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If you're feeding freeze dried Tubifex, this is OK. Live Tubifex, however, should be avoided. This is because the worms live in seriously unsavoury conditions in the wild - near sewage outlets for example - and live ones could carry all kinds of nasties into your aquarium. Quite a few Discus breeders, for example, blame them for introducing Hexamita parasites into the aquarium (this is the cause of Hole In The Head Disease in Discus).

If you can't get live foods, I wouldn't worry too much, though if you can get live Daphnia and Bloodworm, your Pandas will love you.

Frozen Bloodworm, if you get it, should be left to thaw for a while before you feed it. Once it's thawed, your Pandas will have fun munching on that. Chances are, once they're mature, if you combine a big water change with a feeding of live or frozen Bloodworm about 2 hours after the water change, wham, they'll spawn soon after.

I'm waiting for the camera to charge up so I can transfer the latest pics I just shot to the PC for uploading - there's some nice eggs in my Java Moss and on the adjacent glass.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Ok good yea I am feeding them freeze dried. Really you have eggs, are you gonna raise them, or just let them fend for themselfs? I can get frozen blood worms So these will be good for them? How do you feel about a herd of 9? Then if I get eggs from them I will try to only keep the herd around 12-14 somewhere around there . Sounds good?

I'm going to let this lot just fend for themselves. I need to sort out some issues with the nursery aquarium - such as temporarily letting a Siamese Algae Eater loose in there to nuke some blanket weed - and I might have to avail myself of a temporary purchase of a Clown Loach to see off a snail infestation as well.

Once that is out of the way, however, I will see about letting the Pandas spawn in there, and raising another batch of babies. The other alternative is to turn the quarantine aquarium into a small breeding aquarium, let a female and 3 males loose in there, then once the fry are hatched, transfer them to the nursery to grow on so I can let the parents spawn again. Then, at some point, turn up at the LFS with 50 baby Pandas.

Incidentally, if you've never encountered the mechanics of freeze drying, it's actually an interesting process. Courtesy of a little peculiarity of the physics of water.

The Tubifex are collected, then frozen solid in a big block of ice at around -20 degrees C. This block is then transferred to a vacuum chanber, and the air removed using a powerful vacuum pump.

What happens is that when the ambient pressure in the chamber drops below a critical level, the water molecules in the ice block jump straight from the solid to the gas phase without passing through the liquid phase first - a process known to chemists as 'sublimation'. Thus the Tubifex (which of course are well and truly dead in the ice block) end up having ALL the water extracted from them without losing any of the nutritional value of the food. And, as a bonus, any nasty pathogenic organisms are killed outright, even encysted ones, because cysts need at least a tiny quantity of water present. When all the water is removed, the cysts are dead. So, your Tubifex become nice and nutritious (and tasty) but without the pathogen problem that occurs with live Tubifex.

The only problem of course is that the resulting cubes of Tubifex are ridiculously bouyant - even more so than cork - and so keeping the cubes underwater where the fishes can snack upon them requires some ingenuity.

However, onve you've solved the problem of getting the Tubifex to the fishes, particularly bottom feeders such as Corys, then they appreciate the treat. Mine are quite fond of the odd cube of freeze dried Tubifex, but live Bloodworm, oh they go NUTS over that!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

ok.......... maybe I shouldn't ask this question.............but here goes:

Are panda cories really more interesting & fun than other cories?

In my experience, Pandas are probably the most fun fish you can keep. They require some effort to keep them happy, and they won't last long if you skimp on baisc maintenance, but if you give them the conditions they like, they become Animaniacs with fins - non stop entertainment all the way.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Yep mine seem to be alot more socail than when I had bronze ones. They play more. LOL

BAD NEWS: I lost a panda today He got stuck in a hole in an ornament and drowned This was a terrible loss but with death comes NEW LIFE!!! I have 2 new additions! Baby platies were born today in the tank and I am very excited about that. i have selected to two that I am sure will survive to adulthood. But now my panda herd is down to 5 sooooo.... once I return form a beach trip after this weekend I will be getting 4 new pandas!
(Dont worry I took out the darn ornament)

Sorry for your loss. I have a post about the same thing in general freshwater. I guess it happens quite frequently.

But congrats on the babies!

Seems you're not the only one. I just had the same thing happen to one of my Pandas too.

Bleh.

What makes it even more exasperating in my case is that the piece of decor in which the Panda wedged itself and got stuck has been an otherwise trouble free part of the Panda Fun Palace for 12 years. Which just goes to show, doesn't it? (Sigh).


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Ok well i have lost another panda to this so I went ahead and took out all the ornaments. They can just play in the plants from now on. I will get driftwood for the 55 gallon tank I am planning and hopefully that will be safe enough for them. Until then I will wait before I get anymore pandas(the herd is down to 4) and put them in the 55 gallon when it comes to be. UGH