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After a suitable quarantine period, my latest new additions to the Panda Catfish gene pool in the Panda Fun Palace™ have settled in to their new home nicely. However, I've just noticed something odd about them.

The original Pandas all have tail fins that are translucent pinkish in colour, with no markings. The new three all have tail fins that possess regular spotting - similar in arrangement to the kind of spotting that appears on, for example, this illustration of a true Julii catfish, but different in colour - the small spots are a sort of darker orangey-pink against the lighter orange-pink translucent tail fabric, as it were, and ALL the spots are located along the fin rays (as far as I can tell on such small specimens - they're only 26 mm long at the moment!).

Now, what I am wondering is this. Do I have genuine Pandas, but merely a regional variation, or do I happen to have some other species that closely resembles the Panda?

As far as I'm aware, only the Panda has the combination of black eye stripe, black dorsal and black spot on the caudal peduncle. The only other species I can find with black eye patches and a black dorsal lack the tail spot.

So, do I have a variation on the Panda, or by some accident, a C-number that was labelled 'Panda' by mistake?

I'd actually prefer it if they were true Pandas and just a variation on the basic theme, because if they were a different species, this would have shot down in flames my plans to diversify the gene pool!




Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

You may have to trace back through the dealer you got them from to find out for sure. Can you post a picture just cause I'm curious, not because I have any actual knowledge to reference.

It's late and I'm tired, so I may not get everything right and I've probably missed something in your post. Please just bear with me here.

Panda Corydoras are fairly easy to spawn and can be bred successfully in home aquaria, and like other such species it is possible that man-made variations could be created (C. sterbai is an example, there is an albino form). That is a possibility, though I haven't heard of anything like this with C. panda yet.

A natural variation is possible. I don't think that panda cories have a wide wild distribution, but there are known variants such as "small spot" and "large spot" types (from my Aqualog book). A single species of Corydoras can be very diverse, so you never know.

There are a couple of other species which resemble pandas. [link=Corydoras condiscipulus]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/471_F.PHP" style="COLOR: #808080[/link] and [link=C. oiapoquensis]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/callicht/corydora/123_F.PHP" style="COLOR: #808080[/link] come to mind, I dunno if I missed some. I do not remember any C numbers that look like Pandas at the moment. I believe that at least C. oiapoquensis can hybridize with C. panda (maybe conjecture), so that's always possible too. I'll sound more sober tomorrow, and maybe I can get some pics of the different panda types from my All Corydoras books. Hopefully this will give you a start.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Neither condiscipulus nor oiapoquensis fit the bill - they have black in the tail. Mine don't have black in the actual fin membrane.

Basically, the tail fin is the same colour as a normal Panda, except for the intricate spotting on the fin rays. The fin spotting is arranged in a julii like pattern, but the spots are a darker shade of the basic Panda fin colour, there's no black in the tail fin at all.

I ruled out condiscipulus early on in the game when I saw it had a fair amount of black pigment in the tail.

I also ruled out one or two other candidates because those had metae like banding along the back, which again is completely absent in my fish. Apart from this detailed patterning in the tail, they look like bona fide Pandas. Everything else is as you'd expect a Panda to be - eye patches match exactly, dorsal matches exactly, caudal peduncle black patch matches exactly, and what's more, they school with the other Pandas in there beautifully.

I did toy with amandajanea as a possibility briefly, but that fish lacks the characteristic caudal peduncle spot of a Panda ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Would a picture be possible? I get what you're saying, but it would be nice for visual clarification.

At this point I'd guess just some panda variant, nothing big. It certainly doesn't sound like a hybrid if the only difference is a few spots along the caudal fin.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

I've just taken a shot - was something of a miracle getting one of those little guys to stay still!

Caudal spots aren't readily visible in this shot, but if you squint hard enough you can tell they're there ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I can't view the pic, but I'm willing to bet your fish is a panda. Anything that looks like a panda but isn't has at least a twofold expense attached to it. Porbably just a little variation amongst the species.

Yeah, it just looks like a young panda cory to me.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."