Sterai Corys Breeding

How can I distinguish between a male and female Sterai Cory as I would love to purchase a pair.
They are just the cutest fish ever !!!!

 

from what ive read its tiny things that distinguish male from female such as body shape , to much effort in my books haha

 

@Bubbukitty - How big is your tank? (dimensions)

 

I think females are usually bigger when looked at from the top. They have a wider girth.

 

Your best bet would be to buy 6 and hope you get a male and a female.:wink:

 

@Firefly has it spot on the female is a bit bigger and more bulky easier to see it from the top. but you buy them from the lfs when they are still small and cant sex them yet. :redface:

 

Im with @DewaldC on this one haha!!

 

I have 5 sterbais and 5 dwarf corrys i hope to breed

 

would be awesome if those dwarf corries breed @woerman

 

Dewald, you make a lot of sense. From what I've read, corys are anyways schooling fish and currently I only have one. His name is Lutz but he looks a bit sad without any maatjies so I will just have to get some more corys anyways. Lets see what happens. As soon as they've spawned I'll break the news. I must just believe and be positive :flute:

 

Hiya @Bubbukitty

I'll start off by saying I have honestly never bred any kind of cory, and what @DewaldC recomends is a good idea, however here is an excerpt and a link which I hope may help you with the breeding aspect, it is from the Tank Talk magazine, run by the Canberra and District Aquarium Society, the article is by one of their members who has been breeding corry's for ages Tim Green.

"Corys in breeding condition are easy to sex , the male is almost always much slimmer and smaller than the female and the female will be noticeably broader around the mid-dle. This difference is most pronounced when viewed from above or behind." - Tim Green from Canberra and District Aquarium Society.

"You can tell when corys are ready to breed as they get very active. One or two males follow a female around the tank and they form a T shape to fertilise the egg. The re-sulting eggs or eggs are then held between the ventral fins of the female who then searches for a site to deposit the eggs. The eggs are usually deposited in areas of strong current or in the top third of the tank , mine usually place most of the eggs in floating plants that are being circulated by the current or very unhelpfully in the top back corners of the aquarium" - Tim Green from Canberra and District Aquarium Society.

There is more info, and it makes some interesting reading, simply open the pdf link. 2011-06 Tank Talk | The Canberra and District Aquarium Society.
Hope this helps some, and good luck.

 

Thanks so much:bigsmile:.

This link does help a lot. If I could I'd have millions of Corys in my house. They make my day!!!

 

ok, I have Sterbae cory's spawning continously in my main discus tank. So I took some photos of the fertilizing and egg depositing this morning for your info.

Here you can see the plump female T-boning the male in order to suck his sperm and fertilise the eggs internally.



She then darted off to lay her eggs. She drops them onto her anal fins and then finds a spot to deposit them. In this photo you can clearly see the eggs about to be deposited on the tank glass.



Regards

Andrew

 

Wow Andrew. Stunning pics. These fish are just so fascinating.
Can't wait till mine spawn and thanks so much for the images:bigsmile:

 

I have spawned my sterbais and to be honest its as easy as getting a few of them, allow them to grow to adulthood and then doing water changes. The cooler water from a WC tends to set them off. However they and other fish do eat the eggs. Ideally if they have their own tank you should get higher number of surviving fry. Just give them lots of hiding places as they like to hide when they are tiny.

 

stunning pics Andrew

 

Congrats @pHish_man on those nice action shots. I actually read about the T position and swallowing sperm last night so very nice to see the process.

These are absolutely amazing and cool fish. I posted it on @WillemNicolaas 's thread but these guys can apparantly live for 20yrs. How awesome is that!

 

Awesome pics man!

 

Thought I would post a pic of the corys from the top. Easiest way to sex them at this size. There is one female and 2 males.



Regards

Andrew

 

great bunch of shots there pHish_man, always nice to see a good example of what we usually only read about, really good stuff.