# Breeding Corydoras Panda for the first time



## elettrone (20 Oct 2014)

Hi there, I'm  about to attempt a breed-inducing tech for Cory Pandas for the first time and while there are several guides on the web I found a lack of detail about few aspects so I'm here asking to anyone who has any experience with this.
As the guides can be easily found I will not be writing the whole thing down but just the shady points.

1)Prior to the mating process the female should be fed a lot with protein stuff and that makes sense but for how long should I be doing this?
Days? Weeks?

2)I usually keep the main tank temp to 24-24.5° Celsius, now to induce the breeding how many degrees should I lower the temp and for how long? Lights on or lights off when i change the water with cooler one?

3)The eggs are susceptible to fungi so people are dosing blu methilene in the tank where the eggs reside. What's the dosage per liter?

4)Will blu methilene kill filter bacteria?

5)Would an UV sterilizer do the same job at keeping the water clean to avoid fungi on eggs?

6)My main tank is 180l but i have a small nano cube of 20l so i was planning to move 4 males and 1 female to this tank right after the protein feeding period so that eggs will stay in a more controlled enviroenment and then move the parents back right after the laying process. The cube is small but it should be ok just to let em lay the eggs right?


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## darren636 (20 Oct 2014)

Feed fish some live food for a few days.

Then do a cool , softer water , water change.
 You will notice in the early morning fish going crazy. Chasing etc


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## dw1305 (20 Oct 2014)

Hi all, 





darren636 said:


> Feed fish some live food for a few days.
> Then do a cool , softer water , water change.
> You will notice in the early morning fish going crazy. Chasing etc


 _Corydoras panda_ are pretty ready spawners.  Like "darren636" says you need to condition them with live food for about 7 days before hand, then a cooler soft water change when you see the males following the female etc..    Blood worms, Grindal worms, California Black worms and small earthworm sections are all good for conditioning.  





elettrone said:


> but i have a small nano cube of 20l so i was planning to move 4 males and 1 female to this tank right after the protein feeding period so that eggs will stay in a more controlled enviroenment and then move the parents back right after the laying process. The cube is small but it should be ok just to let em lay the eggs right?


 Yes should be fine, you need it all set up with a sand substrate (layer can be thin) and a sponge filter. You either need some spawning mops or some live plants, something with a large leaf like _Anubias_ will have the eggs laid on the leaves mainly, all though they may end up in the mops and on the glass. Some moss and dead leaves are very useful for the new fry. 

Once they've finished spawning you need to take out the adults, sometimes they eat the eggs, sometimes they don't. Once the fry have grown a little bit you can put them back in the main tank (pandas won't eat the fry, other fish might)

You don't need methylene blue or UV, a few Alder cones is just as good.

cheers Darrel


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## elettrone (20 Oct 2014)

Thanks for the replies, I wouldn't know where to find alder cones but i have some peat from JBL, i guess that produces the same effect?
How long should I leave the temp to say...22°(is that cold enough?), the full night after water change?
Is brine shrimp a valid option to worms? I can find live brine shrimp quite easily...while I find worms kind of disgusting to handle and cultivate.


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## dw1305 (20 Oct 2014)

Hi all





elettrone said:


> I wouldn't know where to find alder cones


 If you are in the UK or N. Europe you can go out and pick them, the trees are very common along rivers, by ponds etc. Otherwise they sell them on Ebay.  I've never bought Alder cones, but I see "A World of Fish" do them, and I've bought other things (food, filter media) from them and they were great to do business with <http://stores.ebay.co.uk/A-World-of-Fish/Other-/_i.html?_fsub=1>. 





elettrone said:


> but i have some peat from JBL, i guess that produces the same effect?


No, not exactly. It certainly won't hurt, and will produce some antimicrobial compounds, water softening and tint, but it doesn't have the same anti-microbial effect as the Alder cones. 





elettrone said:


> How long should I leave the temp to say...22°(is that cold enough?), the full night after water change?


 No you can just add the cool water and then let it warm up again. If you time it for low atmospheric pressure it  may help, you can get barometric pressure predictions from the Met Office 5 day forecast. 





elettrone said:


> Is brine shrimp a valid option to worms? I can find live brine shrimp quite easily...while I find worms kind of disgusting to handle and cultivate.


 I don't know, I've always used various worms and they definitely work. Grindal worms are probably the least disgusting option.

cheers Darrel


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## elettrone (22 Oct 2014)

OK thanks, I'll try out your hints.
One more question, do alder cones damage filter bacteria as blu methilene does?
I managed to buy a 40pcs lot off internet...as there are no alders in my area.


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## dw1305 (22 Oct 2014)

Hi all,





elettrone said:


> One more question, do alder cones damage filter bacteria as blu methilene does?


Not as far as I know. Anything that adds humic and tannic substances to the water (Sphagnum peat, Oak leaves, IAL etc.) will have some anti-microbial properties. 

The water that these fish originate from is soft, and low in nutrients, and therefore it has a fairly small bacterial load. 

Because _Corydoras panda_ is reasonably easy to keep and breed I would expect that it comes from white or clear water streams, and the eggs will be less likely to fungus than if it was a "black water" species. 

cheers Darrel


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## darren636 (22 Oct 2014)

elettrone said:


> OK thanks, I'll try out your hints.
> One more question, do alder cones damage filter bacteria as blu methilene does?
> I managed to buy a 40pcs lot off internet...as there are no alders in my area.


Don't put them all in at once.
 Try 5 -  10 , if its a small tank.


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## GlenFish (22 Oct 2014)

_Echoing a lot of what has already been said above already.........._

I've spawned these a few times, My setup was 2 males 1 female in a 35l tank,a small internal filter, a thin layer of sand and lots of java moss. Feed them good quality food and lots of bloodworms and they would spawn every 4 or 5 days. I'd do about a 10l(1 bucket) water change of cool water a week. I used some RO water mixed in as my tap water's like rock.

Mine only ever spawned in the evening and into the night, nearly always in the moss, occasionally on the glass. Normally there would be about 15-25 eggs. The adults would eat the eggs if left in there too long, but I regularly found fry in there that I missed. The eggs are quite firm and can be carefully handled, I would move them into a breeding trap(make sure the holes aren't too small) in the same tank, and after hatching feed the fry on microworms. I found these much easier than brine shrimp, you can leave them for a week or 2 happily and do nothing so they're ready when you need them, unlike brine shrimps..... when the fry are big enough not to be eaten I would put them back in with the adults until they were big enough to move on.

In my opinion you don't need methylene blue or UV sterilizer for these. Eggs getting fungus are usually unfertilized anyway so its no problem really.

Good Luck!

Cheers
Glen.


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## elettrone (22 Oct 2014)

I think i have 2 females and 3 males as they are pestering the presumed females two on one, some times three on one.
This morning i had to change water in the main 180L tank and I tried to avoid more than 1° temp changed but it went down 2 to 2.5° now they have been doing these crazy dances for few hours and as long as i stared at them they didn't do the "T" thing nor lay any egg at all.
I had planned the reproduction in a 20L nano cube and only next week when these alder cones arrived but...i guess i'll have to hunt for eggs this evening before lights out or tomorrow morning after lights on and move em somehow to the nano cube.
I've read of people that fed fry with the usual cory tabs reduced to dust and into the nursery...
I don't have worms at hand and no one around here is selling them, it would require some research in the shops in town.
The only so to say "alive" food i was able to buy from the local store was frozen brine shrimps, I'll try to feed those to my breeders for the next attempt.


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## Edvet (22 Oct 2014)

Old skool trick: keep the water you get through some waterchanges till app 50% of the volume, let it stand outside and cool, use that for a big waterchange


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## elettrone (26 Oct 2014)

3 days ago after that water change i found an egg, I then moved it into the nano but I'm unsure if it has gone bad or not.
I didn't have a chanche to add the alder cones as they haven't been shipped yet.
I tried to macro it but my best macro lens only allows for 105mm at 45cm and the light is very low so this is the best i could get, gimme your two cents pls:


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## sciencefiction (26 Oct 2014)

Fertilised eggs normally get darker after 24hrs and then eventually could get very dark. So that egg on the picture looks fertilised and possibly going to hatch. The offspring are so tiny, I personally have problems seeing them without a magnifying glass providing they show up where I am looking.
You can raise corys on baby food, or just make your own by making powder of the food you have but you want something higher in proteins for raising them. Then when adults, lower protein.
I think best is leaf litter as an addition to the tank such as dry oak leaves or almond leaves, as it not only provides tannins, but natural micro food when it breaks down. And for cleaning crew in a raising tank cherry shrimp are great cleaners of the substrate and they don't bother baby corys or eggs. It's quite hard siphoning when you have tiny "invisible" corys foraging around. But then again I probably just need glasses..


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## elettrone (28 Oct 2014)

The egg hatched last night and what looks like a healthy fry is swimming in the nano cube now.
I'm gonna add a nursery in there and confine the fry in it for a couple of weeks or until it grows a little, this is to make the feeding process easier which I'm gonna start the day after tomorrow.
Thanks a lot to every one for the hints.


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## elettrone (6 Nov 2014)

Yesterday i received my new "super" macro lens and this is the best shot i could take without tripod of the 10 days old fry.
The little thing moves so fast it is really hard to get a clear shot...and field of depth is also very thin... 
For those who are interested the shot was taken with an EOS 7D with the new Sigma 180mm Macro lens, 3200 ISO and about 1/60 shutter speed and f/5.6 aperture.


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