I was cleaning my canister filter in my 10 gal tank yesterday when I got quite the shock. As I dumped out the water into my sink low and behold two baby corydoras are swimming in my sink. Fortunately I had a net nearby so i scooped them up and put them in my QT tank. I knew my female cory had been laying eggs, but I figured the eggs/fry had been eaten because I never saw any last for long. Plus 24 hours now and they seem to be doing fine.

Two interesting points here. #1 I'm never dump the water in my sink, normally it goes outside on the lawn, but it was snowing yesterday and I didn't want to go outside. #2, they must have been living in the canister for some time as they are now too big to fit through the filter intake screen. Guess someone or something was looking out for these little guys! Anyway, my family has grown by two unexpected arrivals. Free fish are never bad right?

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29 Gallon Planted
1 Angelfish; 2 German Blue Rams; 11 Rasbora Boraptensis; 3 Khuli Loaches, 1 BN Pleco

20 Gallon Planted
2 German Blue Rams; 5 Corydoras Paleatus; 4 Otocinclus Catfish; Amano Shrimp

5.5 Gallon
Betta, Some plants.

LOL sounds pretty cool, i think that would freak me out at first, to see something moving, when your not expecting it. So how long do you think they were in there?? Well good luck on your new addition lol

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55 Gallon Tank

3 Male Guppies
4 Tiger Barbs
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Clown Pleco
4 Ottos

8 bamboo plants
2 Algae Balls

Whew! Crisis diverted. I've found Oto fry in mine once. Somehow they got past the pre-filter. Always ensure that I pull that sponge up as far as it will go on in the take now to be extry cautious.

Congrats on the new additions.

thank God for snow.

Congrats

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thanks for the kind wishes everyone! I'm not sure how long they were stuck in there exactly, but it's obvious they've been doing some growing as they are now so much bigger than the holes in the intake strainer. I hadn't cleaned out the filter in a little over a month, so I suppose they could have been there a while.

As I say, I didn't plan on raising fry, but now that I am anyway, I guess it's time for a prefilter sponge in my 10 gal. I'll try to get some pictures up soon.

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29 Gallon Planted
1 Angelfish; 2 German Blue Rams; 11 Rasbora Boraptensis; 3 Khuli Loaches, 1 BN Pleco

20 Gallon Planted
2 German Blue Rams; 5 Corydoras Paleatus; 4 Otocinclus Catfish; Amano Shrimp

5.5 Gallon
Betta, Some plants.

I had gups like that, took the HOB off and cleaned it, removed the intake tune and there were baby gups another time a full grown male was in the impeller part of the filter alive and well(still alive). I drain mine into an old 18qt stock pot with a felt screen about 3" below the rim for a filter( got invasive plants so cant really dump my water without cleaning it first.

congrats on the cory fry, ive heard those are the hardest to tank raise. or even hatch.

you female is quite larger then your males right?

Haha, that's hilarious! Congrats on the new additions...you've got quite a story to tell people when they check out your tank

This is hilarious. Thanks for stories and glad the babies are fine.


Perhaps another reason I don't use filters?

my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden

Thanks. Yes, she's massive. But my males are only about 6 months old, so it's hard to compare. I'd estimate she might be 3" long, but she is very very round. And lays eggs like crazy when fed bloodworms.

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29 Gallon Planted
1 Angelfish; 2 German Blue Rams; 11 Rasbora Boraptensis; 3 Khuli Loaches, 1 BN Pleco

20 Gallon Planted
2 German Blue Rams; 5 Corydoras Paleatus; 4 Otocinclus Catfish; Amano Shrimp

5.5 Gallon
Betta, Some plants.

congrats! i found a young madtom catfish in the undergravel filter of a 55 at school today! i hadn't seen him for months!

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~Daniel

the grass was greener on the other side, but when your a fish.... not good.....
Spanish words of the day!

1. HERPES - Me and my fren ordered pizza. I got mine piece and she got herpes.
2. WHEELCHAIR - We only have one enchalada left, but don't worry, wheelchair.
3. BRIEF - Maria fart in my car and it stinkie so bad I could not brief.

(this is just a joke, no offense intended! enjoy)

In the undergravel filter??? Wow, was he ok? Tough little guy...

I had a 1/2 inch long Penguin Tetra appear out of nowhere one day. I couldn't figure out how something so big had escaped my notice, but I decided he was a good hider to have made it to that size. At least I had parents that time, another time a fish I had never laid eyes on appeared. About in inch long and skinny. I figured he must have come in with a new batch of fish and escaped attention. He lasted quite a number of years. Unfortunately, that summer we had a horrible heat wave and the tank water got overheated despite my best efforts. The Penguins didn't like it one bit and died, as did this stowaway, whom I had liked quite a lot.

I always dump my filters into a closed off sink, and check the waste. For the longest time I would have 4-5 cherry shrimp getting into my filters, and on rare occassions fish fry. They seem to like it in my filters and are probably safer in there.

The worst was when I found my bamboo shrimp in my UV output. He crawled into the output to filter feed. I did not see him and removed my UV filter to clean it out and change the bulb. By the time I got back to re-attaching the output nozzle, he had crawled out onto the table and dried up. :(

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--->Pictures of my 75g Amazon tank<----

I definitely will always check in the future. I suppose since they are the only ones who survived, it's true that they're safer in there.

As an update, fry are doing great and eating sinking tablets and brine shrimp. They are in my 5.5 gallon with only a sponge filter and plants. I have a bazillion more eggs now, but I don't know when to move them into the fry tank. Or How. I assume I can cut open a soda bottle and collect the eggs in there then drop it in the tank? Anyone have experience or advice?

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29 Gallon Planted
1 Angelfish; 2 German Blue Rams; 11 Rasbora Boraptensis; 3 Khuli Loaches, 1 BN Pleco

20 Gallon Planted
2 German Blue Rams; 5 Corydoras Paleatus; 4 Otocinclus Catfish; Amano Shrimp

5.5 Gallon
Betta, Some plants.