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After a barren period during which I had some problems with the Panda Fun Palace, everything is back to normal, and my Panda Corys are spawning again!

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Female looking for egg laying spot;

Panda male eagerly courting female;

Panda male looking for his mate after she temporarily hid somewhere to catch a rest;

Two eggs on side glass (annotated with the magenta ring circling them);

Now there are four eggs!

Now there are five!

Three more eggs laid 4 days later, original 5 eggs nicely dark with embryos inside - original 5 eggs ringed in magenta, new ones ringed in white.

Happily waiting for the babies to hatch!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

First i would like to say congratz!!!!!!is it normal for them to have so little eggs or do they hide the rest from u? Cuz i have noticed with my bichirs that they will drop like 5-10 eggs out in the open but they will lay another 100-200 eggs in my java moss or the roots of my java ferns......i lose most of the babys to canabalisim between the hatchlings but a few do survive..... just dont really see any fish but stingrays to have less then 10 babys.....

In my experience, Pandas max out at about 25 eggs per spawning. But make up for it by spawning frequently once they're in the mood.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

OOOOOOOO ok cool yea i keep larger sized fish so im use to have 100+ babys at least.... then trying to find homes is a pain..... do u sell ur babys or do u put them in a larger sized tank?

Congratulations I think its about time you switched to breeding those big four legged pandas at the zoo if you did that as well as you do with your fish you would become an instant word famous person.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
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Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Usually I grow the offspring up to about 5 months old then sell them on. It's a bad idea to sell them on before 5 months of age because they're very sensitive to water quality changes before that age, which means that during the rearing process, water changes are a trickle affair that take up to 3 hours! However, once they reach 5 months old, they're considerably more robust and can withstand being transported to a completely different aquarium.

The critical period with Panda Cory offspring is the first 21 days. During that time, they can be perilously sensitive to water quality issues, and if you manage to pull them through that 21 day period, the following days are considerably easier, though you're still advised to trickle change their water up to about 3 months of age.

Another issue is temperature. If you happen to experience a heatwave whilst the fry are still in the critical 21 day period, set up a chiller FAST, because if they are exposed to temperatures above 26 degrees Celsius for any length of time at that age, the attrition rate is horrendous. Because they occupy waters in their native Peru that are fed by Andean meltwaters, baby Panda Corys actually prefer temperatures in the 21-22 degrees C range for the first 21 days, with gradual increases afterwards being applicable if you want to acclimatise them for a warmer aquarium. In fact, I've known them be quite happy at temperatures as low as 16 degrees C, though that slows their development considerably.

I'd advise anyone contemplating rearing Panda Cory fry to opt for a long, low, shallow aquarium so that they don't have to struggle to take air from the surface. I've found that even adults aren't that happy if the water is too deep, and they also like to have aquarium furnishings that provide them with "take off" ledges allowing them to reach the surface quickly. If you have bogwood features that present them with relatively flat ledges, with additional Java Fern growth to sit upon whilst preparing to take air, this makes both the fry and the adults VERY happy!

Oh, and once the babies are old enough to take live bloodworm, watch them come on in leaps and bounds - they LOVE live bloodworm, it's an addiction with them, and they'll munch on that food for as long as you're prepared to shovel it in, which means that when they're ready to take live bloodworm, you actually have to ration their intake because they'll gorge themselves on the stuff!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

mmmm,thats weird cal!i didnt know they were sooo sensitive to different water parameters.years ago(i dont keep them anymore)when i had bronze and panda corys,i didnt find them hard at all to raise,really i didnt do hardy anything to help raise the fry!just added more food.
could it be that yours are more sensittive becuase they are in a smaller tank cal?eg,with the 3 hour dripping!
i ask because i had a whole bunch of them in my 55 gal,with all sorts of tetras and loaches,upside down cat fish,bristelnoses,just a nice gental setup,with plenty of air pumpping in,and they pushed out heaps of babies!also i took the babies to my lfs b4 they were 5 months old,and they pulled throo fine.im not sure exactly how old they were,but i know i didnt wait 5 months.
i just done normall water changes and filled the tank back up as normall,didnt mess with temps and they were great.in fact im pretty sure i started with 10 corys,5 pandas and five bronze.(it was so long ago,im cant be %100 sure!)when i pulled that tank down,there was easy 50 of them,and all doing well.they were robust little dudes.
perhaps a bit larger tank my serve you well cal,a bit easyer for you to keep mate,unless you like the challenge of course.i just done smaller wcs,but more often.just used buffer to keep the ph on 7.0(neutral)and thats about all i done.not much work or effort when you think about it.
anyway just a thought cal.
but good luck with your new panda fry.they are 1 cute little fish...he.he!