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I had bought some new panda cories about a month or so ago, and I was wondering what age do they have to be to breed. They are somewhat smaller than my current pandas, so I'm not sure if it's right to groom them now into breeding.

In my experience, Pandas are usually able to start breeding in earnest when they reach around 9 months old. They start exhibiting preparatory behaviour before then - if you have a powerhead with a decent current you'll notice that juveniles start swimming against the current seemingly for the fun of it, and perform crazy acrobatics in the process that are highly entertaining, but there's a sound reason for this. In the wild, they live in fairly swift flowing riverine waters, and the fry are carried downstream, so when they start to reach a certain age, they instinctively swim back upstream to the place of their birth. Which is what your juvenile Pandas will try to do if you give them a current to swim against.

The next phase is 'glass cleaning'. Upon closer observation, once you have differentiated which individuals are male and which are female, you will find that 'glass cleaning' is a male activity. In some other Corydoras that lay their eggs more indiscrimnately than Pandas, 'glass cleaning' is performed by both sexes, and serves to prepare potential egg laying sites. In Pandas, however, that lay their eggs preferentially in thick fine-leaved foliage (mine bury their eggs in Java Moss), this is more a ritual activity that allows the watching females to assess the fitness of the males - males that 'clean the glass' assiduously will be preferred as mating partners to those that are lackadaisical in this regard.

When I raised my first batch of fry, they engaged in all of this activity, and then, at approximately 9 months after hatching, spawned themselves. However, they will show the preparatory behaviour above at an earlier age - my current batch are doing this even now at just 16 weeks, though it will be a good while before they are ready to breed. If ever you DO raise a batch of fry, watch them as they hit the 16 week mark and see if they start 'getting frisky' after a big water change. If they do, and start swimming against currents, then you'll know they're coming along nicely.

Your development stages will be something of this order:

[1] 0-4 weeks : babies start with eye patches but no other markings. Barbels present from hatching. Unpaired fin differentiation from the finfold taking place during this time.

[2] 4-6 weeks : appearance of first colour in dorsal.

[3] 6-10 weeks : appearance starts to resemble that of adults, but for one important difference, namely the appearance of tiny black 'pepper dots' over the body where the adults will be uniformly pinkish in colour.

[4] 10-12 weeks : disappearance of the black 'pepper dots' and development of full adult colouration.

Oh, and if you ARE successful in getting a batch of fry, the first 21 days are critical - during this period, it is wise to make water changes as gradual as possible because the fry can be very delicate. After that, they can be acclimatised to a more normal water change regime. if you can feed them infusoria, do so, but don't be ovelyl worried if you can't because it's entirely possible to raise them on Liquifry followed by powdered Tetra flakes! My latest batch seem happy enough as a result of this feeding!

My own preference is NOT to raise them in a bare aquarium. Even though it's next to impossible to see the fry for the first 6 weeks when they are resting on the gravel, I find that raising them in a furnished aquarium, though it makes maintenance harder, somehow results in happier fry. Given the way mine are frolicking about right now, I'd say I was doing the right thing ...

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Oh, and double post - the Panda Cory article is now in Word format for those that want it while Adam is busy rebuilding the Articles section of the site! Seed, I've sent you your copy


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks a bunch! Since I'm not sure of the age of my panda cories, are they at their full size by 9 months? I have some that I know are over a year old, and pretty sure are full grown.

Judging by the size of mine when they were 9 months old, I'd say they had a little bit of growing to do, but not that much. If you feed them small amounts of food often, they tend to grow better than if you give them just one or two large feeds per day ... Corys have a habit of being messy eaters, so making them ferret out every last bit of a small feed not only prevents them from gorging themselves (which is bad in the long term) but ensures that what food they do eat is fully digested. They're not as bad as some Barbs in this respect (Tinfoil Barbs in particular will pass ridiculous quantities of partially digested food if you let them gorge) but be aware that this possibility exists with ALL Corys, not just Pandas.

My juveniles have pretty healthy appetites - so it isn't unreasonable to feed them five or six times per day. The old Innes maxim of "small amounts often" works wonders with them, and incidentally is more akin to the situation in the wild with many fish species, not just Corys.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002