How to encourage egg layers

I'm looking for suggestions on how to encourage my cory's and maybe even my other egg layers to finally start laying eggs.

So far, I've tried adding moss, doing small and large water changes, even lowering the temp of the water change by a couple of degrees.

I've talked with the employees at the LFS who have suggested using rain water or maybe ro water to throw a little wrinkle into their world to encourage spawning.

Maybe adding some nylon mops?

I'm completely open to suggestions. All my egg layers seem to be mating or at least showing mating behavior but so far not a single egg has been laid.

 

Spawning nets/mops help. Provide them with lots of good quality food as well as a variety, live or frozen food to go along with pellets usually works well. When you do water changes use cooler water, and try and time the water changes when it rains or any other low pressure event.

 

Low pressure is almost daily here in SF and rain, well we just had the driest calendar year ever, and no rain for a while. We will be entering the rainy season shortly so maybe that will change in the coming weeks.

I feed as varied as I can find.

I'll try adding a mop this week and see if that helps.

 

In my experience with breeding corys the two biggest factors are frequent cold water changes and lots of food with lots of variety, if you do those two things you will have eggs in no time.

 

I just recently had my corys lay eggs. It was when I happened to do a cold water change as it happened to be sprinkling outside. I ended up having to take them off the glass with a razor to keep them away from my tetras and mollies. I stuck them in a plastic breeder box with a cherry shrimp to try and attempt to save them. Alas, all in vain. =(
Good luck though, you're closer to the bay and I remember the constant weather changes from when I lived in the East bay. memories...lol

 

Not sure how to get much more varied with my feeding schedule:

Mon: Granules (Tetramin) or Tubifex worms (Omega) or Frozen beef hearts (San Francisco Bay Brand)

Tues: Flakes (Tetramin) or Shrimp Pellets (Omega) or Dried Krill (Omega)

Wed: Shrimp (Tetramin) or Algae pellets (Omega)

Thurs: Dried Bloodworms (Omega) or Egg Yolks

Fri: Micro Pellets (Hikari) or Frozen Brine Shrimp (Hikari)

Sat: Veggies or Frozen bloodworms (San Francisco Bay Brand)

Sun: Fast

 

That's a lot more variety than I ever did, those must be some happy fish.

 

I'll be adding more soon. I've found this weird seaweed thing that I'm doing some research on, and San Francisco Bay Brand makes a couple of different mixed frozen foods that I've been wanting to add into the rotation.

I hate to eat the same thing over and over so I figured that the fish should also eat a variety of things. The frozen bloodworms and tubifex worms are still the favorite and gets everyone excited.

The fresh veggies are the slowest to be eaten. I've tried preparing them a little differently to see if that helps. Soaking them in garlic guard helps a bit, but that still doesn't cause the feeding frenzy like the other foods.

 

A spawn mop is probably the easiest thing for a first try. Some of the biggie breeders use them, I know, including Pete Mang. Easy and cheap to make, too.

 

Just be aware that they may be laying eggs, but it depends on what else is in the tank that may be snacking on them. Corys will eat their own eggs sometimes too.

 

Play Barry Manalow and light candles XD hey, it could work, you never know!

 

Just be aware that they may be laying eggs, but it depends on what else is in the tank that may be snacking on them. Corys will eat their own eggs sometimes too.

That thought has crossed my mind, but the tank sits in front of my desk where I spend entirely too much time, so they would have to be darn quick to lay and eat them without me seeing it.

I'm going to add the mop this weekend to see if that helps.

If not, I may have to go with ravenlady's idea and put on some soft music and light some candles. Although you would think with all the hanky panky between the endlers and guppies the idea would already be there.

 

Lol hey, you never know! XD although if there are enough hiding spots, they could lay and eat them without you noticing.....

 

If they're laying them on plants/rocks etc you wouldn't notice them eating. They're very sneaky little buggers, and if they lay at night they could all be eaten by the day.

 

If they're laying them on plants/rocks etc you wouldn't notice them eating. They're very sneaky little buggers, and if they lay at night they could all be eaten by the day.

Most fish seem to be quite the little piggies

 

There is a ton of open space in my tank, so I find it a tad difficult to believe that all these egg layers could possibly being laying eggs and all of them getting eaten before I would notice.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just very unlikely.

Between the cory's, rainbows, rice, celestials and now the gudgeons, there would have to be at least someone laying an egg or two.