Corydoras sterbai hatchery

[babblefish1960]

There was a distinct requirement indeed for some regular maintenance on one of my trusty old fluval 403's, so naturally, I cleaned it.

Richly compelling story I know, but it does get better. I happen to have had some aquariums in the tub that I was cleaning when I decided to clean this filter, so it was a little awkward to say the least.

As I dismantled the filter, there was a lot of dark gunk that I needed to deal with, and as I cleaned the little bits from within, I found to my suprise, a little fish heading down the tub to the drain. I stoppered the tub and spent some time carefully cornering the little rascal so as not to hurt him.

I have had plenty of fish over the years find their way into the interior of the canister filters, in the old days, even the HOB filters were occasional homes to loaches.

This is the first time that I have ever found a corydoras sterbai though. What makes this a most unusual discovery, is that the fish in question was about 1 & 1/2" long, and impossibly thick for getting into the filter strainer at this size.

It was clearly a progeny of the adult corydoras sterbai from the large tank, and as a fry entered the filter and has grown up in there for the last few months.

It is swimming around in the main tank and doing very well now, interestingly, it has all the markings and red/orange colouring on the edge of its fins in spite of its dark upbringing.

But most importantly, I now have proof that the corydoras sterbai have with certainty been breeding successfully in the large community tank, and for this, my surprise discovery is most gratifying.

[RedFish]

That is pretty exciting (the breeding successfully part), and my goodness that is one tough fish!

[beowulf]

Interesting story, little bugger is a tough one!!!

[babblefish1960]

Yes it is a tough little fella, I am curious just how long it was in there, there seems to be no real signs of discolouration from the darkness, in fact, it is as bright and defined as the adults.  I suppose I should be having a better look in the canisters for a while just in case that's where they decide to grow out on their own.

[plecoL83]

wow that's pretty darn cool

[jodes22]

Wow Babble!!! That's very cool... Do you have a pic of the tough guy?

[DavidJohnson]

Interesting story.  It is amazing how tough some fish are.  I had a similar experience yesterday when I was converting my 20g Kuhli tank from a gravel substrate to a sand substrate.  When I bought my kuhli's from BAs I had a stowaway which I think is a Lepidocephalichthys hasselti (http://www.loaches.com/species-index/lepidocephalichthys-hasselti) but not 100% sure.  It is only about an inch long and I keep forgetting it is in there as he often hides and was the same color as the gravel so even when he is out in the open he is hard to see.  So I tear down the aquascaping catch all the Kuhli's (catching Kuhli's isn't easy) and a couple Oto's and put them in a bucket while I did the substrate change.  I then used a small glass to scoop up all the gravel and put it into another bucket.  I then put the sand in the tank, re-aquascaped it and then put the fish back in.  A couple hours later I decide to take the gravel and spread it out over a piece of plastic in the basement to let it dry.  About halfway through the process I looked down into the bucket to see this tiny fish flopping around in the water soaked gravel.  So I scooped him up and put him back in the newly redesigned tank and surprisingly he seems to be as good as ever.  Luckily every time I scooped the gravel up with the glass I also scooped up water with it but I am totally amazed that he wasn't injured at all during the whole process and while he was in the bucket embedded in the gravel for some 3-4 hours.  Being so small probably helped him but he is one lucky fish.