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Once I make enough money from the Panda babies to buy a new aquarium to house them in, sure!

Got any suggestions as to species to try?

Only if you suggest long snouted ones, they're very difficult to get round here, so it'll have to be a species I can obtain without having to wait 6 weeks for a special order to come through ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I've seen guapore going for £7 here in the UK - around $11.50 US. They were fairly chunky specimens too, not tiny ones ...

UPDATE : during the water change and gravel vac of the Panda Fun Palace™ I found 3 more eggs and saved them. Whee, 19 fry ... here's hoping!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 04-Jan-2006 21:21

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

guapore cost 10 bucks a pop and rarely even show up around here.

EDIT: If you want a challenge, you should try for the aeneus variants. While the 'ol bronze fella might be a cinch to spawn, the lazers and black are quite a handful.

Last edited by Cup_of_Lifenoodles at 03-Jan-2006 19:38

The UK has different import strategies. Corydoras guapore can be obtained here (at least in my locality) with only a modest level of difficulty, but I've never seen any live specimens of Corydoras ambiacus.

I suspect some of this lies in the fact that some dealers have a habit of being somewhat cavalier with species labels, and in the past, something like axelrodi, which is a notoriously bad traveller, was brought in mistakenly under the ambiacus label. This would make sense, as I've seen Corys mislabelled like crazy in some dealerships, to the point where I was sold a Corydoras agassizii that actually turned out to be a Corydoras bolivianus (or whatever it's been renamed to now).

The two that I consider major challenges, upon account of well-documented egg-eating tendencies, are garbei and sychri. In particular, garbei is a shy spawner, and stops if you take a look at it, which makes detecting whether or not it is eating its eggs particularly difficult.

Having said that, axelrodi would also be a challenge because it suffers from transport shock to a degree that massively exceeds that of any other Cory. That species is a very bad traveller, and needs a LOT of care when acclimatising.

UPDATE : go here to see the photo I took of 3 of the Panda Cory eggs!!!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 03-Jan-2006 14:23

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

You can get Corydoras guapore but not C. ambiacus? That's pretty much a complete reverse of most places in this country. I highly recommend guapore cories. They are fairly nice-looking as cory cats go, and spend a good deal of time swimming through the middle area of the tank as many of the dwarf species do.

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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."

Congratulations on the bub!!

Quick scout through PlanetCatfish to see other Corys I might like to spawn if I could get hold of them ...

Corydoras ambiacus
Corydoras axelrodi
Corydoras cervinus
Corydoras concolor
Corydoras duplicareus
Corydoras elegans
Corydoras fowleri
Corydoras garbei (because it would be a real challenge)
Corydoras guapore
Corydoras habrosus
Corydoras hastatus
Corydoras loretoensis
Corydoras mamore
Corydoras oiapoquensis
Corydoras pastazensis
Corydoras semiaquilus
Corydoras C096
Corydoras C097
Corydoras sterbai
Corydoras sychri (Again a real challenge)
Corydoras weitzmani

I think that list will do for starters

Trouble is, I reckon I'd be lucky if I could get anything on that list other than hastatus, habrous or guapore ... I could find a supplier for sterbai but at £12 each, not something I could buy a big shoal of im a hurry (sigh) ...

There's also something on that page called Corydoras sp. 'crystal azure' which looks quite cute ... exactly WHAT that fish is of course is another matter, something for the taxonomists to sort out ... paging Nijssen and Isbrücker!


Last edited by Calilasseia at 03-Jan-2006 00:02

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

*takes plane to see pandas*

I can only recommend species that I like, you of course will have different preferences. Plenty of cories can be propagated if enough effort is put into the task, so ease of breeding almost isn't a concern. I do have to say that Corydoras gossei would be neat to get ahold of, for one. I was a bit turned off on longnosed cories because of my experience with them, though I'm still tempted by the nicer-looking types. C. septentrionalis is bland even as far as Corydoras go.

Last edited by sirbooks at 02-Jan-2006 22:11

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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."

After the October disaster, I thought it would take ages to return to something resembling normality in the aquarium. However, I've just completed a water change and gravel vac on the Panda Fun Palace™, and guess what turned up?

A four week old baby Panda Cory!

Sadly, there was no was I could get a photo of the little guy, and I only noticed him because he moved (yes, baby Pandas blend in with gravel that well!) and so I can't show you any baby pics because by the time I completed the gravel vac, he'd scooted off to some hiding place, doubtless to reappear once he's nearer 10 weeks old and showing some signs of growing up. But, he's about 8mm long, and has a lovely set of fuzzy walrus barbels!

Absolute super spiffing WOOTNESS abounds! Yay!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Congratulations on the reboot of the panda program.

Out of curiosity, have you ever thought about breeding another type of Corydoras? You have plenty of experience with the pandas, are you at all inclined to give a more difficult species a try?

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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."

DOUBLE POST - WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!

They've just spawned again!

Just transferred 10 eggs to the nursery, and they're still spawning after the disturbance of me removing the eggs ... they've just plonked another one on the glass next to the Java Moss ...

This is getting silly ... but I love it


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

My secret is simple. Shameless article plug follows

Basically, Pandas like frequent water changes and gravel vacs. Leave them on top of a gunky gravel bed and they tend to show their dislike of this in several ways, the most drastic being expiring and acquiring their wings and harps.

Other points to note with Pandas are : [1] they are more avowedly social than larger Corys (a trait they share with all the small species), and strictly speaking, you should strive to keep at least 8 together in a group. The maxim "the more, the merrier" applies to Pandas heavily, and if you have the space to keep 12 upwards, so much the better; [2] Pandas like a stimulating environment. Give them lots of intricate bits of bogwood with nooks and crannies and caves to explore, with nice Java Moss growths upon them, the odd tangle of Java Fern rhizomes, and other plant thickets whose roots they can rummage among, then they're a LOT happier than they are in a sparsely furnished aquarium; [3] Pandas absolutely ADORE being given live food. Give them regular banquets of live Daphnia, live Bloodworm (which they go nuts over!) and live Brine Shrimp, and you'll find that your Pandas start spawning at a rate of knots, once the other two factors are in place. Vary the diet - variety is the spice of life with these little guys - and rotate multiple flake foods with treats such as freeze dried Tubifex and Hikari wafers in between the live foods.

I've also discovered that if Pandas become used to having other fish species as companions, the sudden disappearance of these (as happened to me in October) tends to depress them somewhat and leave them wondering what's happened. Of course, in my case I lost 7 out of 14 Pandas as well, which didn't help one bit, and for which I'm cursing the water company as a result of their foolish dumping of excess treatment chemicals down the tap.

Now that my Pandas have 12 Cardinals above them to play tag with, they're a good deal happier than they were while waiting for the new Cardinals to arrive. But then they grew up with tankmates a plenty, and again, seem to need that extra security. My explanation is this - they live in fairly shallow wters in the wild, and rely upon the presence of fish above them to alert them to 'death from the air' in the form of fish eating birds. When those fish above them perform a disappearing act, they take it as a warning that something nasty is about to happen, and seek refuge themselves. Once those midwater and surface fish return, it acts as an 'all clear' signal to them.

Plus, mine watch for the Cardinals rising to the surface to feed, and the moment they sense this is happening, they know that there's food to go and look for, and start coming out in 'commando patrols' along the gravel. mine are doing this right now as I type this, because I put food in the aquarium about 5 minutes before starting this post!

Oh, and here's a tip I cannot stress enough - watch your Pandas' behaviour. You'll discover that these guys have individual personalities, to the extent that you end up being able to tell them apart and name them!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Whats your secret?? and congrats

Congratulations. I am so glad that the pandas have settled down and are making babies. Hope that little fry is the first of many.

Congratulations!

Aren't baby pandas cuter than cute?

Last edited by cbcinnie at 01-Jan-2006 14:24

Congrats!You can share anytime

Congratulations & Welcome him to your Panda Fun Palace.


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