Breeding Panda Corys

[Darren Balch]

Having owned a few different species of various Catfish i have been collecting some groups of Corys specifically for to see if I am able to breed them after having sucess with my Bronze & Albinos. I purchased a group of 6 Pandas which were very small (1 inch max) so I put them in with my bristlenoses (which I am also trying to breed) as they do a good job of turning over the sand and i thought it would be easy enough to make sure they were well fed. From the 6 fish there are 2 that are larger and slightly rounder in profile which in my limited experience is the tell tale sign of them being female. In the tank i have a bubble curtain at the back and all 6 of the Pandas regularly surf this. Approx 5 weeks ago i noticed what i beleived to be spawning behavior from what i have observed with other species however i dismissed this as they just seem too small. Upon having a look round my tank on 11th April i notice multiple small pairs of eyes swimming around so i set to work at capturing all i could see and placing them in a breeding net so i can ensure that they get regular high protien food. I have 9 and they have all at least doubled in size and the tell tale black eye patches have been clearly visable for at least a week now. Last night just before i went to bed i observed more spawning and eggs being laid.

I am not 100% if it was the same female. I guess my questions are. 1- Is it common for Corys this small to spawn? 2- How many eggs should i expect? 3- Should i expect a usual 2 or 3 spawns then a short break like I am used to with other Cory species?

Any thoughts or comments greatfully received.

Thanks Darren

[donpetty]

Hi Darren,
In my experience;
Smaller properly conditioned Pandas will spawn, but the spawn sizes will be smaller,
at least that was the case with mine. As they get larger the spawn sizes will increase.
At first, I tried to always catch them spawning and then remove all of the eggs, but,
I found that the babies that I removed and hatched away from the parents were never as large
as the ones I missed that grew up in the tank with the adults. That's not to suggest that some
Panda's wont eat eggs! I have friends who tell me that they wont leave any eggs with adults.
In the case of my panda's at least, they are colony spawners, and seldom ever bother eggs.
I think the little Briste-nose in the tank eats some...
In fact, because, I move fish around in my fish room, I have found Panda fry in other tanks
with other unrelated Cory cats, I was working on my dwarf tanks(Habrosus and pygmaeus)
and found several Panda fry happily swimming around with them.
kind of a nice treat.
I cannot tell you what kind of schedule they will spawn on, as my fish seem to spawn
after water changes and it sometimes seems if they "feel" like it as well.
hope some of this helps.
Kind Regards,
Don

[Melander]

Hi Darren!

In my experience the pandas produce a quite small amount of eggs and also scatter them more across the tank, sometimes even one and one compared to clutches of eggs that other species can produce. This means that the eggs can be somewhat hard to find and collect.

I cannot tell you the exact amount as my group is in a community tank and I assume that many are lost anyway but it's definently a far lower amount of eggs compared to my Schultzei.

Mine seems to spawn for a couple of days and then have a break similar to what you described.

Melander

[christiansen]

Hi Darren ,

congrats for the spawing . i'be been keeping/breeding a small group of C.Panda in a colony tank for an year now . they usualy spawn every 2-3 months, the usual triggers works on them : a cooler water change , a drop in air pressure, lots of blood worms in they're diet . They are also artists in hideing the eggs . the eggs numbers are realtive small , never got more then 10-15 eggs/ spawn . I tried hatching eggs in plastic containers or let them in the tank (they don't seem to be interested in the eggs, or at least mine ). i've got better results (90%-95% hatching rate)in plastic containers with water from the tank , air stone and antifungus treatment (metilen blue or alder cones). Try to figure out what works for you, i've learnd that there's no "magic method", just need to establish an work flow and stick to that. Good luck

[Vlacek]

Chritiansen I'm sure you are spot on by saying "there's no magic method" because my experience is quite different. When I had my 2F+3M pandas, they spawned for two month, once a week, sometimes twice a week, sometimes I was able to collect about 35eggs per one female spawning (still quite less than some other species with smaller eggs like aeneus but with very high fertility rate on the other hand) and mine were VERY interested in eating their eggs but only if they found them before one day old (they get tougher and not so juicy I presume). I had to shut the lights and only leave spawning pair in tank in order to be able to collect higher numbers of eggs. I should also mention that I didn't have to do any unusual water changes or drop the temperature to make them spawn. They just did it

BTW - most active corries I ever had. I always enjoyed watching them.

And to answer Darren's first question - pandas are smaller compared to other common species so might look strange that they spawn at this size.

Good luck with them!

[christiansen]

hy Vlacek ,

u've breed them before me, i remember reading yours and others users posts about them . i've learn alot from all the people here that posted they're experience on breeding and husbandry of coryodras . Fish tend to act diferent from tank to tank from what i learn in the short time since i keep corydoras . The one thing that i found common in all the people reports on C. Panda is that they are a very active species. All day long they sniff the sand arround the tank. they are a joy to watch .

[demonspawn]

Pandas are by far my favorite cory as well. As already mentioned,there is nothing carved in stone. Some corys will readily spawn at the drop of a hat and others have to be "persuaded" sounds like your doing something right!
Congrats and goodluck.

[aciaroch]

I guess I lucked out; bought two Panda Corys for my Community/Discus tank about a year ago. I noticed immediately that they are much more active and less shy than my other Corys (Julii, Heraldi, and Skunk).

Also, they must have been male and female, because about 6 months later, I saw two adorable little baby pandas foraging in my large java fern. They grew up, and now have the run of the tank

Today, I just saw three more little babies in the java fern. I never see any mating behavior, or eggs; I'm afraid my tank will be over-run with pandas!

I do nothing to rear them. I have no idea what they are eating as fry, or how they are avoiding the other (carnivorous) fish, but they seem to be taking care of themselves just fine! They do seem to love rummaging through the Java fern, nibbling at the surface of the leaves like little otocinclus.