Will Cory species interbreed or hybridize?

StLouis_Bart · Post by **StLouis_Bart** » 08 Apr 2004, 17:46

I've seen some posts here about mixing different Cory species together in the same tanks.

Can they interbreed? Will they interbreed? Will the offspring be sterile? Is this a problem?

Post by **Coryman** » 09 Apr 2004, 10:27

Four questions! Four answers!

1. 2. Yes some species will cross breed, so a careful choice needs to be made when selecting species to put together. Avoid C. panda and C. davidsandsi in mixed communities.

3. 4. Some of the offspring may very well be fertile. My personal opinion is that any hybrid fry should be destroyed to avoid any chance of them getting into the hobby thus avoiding any chances of them contaminating good stock. There are to many people trying to produce man made strains and sports as it is.

Ian

stepchild · Post by **stepchild** » 11 Apr 2004, 14:57

Well said Ian

We don't need a flowerhorn or Parrot fish of the cory world

Bill

Alan_au · Post by **Alan_au** » 12 Apr 2004, 01:42

It is certainly true that we don't need hybrids in the cory world as there are plenty of interesting species available already and I don't think there are too many catfish fans who deliberately set out to cross breed.

But accidents do happen as Tammy discovered with a few C similis housed in with her C sterbai colony. Only two individuals restulted, but if it had not been for Tamm's sharp eyes and dedication to the hobby they may well have 'escaped' into the hobby.

For those interested there are some comparative pics and comments on Auscat.

http://pub79.ezboard.com/fperthcichlids ... =295.topic

Alan.

FisherCat · Post by **FisherCat** » 27 Jan 2006, 16:28

This is interesting.....I was about to ask the same question, but in the opposite manner.

We have some baby Corydoras paleatus that we will be transferring to a new tank in about two days.
I wanted to know if it is possible for cories to interbreed with one another, just simply because we want to avoid in-breeding without having to add more cories of the same type when the babies are fully grown. We are getting a 20 gallon tank and we want to have different species of cory without overcrowding(community tank).

Sorry if I'm intruding, any answers would help.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 27 Jan 2006, 16:54

Cross-breeding different SPECIES, aka hybridizing, of cory is definitely a big NO! [Applies to any other fish too, not just cories, of course]

If you want to breed the offspring of your cories, they should be bred with the same specie. You need to keep track of yours and split them into males and females, and get other males/females to match them up with.

If you don't want to breed them, you can keep them with same-sex cories of different kinds that are not going to cross-breed with yours.

There's a list of species that CAN be cross-bred in this thread:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=12026

That's not to say that others can't, but chances are better that they are NOT able to breed if they aren't combinations listed above.

--
Mats

FisherCat · Post by **FisherCat** » 27 Jan 2006, 17:48

Well, I was thinking in terms of cories being different BREEDS, not SPECIES, but, I don't know how that got into my head. I was thinking in terms of breeding dogs....

how they are different breeds but all generally alike.

I am glad, however, that I asked this question. Thank you for reminding me that they are entirely different species!

what was I thinking?
(actually, I don't think I ever looked that up, anyway)

Ok, now that that's cleared up, what's the best kind that WON'T interbreed with peppered corys?

snowball · Post by **snowball** » 29 Jan 2006, 00:58

Ian, or anyone else, what's the chance of and interbreeding?

I am planning on putting six adolfi in a 60l 2' tank on their own to try to breed them, but I just picked up a few conoclor to take my group to five and was thinking of putting them all in the same tank together.

While I imagine it would be easy to spot any hybrids as they grow, obviously this is something to avoid. I've noticed that the concolor have a dark stripe through the eye much like adolfi and wondered if this might mean they two species share a closer ancestory that might make interbreeding more likely than between corydoras with different traits, ie those with speckled heads.

Post by **Coryman** » 29 Jan 2006, 01:26

To be totally honest i you are putting at least 6 of each species together and there are both sexes of both species I don't think there will be any problems. For C. concolor to breed I have found the water needs to be very soft, Gh 2 or 3 and a pH of 6. C. adolfoi are not so fussy.

Ian

snowball · Post by **snowball** » 29 Jan 2006, 23:48

Thanks for your reply Ian. The new concolors are still too small for breeding so I don't expect anything to come them for a while, but the local tap water here is very soft which should help.

Curiously, in the 4'x2' community tank most of the different species of corys seem to have their own spots and rarely mix outside feeding time, except the adolfi and concolor which share the same corner and happily line up together - they make a great contrast

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 30 Jan 2006, 10:16

FisherCat wrote:Well, I was thinking in terms of cories being different BREEDS, not SPECIES, but, I don't know how that got into my head. I was thinking in terms of breeding dogs.... how they are different breeds but all generally alike.

I am glad, however, that I asked this question. Thank you for reminding me that they are entirely different species!
what was I thinking?
(actually, I don't think I ever looked that up, anyway)

Ok, now that that's cleared up, what's the best kind that WON'T interbreed with peppered corys?

Look up Peppered Cory in the Cat-eLog, and then choose another cory that is from the same area - they are most likely to NOT hybridize, because that's how they became different species in the first place - by separating in behaviour, pattern and eventually genetically.

--
Mats

Post by **Coryman** » 30 Jan 2006, 18:09

C. paleatus are not known for hybridising, although the fish we see in the hobby today being produced in fish farms are almost certainly not true C. paleatus. There are three similar species, which come from southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, they all look very similar to each other in colour pattern and it is almost certain that because of this similarity they have been mixed together in fish farms. Now having said that I have not come across any report of these naturally crossing with any other species. I know they are being manually manipulated in eastern Europe to produce a strain with long straggly finnage, which I may add to me looks as natural as a penguin in a desert.

Ian

SilverWings3 · Post by **SilverWings3** » 05 Jan 2017, 08:01

I actually have one cory-Catfish that appears to be a mix of emerald and julii. He's spotted in places like his head, tail, and fins like my two other julii, but he's smaller than them (not sure if that's because of age though) and has larger spots on his back/side but also has a green shimmer that is very noticeable on his sides, similar to the shade and color of Emeralds.
I did buy him from petco, in a tank of other julii catfish. (Though my other 2 I bought from petsmart). He gets along with my other 2 catfish just fine with the exception that he is a bit more active than them.
Is also get more catfish but I only have a 5.5 gallon tank (also I have a betta with them) and I don't want to over crowd.

I don't think its a disease of any kind because I treat the water well and do about a 20% water change regularly, complete with filter and heater. I did also treat the water/fish (mainly for my betta) for bacterial diseases (Betta had fin rot but what I got also treated red sores, gill disease, body slime, eye cloud, and hemorrhagic cepticemia) and he's quite active.

The only thing that seems plausible is that he is an interbred cory-catfish.

EVEisLIFE · Post by **EVEisLIFE** » 25 Jan 2017, 08:46

I bought two Cory's from Petsmart about 3 months ago, an albino and a green. I had no idea what gender they were, nor did I specify to them, or did I think they could tell either. Just now, I noticed in the tank that there was about a hundred eggs on the tank side. For the past few weeks I have noted that the albino's belly is always more rounded and it sort of leans back when resting on it. When swimming, the green dotes all over the albino, even chasing off other community fish in the tank. Always hanging out about half a body length behind the albino and constantly hovering around it. So I'm guessing that the green is a male and the albino is a female. After reading other responses, I get that hybrids are bad, but why? What are the young going to be like and why are they bad?

Will Cory species interbreed or hybridize?

Will Cory species interbreed or hybridize?

Re: Will Cory species interbreed or hybridize?

Re: Will Cory species interbreed or hybridize?