# My fry journal...



## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

I've posted several times about my molly and Cory cat fry so I've decided to keep one continuous post. I've been raising molly fry for a while and this is my first batch of corydoras. Pictured are my four original adult mollies, the black female is camera shy, with two juveniles from my first batch. Then you see my Molly fry tank, there are currently about 4 different batches of fry, about 40 total in the tank, I recently took a bunch to my LFS. Then you'll see my peppered Cory's, their eggs, and the breeder net with their fry. 

I was able to hatch about 10 eggs successfully and they've grown noticeably in the last week. I feed them powdered omega one flakes algae wafers and shrimp pellets. I tried hatching brine shrimp eggs but that was unsuccessful. They all eat like pigs and seem very healthy. Any tips on raising them are appreciated.

I'm not sure how well I'll keep up with this, depends on how hectic my schedule is and how many replies I get.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

One thing I forgot to mention is the store credit i get for these fry are going towards an eventual discus tank.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

:welldone: Congratulations on all those babies!! :cheers:


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## DaytonBetta (Feb 4, 2014)

Very cool that you have cory babies!

Welcome to Journaling! I wouldn't expect lots of replies; many people just like to read. It's also somewhat of an etiquette question. If you have a lot of chattering on your journal it makes it hard to read and find information. You can see how many have visited by looking at the Views on the main journal page. 

I do the journal for a couple reasons. I like having everything in one spot, I can look back and see when I've done water changes, gotten new additions, or tried something new. I can compare pictures of my tanks then and now. I enjoy writing and sharing information. I love reading everyone else's journals and hope that mine brings enjoyment to other forum members.

I hope you'll stick around. I'd love to hear about your Discus plans!


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

*My future plans...*

Ive usually got a new tank idea in mind and there are several I'm keeping in mind as a down the road project. Concerning my mollies and corydoras, they currently residing in a 20 gallon long tank that also holds 2 upside down catfish, an albino bn pleco, and a synodontis lace cat that is getting a lot bigger than my LFS guy promised me it would get. My lace lives in the cave you see in the pics and I call it the lace ness monster. This catfish is one of the reasons I have both short term and long term plans.

My goal for this 20 gallon tank is to eventually have it just mollies and corys. I'll leave it planted and decorated pretty much the same. As for the other fish, I'm waiting till my LFS to have its next dollar per gallon sale and pick up a 29 gallon long tank to house the upside down catfish, bn pleco and lace cat. It will probably be used to house excess mollies and corys also. That setup will be used while I'm building up my store credit to reach my dream goal, the discus tank.

I have many plans for this tank. It will be a minimum of 75 gallons, preferably 100+. It will house the mentioned above catfish, but of course this setup be primarily for the discus. The aquascaping is what I'm most excited about. I've posted about this before and im glad to be on my way to doing it. I want to create a star wars battle of endor themed tank. It will be a black sand bottom, planted with some kind of grass, plenty of java fern, swords, val, anubias, etc. I will use tall driftwood and java moss to create the trees and ewok houses, I'll use a vine like plants, probably moneywort, to create the rope bridges. I'll have to find aquarium safe figures of rebels, stormtroopers and the walkers and other vehicles. I'll have to find some kind of cave I use as the shield bunker. The discus will represent the ships fighting in space and I want to get a good sized pleco, preferably a watermelon pleco, I can call Vader. Other than that I'll probably add a few mollies and corys and turn the 29 into my primary breeding tank.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

Here are a couple new pics of my Cory fry, its hard to tell but they are starting to look like see through spotted versions of the adults. The last is one of my favorite molly fry. She's nearly 2 months old and the only one that seems to be showing traits of being a balloon molly. I'm not trying to breed balloons but my little orange fat girl was sort of a rescue story and I wasn't expecting her to breed. This little one will not be going to my LFS, she will be put into the main tank with the adults when shes a little bigger. I just wish she would stay still for pics.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Aww very cute pics, thx for sharing!


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

Thought I'd post some recent pics of my Cory cat fry. Now that they're too big to hide in the frame of the net I'm counting about 15, 14 that are growing nicely and one runt that seems more active than the rest. I can't wait till I can put them in the main tank.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

*Fry update and new additions...*

Time for my weekly fry posting and to show off my new new fish. I've really fallen in love with corydoras, I originally resisted getting them until I set up my third tank, which was my first sand tank, which is still the only tank with cory cats. My fry are doing great I haven't lost any so far, they started coming to the edge of the net when they think its feeding time. They are still camera shy so its hard to tell how much they've grown.

Then I've got some pics of my 2 new melini corys. They wouldn't come out of hiding till I turned off the tank light. I only got good pics of one but if you can find him, both are in each pic and my albinos seem to love the camera. I'm going to get more when my LFS gets in its next shipment and probably set up a ten gallon just to breed them in. My LFS guy told me he could give me the most store credit/cash for these fry.

I also picked up a silver algae eater or reticulated flying fox for my 20 gallon community tank. I had never seen these guys before and they were labeled "Flying Fox (Siamese algae eater)" it was neither, actually a close relative of both. I was able to figure it out with one of my other post and google. They are peaceful, eat mostly algae, and I've read reports of it rivaling sae's algae eating abilitys. It has been great with all my fish so far, including my betta, and has already cleaned half my plants of brown algae. 

Lastly we have an updated shot of my molly fry tank. Still around 40 in there, I have about eight or ten that will be going to my LFS in a week or two. I'm moving one of my pregnant mollys into a breeder net in this tank today, she's about to pop should give birth soon and my intentions are to do a weekly posting on those fry along with my Cory cat fry.


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## niQ (May 28, 2014)

Aww i luv looking at ur cory babies, they are just soo cute! Thx for sharing ☺


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

Thank you, I resisted getting corys for a long time. Originally I bought 4 and just fell in love with them. I wouldn't set up a sand bottom tank without them.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

*Blackwater tank...*

So I want to start breeding melini corys. They are some of the more difficult corys to breed, needing blackwater conditions to induce spawning and raise healthy fry. I have an extra 5 gallon tank and I was going to use it as an experiment tank for this. To achieve these conditions I have ordered Indian almond leaves and purchased a nice piece of mopani drift wood that will make a good cave for the corys. The only plant I will add is java moss and I will be using a sponge filter and tetra heater. I have one good female and still need a couple more males, I prob only put 4 maybe five at the most in the tank. (I've had peppered corys mate with just 3 in the tank) When they lay eggs, I will remove the adults and leave the eggs be. When I'm able to get the melinis their own breeding I will also do that one blackwater if this one doesn't completely fail.

I've never done a blackwater tank before, I've seen some beautiful ones though.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

*Treat day...*

My Cory cat fry amaze me how much they've changed since they hatched. I keep raising the count every other post but they are big enough now where it is impossible to hide and they don't blend together. My last count after doing several was 22. I tried to get them all in one pic but they scatter when the camera gets near. The net looks a little messy but that's because they had just been fed frozen brine shrimp for the first time. They love it. I also added a couple pics of the giant ponds snails I put in there as a clean up crew, they have grown like crazy. Usually I take snails half that size and feed to my dwarf puffers but Ive left these guys alone.

Next you see rare pics of another resident of that tank, the lace ness monster, Lacey for short. That is my synodontis lace catfish coming out for some brine shrimp as well, it will be getting a bigger home soon. I got this cat when it was about the size of an adult guppy, my LFS guys said 3, 4 inches max, its almost 5, still growing.

And finally I just wanted to show off my anubias that has been growing beautifully. I'm just proud of this plant, it was thrown in for free with some money wort, now the money worts long gone and this thing is healthy as ever. If I ever decide to setup another 5 or 10 gallon tank for display and not breeding again, this plant will most likely end as the center piece. You see my one and only Pygmy Cory, I got him by pure accident and i haven't been able to get more yet, and also one of my dwarf puffers coming to see what was going on.

I also have a new batch of mollies but I misjudged which molly was pregnant so they were born in the big tank and its no easy task netting them out. I have five right now, the others have learned to hide well, I'll try again later for the others that survive the big tank.


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## BlueSky99 (Aug 7, 2014)

Reading this makes me miss my fry. I had 3 mollies and 1 platy that I raised since recent December and I gave them away 2 weeks ago, and they were so cute.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

So I've gotten pretty good at getting my corys to breed. Hit them with a cold water change (a stormfront going through helps a lot) and I usually find eggs within 24 hours. This morning I woke to them mating (this usually happens when I'm not in the room or they stop and stare at me), what was unusual was that the group of three that were doing this consisted of my largest female peppered and two of my bronze males. I had been told corys only breed with the same species of Cory and rarely crossbreed. I got as many eggs out as I could and put them in a breeder net. I'm not sure if these will even hatch or if they do there's a good chance these babies will be infertile as adults. I'm hoping to at least get 3 or four out of this batch, I'll post pics later, I was a little rushed for work.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

I know its been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. I lost two of my original mollies. One was my little orange balloon molly, she was having bad swim bladder issues and died in qt. The other was my silver male, he was acting fine and the next day I woke up to find him stuck to the filter, dead. His death was a little mysterious but both mollies were around 2 years old which is about the lifespan of a molly. Luckily I have plenty of both male and female fry that are about to reach maturity. I have a good variety, even a couple showing signs of being sail fins, so it won't be long before I have good breeding stock again.

My Cory cat fry are doing great. Out of my original 22, I've only lost 2 of them. They are now big enough and old enough to survive in the main tank, plus their breeder net was getting a little crowded. I did divide them a little, 6 of the smaller ones (including the runt) went in my 20 gallon community tank, along with my pygmy Cory. The remaining 14 went in with the adult corys and mollies. They all look so cute next to the adults, its gonna be hard to part with them when they're big enough to sell.

The batch of eggs I got from the peppered female and bronze males fungussed over and didn't hatch. The only thing I did different was adding java moss instead of water sprite to their breeder net, oh well maybe next time.


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## Johnny579 (Aug 22, 2014)

I doing a little cleaning on my molly fry tank when I noticed one of my little female dalmations following my hands around the tank. I stuck my hand in to see what she would do and she started rubbing up against my fingers. It was so cute I wish I had gotten it on video. She stopped after a minute and she's not done it since.

My Cory cat fry have adjusted well to being in the big tank. They have found pretty much every hiding spot in the tank and sometimes I'll see a group or two out eating or playing with each other. There's one in particular who has become rather brave. In that same tank I have a couple different types of adult corys and theyre always swimming around the tank. My brave little fry will hide in the java moss and wait for one of the adults to stop in front of were he's hiding. He then kind of hops across the sand and pecks the adult Cory on the tail. I've seen this happen twice, once to one of my bronze corys, once to a melini. They both shot to the other side of the tank, it was hilarious.

I'll probably end up keeping both those fry.


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