The Spawning of _Corydoras panda_
By Jennifer and Henry Wilkinson - KAS

The _Corydoras panda_ is a relatively small catfish ranging from 4.5
to 5.0 cm. It has been collected from Rio Lullapichis where it was
found in a clear mountain stream with a rocky bottom.

I first acquired my stock from Fraser Street Aquarium in Vancouver
B.C. about 2 years ago. At the time I lived in Revelstroke which was
about a 10 hour drive hone. But who could resist these beautiful
little pink babies. They were about 1/2 grown and look to be very
healthy. So I purchased 6 and told the store owner to pack them in
extra air, because they had a long trip ahead of them.

Needless to say, they made that trip safely. I placed them in a 10
gallon tank with a mini Aqua Clear with a prefilter on the intake
tube. The tank had fine gravel and was quite thickly planted with
_Cabomba_.

A few days later I notice these little white things all over the
front glass. When I did the changes I would wipe them down, but
by the next day I noticed they were back again. I asked around
but nobody seemed to have a clue what I was talking about.They just
told me it must be snails. They didn't seem to hurt anything so I
just left them and wiped them down every time I did a water change.
They were in both my cory tanks but not in any of the others.

A few months later I found cory eggs and babies in both of the tanks.
I can remember being so excited I called Henry at work to tell him.
Unfortunately, all those babies and eggs disappeared. Very
disappointed I tried to find the cause. Did the parents eat the eggs
and then the babies? I didn't know....

It wasn't long after, I found eggs again. This time I watched more
closely. I still didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I moved some
of the eggs to a different tank, but most fungused. I ended up with 3
from that spawn. All the ones I left in the parent tank disappeared
again. So I gave up and started to breed other fish.

Shortly after we moved last year, I lost one of the original stock,
and one of the babies that I raised. So now I have 7. By this time I
had found someone else who had raised a spawn of corys. She told me to
try a bare bottom tank. So that's what I did.

I threw the gravel and plants out and bleached the tank, and filter. I
added water from an existing tank, then floated the pandas and put
them back in. Whew!! At last I got rid of those little white things.
[I still however had them in the other cory tank.]

I fed them blood worms, Hikari, sinking wafers and occasionally brine
shrimp. Still they didn't seem interested in breeding. Then when I
went to clean the prefilter, I found 14 eggs. I quickly moved the
adults to another tank, removed the Aqua Clear and put in an air stone
on low. Then I sadly watched as a few eggs fungused every day for the
next few days. So once again I gave up.

A few months ago I decided I wanted to take a break from breeding
fish, or at least cut down to only one breeding tank. I placed several
species of _Corydoras_ in a 10 gallon tank.

Well shortly after to my surprise, there were eggs in every top corner
of the tank. I left them there and in a couple of days they
disappeared. Then every couple of days more eggs would appear. Then
when our leopard danios spawned, I added the eggs of the day.

For some reason, there was a breeder trap hooked on the 10 gallon cory
tank. I'm not sure of its purpose, I don't remember anything being
put in it, but when I went to remove it, it was covered with small
eggs. So I finally gave in, and decided to try again.

I 1/2 filled a 10 gallon with water from the parent tank, and then
topped up both tanks. I moved the breeder trap over and moved most of
the larger eggs that were on the glass, with my fingers. They stick
to your fingers until you stick them to the glass where you want them.
I then added an airstone on low, and waited.

Over the next 4 days, most of the eggs on the glass turned light brown
and then dark brown. Then tails appeared and they dropped to the
bottom of the tank. They still had a small yolk sac, but I started
feeding baby brine shrimp and OSI micro food.

Its now 6 weeks later and I have just been able to tell I have at
least 50 _C. pandas_. There are more in the tank, but I still can't
tell what they are going to be.

So I ended up with 3 _C. pandas_ in the danio tank and at least 50 in
the cory tank. Ah, enough to claim for BAP points. There might be
more articles to come, if I have enough to claim for BAP points.

Thanks to Ilene Alvis for the answer to the little white things in the
two tanks. It must have been hydra. Which also explains where the
fry and eggs went.

One more thing.....corys are such sociable little fish they
should be purchased in groups of 3 or more. I personally buy 6 to 10.

So if you are looking for a peaceful community catfish, that is active
during the day, I would recommend _Corydoras panda_ as a candidate for
your aquarium.

Reprinted with permission from The Kitsap Aquarian, publication of the
Kitsap Aquarium Society, April 1995, pages 7-8.