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I was surprised to see my 3 panda cories in the T position. The female is sticking the eggs in a corner of the tank. I did nothing to encourage breeding. I read in the profiles that pada cories are difficult to breed, that's why I was surprised.

10 gallon
3 glow light tetras
6 neon tetras
3 panda cories
4 ottos (1 of them is a zebra otto)

water parameters
Ammonia 0
Nitites 0
Nitrates 20
ph 7.5
30% water change 2x weekly

I would like to save as many babies as possible. I don' nkow what I should do. I do have a 3 gallon tank that I can set up. Should I try to move the eggs to the 3 gallon or what?

Please help me.

I can tell you what started the spawningyou did a water change, and the temp dropped a degree, I'm willing to bet...never fells really

As to what to doI'd leave them...if she is leaving the eggs on java moss or something like that, that you can move, you could pick it up (carefully!) and put it in a breeding net in the same tank...

I wouldn't, set up a 3 gallon to move them to....the tank would end up cycling and panda fry are delicate...I've been told pandas aren't hard to spawn, it's the raising of the fry that can be tough My true suggestionget a bigger tank, a 20 gallon or larger, and move the pandas there when you get a chance, once it is cycled, and add to your school

Anyways congratulations,
Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Actually, I didn't do a water change. I need to do it today. Will that hurt the eggs to do a water change today? Also the eggs are stuck to the tank wall.

Thanks for the advice!

Last edited by cbcinnie at 10-Sep-2005 17:26

I would leave them there, but again that is me...and either wait till they have finished spawning and do a careful water change, I wouldn't do 30% maybe only 10 or so this time? don't want to drop the water or change its parameters if you can avoid it...so, since you didn't do a water change, did the temp in the tank drop for some reason? A good rain storm? Or perhaps a feeding of something yummy they don't always get? Just thinking of what usually gets my guys in the moodor have you started playing Sinatra and lit some candles

good luck, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

First of all, hello, and congratulations on having Pandas that are happy enough to spawn! You must be doing something right to start with for them to be in such a happy state!

Next step, from someone who's seen this before many times (Mata Hari, my most prolific female, has now spawned a total of 92 times!), a little helpful guide. Go to this article (yes, shameless plug ) and have a good read.

The hard part is raising batches of fry successfully. Panda fry seem to be notoriously delicate, particularly in the first 21 days after hatching. This is the critical period: nurse fry through this, and chances are that they'll be robust enough to survive further.

First of all, in my experience, water changes tend to be problematic. They're needed to help keep the nursery clean, but implement them too rapidly and the fry may well start expiring. It's not overdoing things to implement water changes in a Panda nursery as a slow drip from an elevated source lasting around 30 minutes for each litre of water exchanged. If this sounds arduous, then remember that the trick with a Panda nursery is 'small quantities often'. This applies to food, and to water changes. Say you have a 10 gallon aquarium as your initial nursery before you move the fry to larger quarters. Well, change, say, 4 litres of water every day, and you'll be OK.

I'm tempted at this stage, having experimented with this, to offer the hypothesis that a bare bottomed aquarium is easier to maintain as a nursery. A nice, natural looking aquarium with a substrate and lots of plants growing in the substrate is a wonderful breeding home for Pandas if you can pull it off, but believe me, it takes a fair amount of managing!

Trouble of course is this: your Pandas have just spawned in a community aquarium, where the eggs and the fry stand a good chance of becoming lunch for some of the other occupants. Sad, but true. Best you can hope for is for one or two of the babies to make it through from this first spawning, and set about putting together a breeding aquarium that can be made into a nursery. Trouble being of course that the conditions that adult Pandas like for spawning - namely a nice substrate and lots of Java Moss - make life difficult afterwards when nursing the babies. Not least because the babies are damn near invisible against natural gravel until they move!

However, it is possible to raise a nice batch of Panda babies from all of this. I have three generations of Pandas in my aquaria right now as proof! And my Pandas have become infamous on this Board for their spawning antics ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thank you for your lovely profile about Panda Cories. I really hadn't planned to actively breed any of my fish.

My Cherry Barbs surprised me with 2 surviving (1 from each spawn). The fry are very cute!

I really want to upgrade to a 20 or 30 gallon tank, but I have a lack of space and a husband that could cause problems. I live in Hawaii and housing is usually small, so I have be careful about space. I also have 2 large bird cages taking up alot of room in my livingroom. On top of all of that, we're also birdsitting a friends Macaw.

Thank both of you for your advice!

Glad to be of help

Thing is, if you're prepared to exercise the necessary diligence, it's possible to raise the fry in a 5 gallon for the first 21 days, but you have to change the water twice a day ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I'm going to see how many I can rescue from the tetras. I want a few more panda cories, if I can save them, for friends for the parents. I love watching them play, I always smile when I see them. Also, the adults will be happier wih more cory companions. I'm going to get a breeding net with hopes of saving some.

I thank both of you so much. I really needed advice. Without fish forums, I wouldn't have the healthy happy fish that I have!