# Albino Sterbai Cory Fry (New Video 05.25.11)



## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

I have no idea about the albinos, but im amazed at people who get 6 or more fry. The only thing ive ever had happen with cories is a small one will magically appear one day. Probably a month old. How many adults do you have and what size tank?


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

I have two full grown adults in a 20g long. I just moved them into the 20L about 2 months ago and have been conditioning them with mostly grindal worms and some blood worms and frozen daphnia. Before moving them to the 20L they were in a heavily planted 55g with a bunch of other corys.

For some reason Sterbai are hard to come by around here so I only had two, but this weekend I was able to locate some more at ridiculous prices and purchased two more. They are now in QT, but I'm hoping that adding them to the 20L will increase the spawn or maybe even develop into a mated pair. I definitely have my eyes open for a couple more to get the school up to 6 corys at least.

Saturday morning I collected 8 more eggs off the glass and plants in the 20L. This was by far the pairs largest spawn. So far two have hatched and it looks like the other 6 are going to make it. So we will see....

I've got a group of Pandas that spawns all the time in their species tank, but they always lay the eggs in the flame moss and I never feel like pulling it out of the tank. Well about a month ago I found a little guy who somehow survived and I've been fattening him up ever since. He's grown tremendously and now swims with the school.


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## wkndracer (Mar 14, 2009)

Cool post. I'm with Chad320 on the survival rate thing. Eight pandas in heavily planted tank and only one baby seen in a year. Figured to find more in time but only the one. He's 3/4" long now and only see one.


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## Kibblemania1414 (Feb 1, 2011)

Ya i have 2 bronze and 3 albinos, they have never bred though.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Congrats on the spawn!

I really am curious to see a pic of your albino sterbai whenever you can get them to sit still for their photoshoot!


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Well thats some useful info. I suppose if I payed attention to collecting eggs, I might have done better  So you hatch/raise them seperately I assume? Can you tell us newbs a little more info on your process?


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Pix as promised!:thumbsup:









Sterbai Cory Fry. There are 4 in this shot. The albino fry is in the bottom right of the cup.












Dad(L) and Mom(R) a couple days after going into the 20L. You can really see the size difference between the genders in this shot.









One of my new Sterbai Corys relaxing on the Blxya in the QT Tank.









My lone panda cory fry in the Panda species 10G where he was born and raised without my help.









A better shot of the little guy.​


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Great pics!

Wow that albino really does stand out as different, doesn't it? I wonder if it will stay that way? Can you tell the eye color yet?



[psst- the albino is on your "other" left! :flick:]


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

chad320 said:


> Well thats some useful info. I suppose if I payed attention to collecting eggs, I might have done better  So you hatch/raise them seperately I assume? Can you tell us newbs a little more info on your process?


I'm still kind of a newb myself. This is my first attempt at breeding corys. I've had pepper corys spawn successfully in my 55g somehow. I think it's b/c they spawn so frequently that a few are bound to survive due to sheer numbers. My panda adventure is mentioned in previous posts . Eventually I will try to breed the panda's but I'm going to focus on the Sterbai for now.

I'm a huge believer in live food so I did most of my conditioning with grindal worms. I've got 4 cultures going that I use to feed from more days than not. I rarely feed on Sundays. I am usually able to harvest enough to feed 3 tanks heavily twice a day with some loss to other fish in the tank. I supplement with blood worms, daphnia, ken's earthworm sticks, and ken's sinking cory sticks. When I put zucchinni in the tanks for the otos I do see cory's nibbling on the pieces that are on the bottom. So I'm not sure if that helps with conditioning, but I know it doesn't hurt. I also feed Ken's algae wafers and veggie sticks in the tanks for the oto's. I feed those mostly at night and I'm sure the corys eat some of those also, b/c the tank is spotless by morning!.

I perform 80-90% WC's every 2-3 weeks. The water isn't freezing but it's definitely colder than the water it is replacing. The tank temperature usually stabilizes in a couple hours. This could be a trigger for the Sterbai to spawn, but I have delayed the WC b/c they are in the middle of a spawn 3 weeks after a WC. IME the spawn is more so triggered by conditioning and good water quality. My water is really hard according to the test strips I used a while ago so I'm not sure what factor that plays in the equation.

Once I see spawning from the Sterbai I try to pay attention to where the female is placing the eggs b/c her initial spawns were really small. The last 2 spawns she has taken a liking to the glass so the eggs are really easy to spot and collect. 2 or 3 initial spawns were unsuccessful IMO b/c the eggs weren't fertilized, but the last three have been robust with all of the collected eggs hatching.

I use my fingers to collect eggs of the glass. Some eggs slip and float to the substrate, but are easily sucked up with a pipette. If the egg is on a leaf and I can't get it off with my fingers I will just trim the leaf. Once collected I place the eggs in cheap plastic cups with several holes poked around the lower 1/4" of the cup and one hole in the bottom center. I've hacked the hood on the Panda's 10g for other purposes and the opening created is a perfect size to "float/wedge" the cups against the hood and the rear edge of the tank. Initially I just leave the eggs in the cup. As I see them getting ready to hatch (4-5 days) I will place a small bunch of java moss in the cup. I perform daily 50% WC's on each cup and attempt to suck out the crap at the bottom of the cup with a pipette. 

7 days after hatching I start with really small grindal worms. The fry actively hunt them down and it's a pure joy to watch. By the next WC the majority of the worms are usually gone. I repeat the WC and Grindal worm process until the fry are big enough for me to find in my 2.5g tank. Once transferred to there I continue to feed the grindal worms but also start with all of the same food used to condition the parents and some of Ken's flakes to grow them out. 

Wow, that was a lot to type...


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

lauraleellbp said:


> Great pics!
> 
> Wow that albino really does stand out as different, doesn't it? I wonder if it will stay that way? Can you tell the eye color yet?
> 
> ...


Thanks! Believe it or not those are all taken with my iPhone.

Yes, the albino really threw me for a loop when they hatched. It really looked like the egg was swimming around. I studied it for quite a while before I realized it was an albino. So far I have 3. I can't see any eye colors yet. The oldest one is getting pretty big so I think in a week I will be able to see more of his details.

Thanks for the correction!


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## VaultBoy (Nov 11, 2010)

Do you happen to have any pics of the eggs? I have seen my female sterbai carrying eggs in her ventral fins a couple of times and then a short time later i found about 100 eggs stuck to my hair grass and i assumed this was her... when i read that a clutch of 8 was the biggest you had seen i now think those eggs were neons.

hopefully one day a little one will just appear as i have not seen any other eggs in the tank (except when the female was carrying them) but it is a community tank and the neons, cories and synodontis are pretty good at finding stuff in there.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

VaultBoy,

This is not my pic, but this is pretty much what they look like:










My emerald corys had clutches of around 100 eggs. My pepper corys probably lay around 50 eggs/clutch. If you have a Sterbai laying 100+ eggs you should share your secret! 

I do know that neons are egg scatterers so those eggs were probably not theirs. I also think neon eggs would be considerably smaller than cory eggs. My neons pig out on the eggs when my emerald corys spawn on the glass.


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## VaultBoy (Nov 11, 2010)

i just found that same pic... and now im sure that they are cory eggs.

the first time they spawned i only realised when i saw my neons swimming around with a mouth full of eggs... time to do a big water change with some colder water and see if i can trigger another spawning hopefully this time they wont all go mouldy/fungussy or whatever happened last time, maybe they werent fertilized???

as far as any secrets go, too be honest i dont know what i did... its just a community tank and i only had 2 sterbai in there and a mate bought me another 2 the next day it was full of eggs... just lucky i guess


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## larryl (Jan 27, 2011)

Congrats on the babies! I never got any albinos when I was breeding Sterbai but they are not too uncommon, just google for: albino cory sterbai

I used to breed them in bare 10 gallon tanks, one pair per tank, with a sponge filter in the back corner, and a handful of Java moss that floated freely and tumbled in the current from the sponge filter. A few days of heavy feeding and then a 50% water change with cooler water usually triggered spawning. They'd stick their eggs to the Java moss, and I'd use a tweezer to pluck out the bits of moss that had eggs atached (to avoid handling the eggs directly) and move them to a small container with gentle aeration until they hatched.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

larryl said:


> Congrats on the babies! I never got any albinos when I was breeding Sterbai but they are not too uncommon, just google for: albino cory sterbai
> 
> I used to breed them in bare 10 gallon tanks, one pair per tank, with a sponge filter in the back corner, and a handful of Java moss that floated freely and tumbled in the current from the sponge filter. A few days of heavy feeding and then a 50% water change with cooler water usually triggered spawning. They'd stick their eggs to the Java moss, and I'd use a tweezer to pluck out the bits of moss that had eggs atached (to avoid handling the eggs directly) and move them to a small container with gentle aeration until they hatched.


Thanks! I knew that they weren't rare or anything, but I kinda thought maybe an albino breeding pair would be necessary to get so many. Guess not.



> albinism is a recessive treat and if you linebreed it a long list of gene-based faults "hitch along".
> the best way to breed albino's (any albino's, bristlenoses as well) is to crossbreed them with the regular form and then sell the albino's that pop up in the second generation.
> 
> it's Mendel, pure and simple
> ...


Found this on Planet Catfish. Now I understand.


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## chad320 (Mar 7, 2010)

Thanks for sharing your info tuffgong. This is the coolest thread ive seen in a while. I wonder if pygmies do the same?


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## bsmith (Jan 8, 2007)

Congratulations! It seems to me that when people try hard to get a spawn they never get one. Then as soon as they stop caring the fish reward them with some eggs. It looks like you are doing the right thing with the foods and trying to get them nice and plump. Its the best/easiest thing to do to get them ready. Think about it, in the wild the fish will only breed if there is plenty of food around, if they are fat then there must be!

I have a set of 6 C.Adolfoi that im going to be getting here as soon as we thaw out. I am very excited about having them and hopefully getting them to breed.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

bsmith said:


> Congratulations! It seems to me that when people try hard to get a spawn they never get one. Then as soon as they stop caring the fish reward them with some eggs. It looks like you are doing the right thing with the foods and trying to get them nice and plump. Its the best/easiest thing to do to get them ready. Think about it, in the wild the fish will only breed if there is plenty of food around, if they are fat then there must be!


Thanks! I really do think the conditioning is the most important factor. If you think about the human gestation period the mother is supposed to eat high quality food to aid in the development of a healthy baby. IME it seems this same principle applies to corys as the vast majority of the work is done inside the female cory when the eggs are developing. The act of spawning is merely the release of the eggs. Development of high quality eggs via good conditioning ensures a robust spawn. I'm really interested to see how large of a spawn I can get based on these principles. Adding 2 additional corys to the spawing group will introduce another variable that I can't wait to test out.



chad320 said:


> Thanks for sharing your info tuffgong. This is the coolest thread ive seen in a while. I wonder if pygmies do the same?


Thanks Chad! I have ~20 Pygmy corys in my 55g that are starting to display some spawning behavior. I doubt any of their fry would survive in the community tank, but I've got my eye on a 20g long metaframe tank just for them. Hopefully I will get a chance to tackle them in the very near future as they intrigue me very much! I also have 6 C. habrosus that are being conditioned now, but no serious breeding effort until I setup a tank for them specifically.

I will post updates as things change. I had one more egg hatch today bringing my total fry count up to 8 I'm still waiting on another 5-6 to hatch.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Update time! The fry are all growing well with no problems so far. I did lose one and I'm not sure why. In the cups I have 5 fry with 2 albinos. All of the fry have at least doubled in size. I anticipate moving them to a real tank early next week. They have only been fed Grindal worms so far. Might try some earthworm sticks tomorrow.

In an old Betta tank I have 5-6 new fry with 2 of them being albino.
The old Betta tank is a new variation in my attempt to breed sterbai corys. This setup is bare bottom, has no filter, a Hydor LED, ambient room light, and a huge ball of java moss in there. I have been doing 50-60% water changes every 2-3 days and have seen a very high hatch rate. I will try to post some pics of this new setup later, but I need to figure out a way to light it better in order to be able to take decent shots of the fry.


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## goddessjen (Mar 9, 2008)

My sterbai breed all the time in my 110 community tank. There are always little mini me's pecking around  I am going to have to start selling them soon before the population takes over the tank! I have not had any albino's though  If you end up with a bunch maybe you could sell me some...


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

*7 Week Update*

All of the fry have been in the 2.5g now for about a month. I have 10 fry with 4 or 5 of them albinos. I'm still feeding them Grindal worms like mad, but they also are eating earthworm sticks and flakes occasionally. They seem to grow pretty fast and have reached a nice size.

Like their parents their personalities are great. They zip around the tank in the evening and at night. One of my favorite things they do is rest on the Wisteria leaves. It's also cool to see them resting and eating on the sponge prefilter.










This shot was taken about a week after they were moved into the 2.5g









Resting in the leaves. 









Two albinos resting in the leaves.









Most recent shot taken tonight.









Most recent shot taken tonight.
​


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

goddessjen said:


> My sterbai breed all the time in my 110 community tank. There are always little mini me's pecking around  I am going to have to start selling them soon before the population takes over the tank! I have not had any albino's though  If you end up with a bunch maybe you could sell me some...


Jen,

I would probably be interested in a trade in a couple months. I'm going to keep this batch for myself since they are my first sterbai fry.


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## koldsoup (Feb 21, 2011)

Really nice pics.

Your albinos look distinctly different from the common albinos. The transparent body looks awesome. I hope you get more in your future spawns.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Fat little boogers! :hihi:


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## KansasGuppyGuy (Mar 22, 2011)

koldsoup said:


> Really nice pics.
> 
> Your albinos look distinctly different from the common albinos. The transparent body looks awesome. I hope you get more in your future spawns.


The Sterbai albinos also have the normal gold pectoral fins of the regular Sterbai. That sets them apart as well from aeneus or paleatus albinos.
tuffgong, congrats on the spawn. Do you have a picture of how you are using the plastic cups to hatch? I'm just curious and having problems picturing how you have them setup. Your hatch rates sound like you are doing everything right. Hope you have many more spawnings.


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## JamesHockey (Nov 10, 2010)

They are really see through!


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

koldsoup said:


> Really nice pics.
> 
> Your albinos look distinctly different from the common albinos. The transparent body looks awesome. I hope you get more in your future spawns.


Thanks! I have a couple more eggs waiting to hatch now. 



lauraleellbp said:


> Fat little boogers! :hihi:


Yes they are. Nice and round like babies should be. 



KansasGuppyGuy said:


> The Sterbai albinos also have the normal gold pectoral fins of the regular Sterbai. That sets them apart as well from aeneus or paleatus albinos.
> tuffgong, congrats on the spawn. Do you have a picture of how you are using the plastic cups to hatch? I'm just curious and having problems picturing how you have them setup. Your hatch rates sound like you are doing everything right. Hope you have many more spawnings.


Thanks! I will take some pictures of my setup and post them later on.


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## Nate McFin (Mar 19, 2009)

Any pics coming soon? I have a 40 breeder planted tank that has 6 Sterbai in there by themselves. (Well, a few pest snails as well) Today I found Sterbai eggs all over the glass. They have been in the tank for about 4 months. I feed Hikari sinking pellets, Emerald Entree frozen food, frozen brine shrimp, and new life flakes. My water is quite soft. Tank temp was recently lowered from 80 to 76. 50% water change per week at a slightly cooler temp. The eggs are new today so I guess I will have to see what happens to them ovewr the next few days. 

Pics of your cup set up would be very helpful as I am not sure exactly what to do from here. I have a Rena Xp3 on the tank is the intake going to be a problem? Would a nylon stocking over the intake help? Any advice you may have would be great. 

Thanks!
Nate


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Nate McFin said:


> Any pics coming soon? I have a 40 breeder planted tank that has 6 Sterbai in there by themselves. (Well, a few pest snails as well) Today I found Sterbai eggs all over the glass. They have been in the tank for about 4 months. I feed Hikari sinking pellets, Emerald Entree frozen food, frozen brine shrimp, and new life flakes. My water is quite soft. Tank temp was recently lowered from 80 to 76. 50% water change per week at a slightly cooler temp. The eggs are new today so I guess I will have to see what happens to them ovewr the next few days.
> 
> Pics of your cup set up would be very helpful as I am not sure exactly what to do from here. I have a Rena Xp3 on the tank is the intake going to be a problem? Would a nylon stocking over the intake help? Any advice you may have would be great.
> 
> ...


Nate, I apologize. I completely missed your post. I can get some pics up for you tomorrow, but it's probably too late. I hope all went well for you though!


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

So these guys have been on cruise control for a while. All I do is feed grindals and change the water every 4-5 days. I did lose two more for some reason, but I have 7 left with 3 of them albino. They are a plump 1/2" long. I will try to get some updated pics soon, but here's a video in the meantime:

http://youtu.be/ERMmbhA9R-s


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## Nate McFin (Mar 19, 2009)

No worries Tuffgong. I can still use the help though!

The first batch of eggs turned fuzzy, but they were not finished there. I have quite a few eggs in the tank now. I have not done anything with them. If you could still post a pic that would be great. I have held off on getting any tank mates for these guys as they seem to be enjoying themselves. 
Thanks, 
Nate


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

Congrats on your continued spawning! Here's a pic of my crude setup 









I sometimes get fuzzy/fungus eggs and try to remove them as soon as possible. I hear you can use Methylene Blue but it's toxic for plants and your bio filter so I haven't used it yet. If I let the eggs stay where they were laid for a day or two I seem to get less fuzzy ones.


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## NewDisign (Apr 6, 2011)

tuffgong said:


> Pix as promised!:thumbsup:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


On the 5th picture, I saw the plants that were on the lower and upper most right side of the picture.

What kind of plants are those? I really like how those look in your tank and also how I think they might look in my tank too.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

That is glossostigma.


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## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

The fry have grown out nicely. No deaths in the last two months. The count is holding steady at 7 with 3 albino and 4 normal Sterbai Corydoras. They are nice and plump and have great colors. They are very active in the 2.5g, but I will be moving them to something bigger very soon. I have some pics I will post in a bit, but for now here's a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpMaHwzxTcY


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## newbieplanter (Jan 13, 2013)

tuffgong said:


> The fry have grown out nicely. No deaths in the last two months. The count is holding steady at 7 with 3 albino and 4 normal Sterbai Corydoras. They are nice and plump and have great colors. They are very active in the 2.5g, but I will be moving them to something bigger very soon. I have some pics I will post in a bit, but for now here's a video.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpMaHwzxTcY


What do u do to get them to spawn?


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## vanish (Apr 21, 2014)

Three year old thread, I wouldn't expect much.


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## naich (Mar 25, 2014)

*Highjacking this thread*

Since were talking sterbai, what is everyone paying for these guys? Im interested to see what the price tags around the country are.


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## Betta132 (Nov 29, 2012)

My LFS has them for about $6.99 each, and they usually have inch-long ones.


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## fishhes (Oct 18, 2014)

*cats are fish*

Petco has them at $9, and I've seen that price in other stores around town (midwest). I recently got lucky and picked up 3 down at Petsmart today that were mistakenly shipped to the store to fill an order for albino corys. I recognized them straight out, gold fins, white spots on black body. They didn't even have a tag for them so the guy just filled out the card for albinos and I got 3 sterbais for $10. I was pretty happy about that! 

The only problem is that I now have only three sterbais in my tank and might need to spend the $9 a piece to fill out the rest of the team roster (I think 5 should do fine). I'm planning on stopping back at Petsmart tomorrow after their truck comes in to see if they have any other fortuitous delivery mistakes.


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