Corydoras / Adolfoi
By Joseph Huisman
The Adolfoi Corydoras is a moderate-sized Corydoras from the upper Rio Negro. This Cory will attain a length of about 6 cm. This Cory will spawn much like the C. aeneus. Getting them to spawn is not the problem that you will have with this Cory! Raising the fry is where there is a problem. To get them to live past 2 weeks is where I ran into many problems. I will try to explain later. That is why this Cory brings a good price at the stores. This Cory I have seen as low as $10.00 and, as high as $20.00 for a fish. If you go looking for this Cory watch out there 2 other Cory’s that some people will try to sell as Adolfoi’s they look quite a bit like each other. Therefore, be careful when buying them know what you are getting. I got my Adolfoi when the club went on a shop hop in Milwaukee. I was lucky to get the last 6 that this store had to sell. They were small so I had to raise them up. I paid $9.95 each in March of 2000. This Cory is a good challenge for any fish keeper to try to spawn and raise the fry.
Spawning Information: I used a 10-gallon tank the same size that I use on most Cory’s. In this tank, I have a Sponge Filter. I also have a heater. The heater is a change for me when I spawn Cory’s. I normally do not have a heater in the tank when a spawn Cory’s. I heat my fish room. I have found that temp change of the water does not seem to help get these fish to spawn. It seems that weather change will make them spawn. That is the way it looks to me. I still change the water 50% once a week. Once the tank is set. You will need 1 female fish and 2 males that are what is recommended I use a group of fish. I am not sure but I think I have 3 males and 3 females. They stay in this tank together all the time. That is not normal either but it works. The group of fish all are at least 2 years old the best I tell. They all get feed Freeze Dried Tubifcid Worms and Baby Brine at least one a day they get each of these foods. I will also give them frozen brine once or twice a week. That all I do to prep these fish to spawn. Then you set back and wait for Mother Nature to do its thing. During the spring this year, I put the two things together. This is what was happening. If a storm was moving into the area the fish spawned. The size of the spawn was determined by how often it would storm. For an example, if it did not storm for 2 weeks I would find 20-30 eggs. If it stormed every other day or every third day, I may only find 3-10 eggs. That is what was happening. Like I said earlier, getting them to spawn was not the problem that I had.
Spawn Size and Fry: As I said earlier the size of the spawn would be somewhere between 3-30 eggs. When the fish spawn, they will place them on the sides of the tank. Adolfoi Cory’s will place eggs in the corners of the tank. It is not common to find eggs ˝” out of the water in the corners. I have never been able to watch them place them there but I find a lot of the eggs that way. So make sure you look all over. Most of the eggs will be in the upper part of the tank but some will be at least half way down on the sides. Once the eggs are laid I remove them from the tank and put them in small container that I put Fungicide in. This will stop the eggs from getting fungus on them. I also put the eggs in the dark place. At first, I did not do this and all the eggs would get fungus. Out of those eggs only 50% will hatch. So out of 20 eggs you will have 20 fry. The fry will hatch starting on the fifth day. You do not have to feed them for the first 2 days. They will live off their yoke sack. After the second day I will start feeding them. For the first 2 weeks, I feed micro worms. That food does not seem to bother them. After the first two weeks is where I have a problem. If I try to feed baby brine, they will die in the next two days. If I try to keep them on worms, they also die. The fry that have lived were fry that when they got to that point and most have died I have put in with very small guppy fry in a 5 gallon tank. These fish all were feed baby brine and micro worms. I do not know what the difference is. The water was getting changed every day or every other day. The same as the guppy fry do. The only difference is the size of the tank.
Wrap-up: I am very pleased with what I have done with these Cory’s as of this time. I will continue to try to improve this process so I will have more fry survive. As by now you know this Cory is not for the beginner to try to spawn. If you plan on doing this Cory, I would say try a different Cory first. If you have spawned other Cory’s this is a good challenge for any fish keeper. Good Luck if you take the challenge. Let me know how you are doing with them.