavior to someone who could benefit from it!

 

I know, right? It does make me sad - I know there are other people with larger setups who'd love to have their fish laying all these eggs! I wish I could just magically transfer my cory's mad spawning behavior to someone who could benefit from it!

yeah the annoying thing is I have tried to breed panda corys and one egg that I accadentally killed you buy some and boom there are a million eggs and I am like what the heak how did you do that tell me how

 

HI & congrats (or maybe not ) on another spawn. My black neon & rummynose tetras were like radar trackers when the corys were spawning, they followed their every move hoovering up every egg they could find, a group of one or the other might do the job of removing the eggs for you

Thank you so much! I think I'd like a school of smaller fish opposed to one or two larger fish! My tank is only a 29 gallon -- at present, I've got the 9 cories & one single red bristlenose in there. How many tetras do you think would be suitable for my little tank? Should I maybe even cut down the number of cories I have in there?

My four original female cories are the ones I'm really emotionally attached to - the others are some of their older "kids" that I kept just to give them a decent group, after letting my original males go. I've deliberately tried not to get too attached to the 'younger' ones, in case I manage to definitely identify males & *possibly* rehome them. I thought the four girls by themselves might be too few to be really happy from what everyone says about corys. (Otherwise I would have kept it at the 4 girls only, and eliminated the ongoing egg problem! LOL!) I had no idea when I started, that corys would spawn SO often, and so prolifically! My babies never take much of a break from spawning. My beautiful Opal in particular - man, I don't know how she lays as many eggs as she does! She pops out SO many eggs, you'd think she'd be swollen up like a puffer fish beforehand! LOL!

 

yeah the annoying thing is I have tried to breed panda corys and one egg that I accadentally killed you buy some and boom there are a million eggs and I am like what the heak how did you do that tell me how

Ha - I truly wish I knew *something* that I did to bring about such prolific spawning -- then I'd stop doing it!! LOL! I know I got good strong healthy fish to start with - I bought my original fish from Imperial Tropicals, they're fantastic! But I haven't done anything special - just take care of their tank in a normal fashion, feed them routine normal foods, etc. My babies just love to get frisky & do their thing constantly, it seems! These are just the common aeneus corys - I gather they breed easier than some of the other types, maybe? I had originally thought of getting pandas, but (I can't recall now), aren't they the ones that like slightly cooler temps? I needed ones that would be OK with slightly warmer temps, being here in FL.

 

I suggest a school of fish as others above have suggested. I would not do a larger fish to remove the eggs. The group of smaller fish would probably do a better job than one single shark or gourami.

That is a TON of eggs! wow!!

Yeah, they outdid themselves again this time! And there were 3 other slightly smaller clusters of eggs throughout the tank that morning too! Altogether, I probably had almost 3 times as many eggs as are shown in my photo.... Unbelievable!!! I don't know how they do it. SO many eggs....

I overslept that morning (insomnia previous night) so I didn't see who laid eggs that day - I suspect my biggest girl Opal played a big part in it - she lays TONS of eggs when she gets going! A "normal" spawning for my crew would be about 1/2 - 3/4 the size of this one....

 

yeah they like cooler temps

 

do you have a local fish club?
btw it is marathon key

No, I think the nearest fish club is over in Tampa. Not even any local fish stores right around where I live. It normally wouldn't be too far getting to Tampa, but I have some weird difficulties with driving much of any distance at all, due to some health issues, so I pretty much have to rely on doing most things online - not complaining, I'm grateful I DO have that option! If my internet access was cut off, I'd be lost! LOL!

 

Well, I pulled out all the eggs earlier today, didn't want to wait any longer, as they'd probably be hatching any time now. The adults (and maybe Miss Plec?) had eaten a small bit of them, but still... I scraped out a TON of eggs... literally hundreds of them

Man, this always is SO depressing & makes me so SO sad to have to do this!!!!! And both Opal and Pearl (my two green females) were sitting in the corner just staring at me, as if to say, "What ARE you doing? We worked so hard on those eggs, leave them alone!!"

I know, I know... they don't actually care, I'm sure.... but it still makes me feel like crapola every time I have to remove/dispose of eggs.... it's just too terribly sad & I feel so guilty about it every time, and it's over & over again.... gets hard to take sometimes.... I can just imagine this massive shoal of baby cories that these eggs could have been.....

I know, I probably shouldn't let it get to me so much, but........this time was just harder than usual, for some reason...

Thanks for listening..... you guys here are the only ones who would possibly understand!

 

I'm dealing with this and I understand your feeling... well my girls are still young, so I don't deal with massive nest like yours. I currently have 1 big baby, 3 or 4 wannabe looking cory, and a couple of tiny worm... I think everybody is just eating them LOL...
It's hard since you cannot give them for adoption.. I can if my population get too big.
Take care

 

Well, I pulled out all the eggs earlier today, didn't want to wait any longer, as they'd probably be hatching any time now. The adults (and maybe Miss Plec?) had eaten a small bit of them, but still... I scraped out a TON of eggs... literally hundreds of them

Man, this always is SO depressing & makes me so SO sad to have to do this!!!!! And both Opal and Pearl (my two green females) were sitting in the corner just staring at me, as if to say, "What ARE you doing? We worked so hard on those eggs, leave them alone!!"

I know, I know... they don't actually care, I'm sure.... but it still makes me feel like crapola every time I have to remove/dispose of eggs.... it's just too terribly sad & I feel so guilty about it every time, and it's over & over again.... gets hard to take sometimes.... I can just imagine this massive shoal of baby cories that these eggs could have been.....

I know, I probably shouldn't let it get to me so much, but........this time was just harder than usual, for some reason...

Thanks for listening..... you guys here are the only ones who would possibly understand!

You can ship the next batch to me!

 

Girl, I have 25 corys in a 36 gallon tank and I THOUGHT I had a population problem ... yet I have never woken up a single time to find even 1/4 of the eggs you have in that picture. Mine are all pandas.

I saw that picture and thought ... whoa!

 

Girl, I have 25 corys in a 36 gallon tank and I THOUGHT I had a population problem ... yet I have never woken up a single time to find even 1/4 of the eggs you have in that picture. Mine are all pandas.

I saw that picture and thought ... whoa!

I know - even though I've become accustomed to ongoing spawning, I was pretty shocked myself that morning! And that cluster of eggs in the photo was only one PART of the eggs that day! There were three other just-slightly-smaller clumps of eggs. Altogether, there were probably close to 3 times as many eggs in the tank as what you see in the photo!! I was amazed - that was a HUGE spawning that day! I don't know how they could have laid SO many eggs!! I've had three more spawnings since my original post here, although not nearly as many eggs as that day! That particular morning was a real doozy, even for my frisky girls!

 

My swordtails tend to eat both cory eggs and hatchlings (while not bothering the adult corys or any juvies that are big enough not to be snacked on), same as they'll hunt/eat their own fry. But, since they also readily create fry of their own, that probably wouldn't be a good option.

I also discovered (when I tried moving some eggs over to my shrimp tank to see if I could get a few hatchlings that way), that the ghost shrimp would happily eat the cory eggs as well (viable ones too, they weren't just going for fungused ones.) So that may be another option for population control, and ghost shrimp wouldn't really add anything to bio-load.

 

My Peppered Cory's (3 female 1 male) lay eggs constantly as well but never as huge a batch as you pictured (also a 29 gallon tank) (they started laying about 3 months ago)......mine lay 2 or 3 groups with a dozen or two dozen eggs per group..... my first batch had 1 fry survive ,he is a male, his name is Cory. I didn't expect any to survive because I took no precautions to save the eggs at all....2nd batch, 3 or 4 survived....still young and small... 3rd batch I have maybe 8-12 fry.....they hide well until larger as you discovered and I usually find them when I move stuff to clean..... I have 8 zebra danio that may help the situation, but they sure don't eliminate it either...... I originally had some Orange von Rio tetras in there as well but the danio's didn't let much food pass to the middle of the tank for the tetras so I put the tetras in a different tank....in other words I moved the tetras before any cory fry so I have no experience if they would do a better job at population control. I also have a 65 gallon tank with 6 green cory's (still VERY young and not sure of the sex of them yet) 6 Orange von Rio tetras 6 serape tetras a common pleco about 8 inches long and these corys have laid smaller amounts of eggs a couple of times and I currently have 3 cory fry in there all about the same size..... but you never know I may end up with a population explosion in that tank also........let us know if you find a good solution.... I am setting up a 10 gallon to move most of the fry to and am considering checking with the LFS to see if I can trade for supplies or store credit or something or trade with the local fish club members.....just ideas at this point not sure if that will work out......

 

..... but you never know I may end up with a population explosion in that tank also........let us know if you find a good solution.... I am setting up a 10 gallon to move most of the fry to and am considering checking with the LFS to see if I can trade for supplies or store credit or something or trade with the local fish club members.....just ideas at this point not sure if that will work out......

Good luck to you!! I hope the LFS will work out a deal with you, or the fish club! With those resources available to you, I'm sure something will work out! I would just love to raise up these babies if I had a good place for them to go as soon as they were ready for a new home! My precious Opal, my biggest girl, just "gifted" me with another huge batch of eggs a couple days ago, almost as many as in my photo! I sat & watched in awe - it was entirely only her laying eggs, none of the other girls were laying! I don't know how one fish can produce SO many eggs!! She's such a beautiful girl with gorgeous coloration IMO, she's roughly a year & a half old now, & while I love all my 'babies', she's extra special to me! I wish I could keep her eggs & raise up the little ones! Ha - if I had my way, I'd have dozens of huge tanks & keep all the little cories myself, until I ran out of room! They're such lovely sweet little fish!

I think I'm getting better at catching all the eggs though - so maybe I won't have quite as many little "surprises" show up in a few weeks! I'm still trying to make a final decision on which fish to add to the tank, to hopefully help with any 'stray' eggs/tiny fry that get missed.

Thank you, everyone, for all the suggestions! I really appreciate the help!