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Oh no Kitten that is sad. I once brought a little panda he was so tiny all on his own in the tank at the shop so I brought him home and added him to my tank with my other pandas but with in a week he died also. I don't no what it was but I think maybe he was just to tiny to cope with the shock of being caught and moved. Why is it so hard to get hold of these little guys at the moment every shop I go to never has them now? I wanted to get about ten of the little guys? but I am now stuck with only three as I cant seem to get hold of them.

http://www.greenspersonalprinting.com/

This puzzles me a bit.

But then, my water is naturally farily soft, and slightly acidic. So when I perform my big water changes, conditions remain fairly stable. If they didn't, I'd have lost Mata Hari and her suitors long ago!

Mind you , I suspect that the small army of snails I have in the Panda Fun Palace™ are a contributory factor. Although they do so slowly, they home in on any edible matter that the fish might have missed with laser guided accuracy. They are a clean-up crew par excellence.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Just did the requested water testing... Amm 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate ~30, pH is 7.4ish.

I've always had trouble with the pH, I don't know why. Before, it was a buffering issue... KH would bottom out and take the pH with it. Now the KH is at a nice, even "medium" (stupid test strips) and the GH tells me my water is hard. The sandstone I've added to the tank keeps the KH constant, and the pH tends to run about 7.2-7.4. At least it's not yo-yo-ing anymore!

I assume (but don't know for sure) that the LFS keeps their tanks at neutral, so I spend a fair amount of time acclimating my fish to this tank. I just find it weird that the pandas were doing so well... it was two weeks before I lost one and another week after that that the second one went. The last one seems active enough, but I'm sure he's lonely... I just wish I wasn't so dang broke and that I could get him new friends.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Sounds like time to ask for a full water parameter breakdown from you, Kitten ... see if that yields any clues ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Another panda down. Only one left. It's so sad... they look so terribly healthy and happy (the one left was rooting around in the substrate and wiggling his lil tail all over when I found his buddy) and then they're just... blah. *sigh*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Sadly Tessa, I'm based in the NW of England, about 45 mins from Liverpool city centre by train. Bit of a long drive from the South Coast!

And, I think I've found a buyer for my four offspring. Which means I can turn Mata Hari & the boys loose in the breeding aquarium once they're rehoused.

Mind you, that means that in about 6 months time, I should have 20+ little Pandas waiting to roll. And I could probably let you have a decent shoal for a lot less than you'd pay in the shops!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Seems as though Pandas are more scared by humans than others...

Thanks, mine are getting way more active but when I come really close they sort of play dead. Sorry I got the shwartzis in Melbourne at black burn aquarium for $16.50, 2 for $30. My shwartzis are really active now and are not as scared.

They perked up a bit after a water change as they are in a quarantine tank they get one every day. (not cycled)

Last edited by labrakitty at 28-Feb-2005 00:42

Hi Labrakitty - mine were very quiet for the first few days, but they did perk up. Even though all my water figures were good and the gravel cleaned before I put them in, I did another vac & water change and that seemed to cheer them up no-end.

You may also find that they are less active when you are close and looking. Mine seem to be - I guess scared by this large figure peering in. When I am sitting further back, they seem much happier. I expect this will change as they start to associate me with food & therefore 'friend' - or at least I hope so!

BTW - Where did you get the cheap Schwartzis? Sydney somewhere? If so, did they have any more?

Wow!!!!!!!! I just brought home 3 tiny pandas under an inch yesterday! (25/2/05) I also brought home 3 Schwartzis as they were on sale and pretty rare to be that cheap in australia! they went into my 126 litre I think a little overwellmed haven't seem them htis morning yet. the pandas are in a 25 litrre quarantine tank. thye are barely moving at all. ONly a few inches every few hours, I floated them for 30 minutes and added a cup of water every 5 minutes, the water in the tank at the shop was ph:7 and GH:10 and my water was Ph:7 and GH:9 so they should of been ok. Sorry to hear about your loss. It is very hard to loose a fish you only had a few days. Probobly from shock. Mine are fine at the moment thye are eating, not that I have seen them doing it but the tetra siking tablet I put in has gone. good luck with the other two and getting some more!

Where are you in England Calilasseia? Any where near the south coast? (fingers crossed) Only I am looking for more pandas and cant get hold of any at the mo. Ideally I would like ten but your 4 would be a great start since they are so hard to get at the mo.

http://www.greenspersonalprinting.com/

Very young Pandas are particularly e to transport shock or shock due to changes in water chemistry. Very small ones should be acclimatised with great care.

If the fun and games I've had with Panda fry is indicative, then I'd say that Pandas should NOT be offered for sale until they're at least 5 months old. They're simply too delicate to be moved or transported to significantly different water before then.

Pity you don't live near me Kitten ... I've got 4 Pandas looking for a new home, and what's more, they're over a year old, so they should be robust enough to travel. They're 4 of Mata Hari's offspring, and they've since spawned themselves, so you'd be getting spawners with a proven provenance into the bargain!

There but for the Atlantic Ocean go we ... sigh

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Yeah, he was tiny, probably the smallest of the three I had. Though it was kind of hard to tell, as they're all so small. I don't know if my LFS will have anymore, and at this point, I simply can't afford to get more. I need a new job. *rolls eyes* Kitten's broke!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I have three teeny tiny lil panda cories now happily scurrying along in my ten gallon. They're adorable! Makes me super happy that I was able to remove a number of the female guppies that were in the tank. I just happened to go to my fav LFS today and see these lil guys and just HAD to have them.

Already seen some hilarious antics from them... including leapfrog and a head on collision as they were exploring the tank. No one was hurt... they barely seemed to notice.

I know they'd be more active in a bigger group... I'm hoping they still have a few left next week... didn't want to shock the tank. Though, now that I think about it, I could probably have replaced the five guppy girls I removed a few days ago with at least four pandas, instead of three. *sigh* Such is hindsight.

Expensive lil buggers, though. Seven bucks as compared to the normal 3 or 4 of more readily available cories. (Okay, not like they were the 25 dollar cories I saw before, but still not cheap when you're trying to watch your budget!)

They so cute!

Last edited by Kitten at 11-Feb-2005 11:20

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Bummer.

Kitten's got a dead panda! *cries* I don't know what happened... they all seemed chipper earlier, and I came back to him all dead and such. *sigh* NOT cool.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Lucky you! My LFS has told me that they can get some Pandas in for me so I am now patiently (ha) awaiting their arrival.

Calilasseia -

I'd love to be able to put a huge school of them together, but unfortunately, no room. I may go back and get one or two more, but it's only a ten gallon, and I already have six guppies in there... I'm going to attempt to put a couple girls in with a male betta in a five gallon... we'll see what happens. If that works, I can maybe make it up to six pandas.

The pandas have settled in and seem rather quiet now. It was amusing when I first added them, because the guppies hadn't seen cories in over a year (when I first had two trilines in there before moving them) and some of the guppies had never seen any other fish besides danios. You could almost see the looks of surprise on the girls' faces. *grins*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Lovely Panda's.



http://www.geocities.com/alexis_brincat/

http://www.deathbydyeing.org/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Kitten, trust me, if you put eight of these guys together, the fireworks will erupt big time ...

Take a look at my photos here via this link:

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Photo%20Booth/53917.html

and see the kind of fun and games you can expect ... oh, and if you flip back further through the album, to Page 24, you can see my 2003 spawning pics too

Tell me, do yours play 'tag' with your Guppies the way mine do with my Lemon Tetras?

Last edited by Calilasseia at 14-Feb-2005 06:47

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002