I never worried about sexing my panda corys, because they are egg layers, and I vacuum the gravel weekly (bi-weekly if the water tests are showing nitrates or nitrites, or high ammonia), but the three I have in my RO tank slipped past me, because I discovered two tiny (about 1cm) panda corys in the tank a few days ago.
They seem to be doing well. They swim all around, and dig, just like the big corys, and they appear to be growing visibly. They look like they’re gaining 1 - 2 mm per day. That’s a lot when you think about what percentage of their total body size that is.
They are adorable, and the privately owned fish store in town (where I get nearly all my fish and supplies) has agreed to take them; aside from space issues, I don’t need a dynasty of inbred corys.
Here’s the thing: I don’t know what I did right. Corys, and especially pandas are supposed to be hard to breed in a tank, plus, like I said, I vacuum the gravel regularly. I suppose they could have laid eggs on a plant-- the tank has live plants. Also, a recent change is that I have a job that is keeping me out of the house for long days, and instead of putting the tanks on a timer (which I should do) I’ve been leaving the lights on for sometimes sixteen hours at a stretch, then leaving it off altogether the next day (but still feeding them).
If there is a simple change I can make that will reduce breeding, and not be dangerous, please let me know. Otherwise, I’ll just keep taking them too the store to rehome, assuming it happens again.
Maybe it’s the light- if you leave it off for prolonged periods it may cause a slight temp drop that might be sufficient to induce spawning. Perhaps invest in a $5 timer for the lights? Although I must say I could never stop my corys from breeding no matter how hard I tried. I think they are kind of like guppies.
They also typically deposit their eggs in fine-leaved aquatic plants, and hatch out in ~3 days depending on water temperature.
It also says the fry cannot survive in water temperatures above 26 C (78.8 F) so maybe bump your thermostat up to 79-80; that won’t harm the adults or any other tropical freshwater fish I can think of.
Yup. For some reason, I haven’t been able to get an algae eater to survive in the RO tank (where the pandas are, along with some rummy-nosed tetras, and rasboras), and so every month, I have to scrape. When I do, I do like a 30% water change instead of the usual 20%. The next week, I change the filter. So it could have been the 30% change, or the new filter.
For all I know, I suppose, they’ve been spawning every month, and this is the first time the fry survived. I guess if that’s the case, then I’ll just take the fry, when I do get them, to the store. It’s a good store, and they’ll give me credit for fish I bring in that they can sell-- fry, that is, not your 18" pleco that you are giving up because you didn’t know it would get that big. I think they quarantine customer-bred fish for a while, then put them out. I bought a customer-bred metae cory, two & 1/2 years ago, which is thriving in my community tank.
I figured I knew what corys were but had to Google it anyway.
For some reason I’m reminded of the '16 presidential campaign.*
*aside from the “peaceful” part.
**years ago I got into a conversation with a couple of people about my fish tank and was asked what kind I had. I replied “well, they’re mostly bottom-dwellers” and was a little taken aback when they started giggling.
I am jealous. I could never get panda corys to live in my aquarium. No problem with anything else, water tested fine, but the panda corys died within a week. Twice.
They like RO water. I tried a panda cory in my big community tank where I have a metae, a julii, a skunk, a pepper, and an albino, which all school together nicely. The panda didn’t make it. I was afraid to try pandas again, but the fish store guys said they thrive in RO water. Apparently. I have three which are now five.
Not all corys like RO water. I had a blue not make it in the RO tank, even though I was told they prefer it, and there’s one in my son’s tank at school, which I manage, that has been there three years.
It’s not distilled water, it’s just very soft. The tank has natural rocks and real plants in it, and they keep the environment right. It always tests about a notch up on the test strip harder than the RO water tests by itself. If you had only polymer decorations and fake plants, maybe you would need to add some minerals. I do add salt-- the kind of metabolic salt that freshwater fish need, the same as I do to my regular tank, which has conditioned tap water in it. My tap water tests 0 chlorine, but I still add dechlorinator to get rid of the other stuff that might be in it, and even though it says the conditioners work instantly, I let the water sit for a little while. It’s a lot harder than the RO water, and the pH is higher.
Congrats to the OP. Baby fish means your doing something right and it’s really rewarding.
I have a 29 gallon African cichlid tank that’s gonna be upgraded to a 75 that’s currently being cycled. I bought an RO unit specifically for this new tank to deal with phosphates and algae growth on Texas holey rock.
The fish I have in the RO tank are ones the store keeps in RO water, and will not warranty if ou don’t use RO water. They do this with only a few species. One is the rummy-nosed tetras, which are not available anywhere else in town. The tetras are doing very well, as are the rasboras, and clearly, the panda corys like it, whereas I lost the one I bought some place else, and put in regular water.
Just to re-emphasize, I have rocks that naturally mineralize the water, plants that add organic substances, and I put electrolytic salts in, same as I do with the other tank, each time I change the water.