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Spawning
Corydoras paleatus: Once Upon a Rainstorm
Lynda
Dibble
GPASI
Journal, Fall
1987
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Once
upon a rainstorm, in a 5.5-gallon tank, a spawning was about to begin.
It all started about three months ago . . .
The two catfish had met when they had been picked to work in the same
40-gallon tank as a cleaning crew. They were top-notch at the job.
They worked eight hours a day in incandescent light. They noticed
that they were a lot alike: dark gray spots on a metallic green. It
slowly grew into more than just a work relationship. They dined day
after day on flakes and tubifex worms.
The female soon grew plump with eggs. Her weight gain didn't matter
to him. It didn't even seem to bother him that she was 2.5 inches
long, while he was only 2 inches. His love for her increased. They
were seen everywhere together. They soon moved into a place of their
own--nothing fancy, just 5.5 gallons of aged water, a box filter,
and a few plants floating about. They were happy together. The place
stayed so cozy, around 78 degrees. They dined continuously on flakes
and tubifex worms, and sometimes some freeze-dried brine shrimp.
Finally, the mood is just right. A storm is in the air. They snuggle.
Gently he touches her just behind the gills, on the place her neck
could be. Then together they clean up and down the glass for about
10 minutes or so.
Then the rain pours down and the thunder crackles. All of a sudden
the lights go out. It's romance by flashlight. The spawning begins.
The couple is in a passionate cross-shaped embrace. She clutches the
male's ventral fins in her mouth, while closing her own ventral fins
like a glove and catching 5-10 eggs between them. I am stunned at
the sight, but they didn't seem to mind my watching. She releases
the embrace and goes looking for a place to put her eggs. She mouths
the glass, then places her eggs by gently rubbing them against the
glass. Again and again the embrace is repeated and the placing of
eggs. All over the place, eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs....
The storm ends, the clouds lift, and the passion is ended for this
time at least. It's time to settle down and get their minds back on
work. Tomorrow it's back to cleaning up dirt. So ends my story of
once upon a rainstorm.
OBSERVER'S EPILOGUE
There is no parental care of the eggs. As a matter of fact, they seem
to ignore them, except for the eggs on the tank bottom, which my pair
ate.
The eggs are adhesive and can be moved easily by rolling them up the
glass with your fingers.
Put them in aged water with methylene blue and cover to retard fungus
growth. When the eggs hatch, in 2-5 days, you can remove the empty
eggshells with an eyedropper.
The fry are small, transparent, and nonadhesive, and lie on the bottom.
When the fry are free swimming, a box filter can be added. A sponge
filter may not be advisable, as the fry may become trapped under it
and die.
My first feeding is with Liquifry and newly hatched brine shrimp.
Frequent water changes help speed growth, and soon the fry begin to
look like miniature adult fish.
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