Haif

Its about a 20x turnover. 33 gallon long running a 600gph pump.

Usual method is hydrogen peroxide/alum dip to kill hitchhikers. Not sure on the exact dilution but I know a few folks who regularly go collecting.

Figured I'd share here, hopefully we can get more people successfully breeding them in the hobby. I've had my colony over 2 years at this point, I started with 5 fish I got from my lfs and now I have over 50. Something really important to keep in mind is that when you buy panda loaches they're usually around 4-6 months old. It takes about a year and a half before they reach maturity and can start spawning. I feel like the main secret to success is setting up an environment where the eggs can hatch out and survive the first few weeks without being eaten. Panda loaches like to spawn in natural caves under rocks, but what keeps the eggs alive is having a larger-grain gravel substrate for the eggs to fall down inbetween and hatch safely. The male will herd the female into his cave of choice and they'll blast a cloud of eggs towards the back and leave. No parental care. Babies live in the gravel layer for the first 1-3 weeks until they are large enough to start coming out into the open, thats part of why its important to have a mature tank so there is plenty of natural food available for them. Each spawn is usually around 5-8 survivors in a community tank. I let my water temps fluctuate between season, tank goes from 65-75 degrees over the course of the year. My ph sits around 7.5 and the water is fairly soft, about 3-4 degrees gh and kh. Feeding is fairly simple. You want a tank thats at least fairly biologically mature and I supplement their feeding with a combination of meaty and green foods every day. I haven't tested whether flow is needed but they definitely prefer having decent water movement. As long as you have a filter that's sized for the next size up your adult loaches should be fairly happy. tldr: gravel bottom, lots of large rocks, wait for them to reach spawning age

Thanks for the reply! I knew there had to be at least one other fish nerd who was willing to experiment with cories in cooler tanks. Right now its panda loaches, CPDs and stiphodons. During the winter the tank fluctuates between 65 during the day and 60 at night. Now that its spring the temperature is starting to hold at around the 68-70 mark, and water temps will hold at around 75ish during the summer. Out of curiosity, have you tried any other amazon species? If cories can handle constant 50-60 degree water, it only makes sense that many of our common tetras should be able to do the same (I've kinda been eyeing hummingbird tetras) I'm not keeping anything that actually needs lower temperatures, but I like cooler tanks because 1) I save on the electric bill by not running a heater, and 2) I find cooler temps help with my plants a TON because the water holds on to dissolved gasses better (including co2) and I just get really nice, robust growth that looks like it was grown with co2 injection despite not using co2. Plus, I like to think that my fish appreciate the boosted oxygen levels.

I've been toying with the idea of adding cories to a coolwater tank that I'm planning, have my eye on the common species cause I like how they look. Just wondering if anyone has done it, how well they do long-term at about 60-65f.

I mixed some red rilis and carbon rilis once, ended up with a couple specimens that had black AND red stripes AND the clear bars! They were awesome. Then my baby betta stopped being a baby and ate them all 😞

Oh yeah, that canister should be more than enough unless you're going crazy on the stocking, especially if you combo with live plants.