More recently, Rob McLure has spoke at several clubs in the Midwest including our local fish club, the Columbus Area Fish Enthusiasts (CAFE). His talks have intrigued me enough to start working with a few cories. First, we acquired first generation Corydoras panda, the Panda Cory, from Joe Doyle. Second, it was a group of wild Corydoras duplicareus and Corydoras sp. "Green Laser" from Rob.
One day, a friend was over picking up some fish and he was looking through various tanks in the fishroom. He started observing the tank containing the Corydoras panda. All of a sudden he states, you know you have baby cories in the tank right? We had hardly paid attention to the tank but right before my eyes, there they were, baby cories! Our first cory to spawn in our aquaria. Ironically, it was also my brother's first cory to spawn 10 years earlier.
We quickly moved the group of C. panda to their own tank knowing that the eggs and/or fry would stand a better chance of survival. Over the next few weeks to months, we collected several batches of eggs. While the Panda Cories still have never produced large batches of eggs, they are still very young at a little over a year of age. Cories can live to be 8-10 years or more! Patience is key when it comes to fishkeeping.
Soon after, we decided to move our C. duplicareus to the same 15 gallon tall tank mentioned earlier, now 25 years old! We checked for eggs the next day and sure enough, there were eggs. Unfortunately, most of these turned out to be infertile. This was not surprisingly since the group had just been moved. However, over the course of several weeks, we now have around 20 eggs. Our hope is to start offering F-1 Corydoras duplicareus next year! It is truly a beautiful species of Cory and perhaps our favorite but how can you choose just one favorite? Stay tuned!
