FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I'm a grandad ... aww ...

In the early hours of Sunday Morning (18th July 2004), my Panda eggs have become little wriggling fry. Free-swimming fry at that.

One of the things that has puzzled me about this, is that the eggs appeared to be developing, and I could make out some basic details, such as a pair of eyes, but I couldn't make out if they had actually hatched, and they were, according to the books, about three days overdue. But now, I have some wriggling fry!

I have yet to count them, I'm hoping that all eight eggs have produced little fry, but at least one of them is free-swimming, and so, it's time to start digging out the Liquifry and fire up an infusoria culture ...

At the moment, I'd say that the fry are just 3 mm long. They are like little slivers of glass, with dark eyes and a dark patch where all the digestive organs are. But even at this stage, I think I can make out the first signs of median fin differentiation from the finfold, which if true, means that they develop fast. I've yet to see if they have barbels at this early age, but I suspect that they do.

I'll be in a better position to count them once I transfer them to a more suitable container, which will require a little bit of lateral thinking, as I suspect that they will be too small at this stage to release into the nursery aquarium alongside the 'other babies' who are their parents (). So, I now have some wriggling babies, and hopefully, I'll be able to bring them to the point where they can be released into the nursery aquarium soon. This will provide an impetus to fire up the bigger breeding aquarium too!

So, wsh me luck, and hopefully I'll have some more Panda babies to show cute photos of


UPDATE: Monday July 19th, 2004

One of the Pandas apparently didn't make it out of the eggshell. Poor thing looked so forlorn, stuck there, not moving. Still, this is apparently par for the course with egglayers of all kinds - sometimes the odd one gets stuck and doesn't make it into the big wide world.

The remaining Panda babies are wriggling about intermittently, inside their little home. I've given them a sprig of Java Moss to hide in if they want to,but at the moment, they're so small that they're capable of hiding in the tiny gap between the bit of black plastic on the floor of the glass cube they're in, and the glass walls.

The cube in question is what's known over here in the UK as a 'show cube' - a receptacle in which fishes are contained during fish shows. These show cubes conform to a standard, and are designed with the idea that a fish is presented against a standard backdrop for judging. No doubt anyone who has attended a fish show in the UK is familiar with these already, and mine is the size specified for showing small Tetras and similar fishes. It makes a pretty decent first home for baby fishes too, until they've grown to the point where they can join the parents in the bigger aquarium. Given that my new Panda babies are still only 3 to 4 mm long, and would be completely invisible against gravel, it also makes the job of keeping track of their development a bit easier for the next few days. Even so, they can still hide very effectively when they want to!

So far, they appear to be doing well on a diet of Liquifry until such times as the infusoria culture is up and running. One other advantage of the show cube is that water changes can be conducted about five times per day with little effort, which should go a long way toward keeping the little babies happy. At this stage I can't tell if they have barbels or not, I suspect that they do, but I don't want to risk harming any of them by taking one out and putting it in the magnifier to look. Best to leave them to grow a bit first, then see if they have barbels once they've put on a bit more size. They don't move a great deal at this stage, probably a defence against being spotted by the multitiude of big, bad predators that they'd face in the wild, and it has to be said that if they're this good at hiding in a show cube with just a sprig of Java Moss for cover, how good would they be in the wild, with masses of aquatic foliage and soft mud to hide in? Oh, they would probably suffer an attrition rate in the wild, but anything out looking for baby Pandas for lunch would have to be very observant, or lucky, to catch one of these little guys once they 'went to ground'. The baby Panda I found in the main community aquarium is eloquent testament to that, of course!

I'm starting to come over all broody with these guys. Next thing, I'll be knitting bootees for them


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

congrats! When they get big enough, post some pics for us - would love to see them!

Congratulations for your Panda's. ]

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

Oh how cute I love panda corys I have 2 panda corys but I don't know what sex they are so I don't know if they will lay eggs :88) What do their eggs look like? maybe I could look out for them

http://www.greenspersonalprinting.com/

Eggs are fairly large given the size of the fish Tessa, about 2mm across, and they're a translucent pinkish hue with a hint of orange blended in (if that makes sense - probably does if you're Linda Barker ). Females purse them between their pelvic fins prior to laying, so if you see a female with her fins pursed, she's laying. Oh, female Corys (and this applies to numerous other species, not just Pandas) tend to be larger and much more round in profile, while males tend to be smaller and more angular in shape. In the case of my Pandas, Mata Hari (my largest female) is almost twice the size of the smallest male!

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Way to go w/your Panda babies!! I didn't even know i was expecting but have recently discovered two of them. Probably a few weeks old already. Congratulations!

Cheers Calilasseia I will have a good look at the corys to see if I can tell if they are male or female with the information you have supplied me with and I will also look out for any egg laying activity. I think my two pepper corys maybe male and female as I have noticed one is fatter or more rounded than the other.


http://www.greenspersonalprinting.com/

cool!!!


I lost a LOT of mine - 15 down to 5 for no obvious reason. My friend lost 6 fish in the course of a night, again, no obvious symptoms. We suspect some abberation in the water supply.


but still YAY and congrats on your lot!!! Hope they fare better than mine!

-------------------------------------------------
I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Tiny Clanger, watch those nitrates. Panda babies are a tad sensitive to nitrates. Also, pray that we don't get another 100-degree heatwave like last year as that will be a slate wiper

Tessa, with Peppered Corys, you may be lucky. Wild caught ones are sexually dimorphic. Males have VERY tall dorsal fins among the wild caught ones. Sadly, some of the domesticated ones have lost this trait, but look out, and if your fish are divided into big round fat ones, and slender ones with taller dorsals, then the big ones are the females and the slim ones are the males.



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

awww i hope your little guys make it cal, panda cories IMO are the cutest and most entertaining cories you can find, I love mine and plan to fill out their school a little bit more soon. good luck!

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish