New pair of GBR’s

[Slick_Nick]

Hi everyone I got my first pair of rams last week and I’m pretty excited! I kept a male alone for a little over a year before he passed, and ever since then I’ve wanted to keep a male and female together. I finally got a large enough tank to do so. I went to my lfs last weekend and picked the best looking male and female from a tank with a bunch in it. I brought them home and within 5 minutes of them being in my 29g they found each other and haven’t left each other’s side for the most part! It’s really great to see them interact with each other. I hope things continue to go well between them as they mature! I’ll share a few pics I got of them.

[Colu]

Nice looking rams are you planning on breeding them

[Mongo_like_fish]

Great looking pair of fish!

[Trish]

Beautiful fish in an incredible tank! 👏

[Stef]

Pandas too!!  Really nice scape. 

[anewbie]

You can't keep cory (esp panda) with rams. The tank should be 82+ which will significantly shorten life span if not kill panda over time.

[Slick_Nick]

On 11/4/2021 at 4:59 PM, Colu said:

Nice looking rams are you planning on breeding them

Thank you Colu! I think it would be awesome to have them breed. We’ll see how things go as they mature. 

On 11/4/2021 at 10:07 PM, anewbie said:

You can't keep cory (esp panda) with rams. The tank should be 82+ which will significantly shorten life span if not kill panda over time.

Thank you for your concern anewbie. The aquarium is at 80 degrees. Not to hot and not too cold I’m trying to please everybody.  

[anewbie]

While 80 is probably border line ok for the rams (some people have success at 78 but 82 seems the optimal); that is too warm long term for the panda. They won't die over-night but they will suffer long term. The rams are delicate and by the time they stop eating they are probably beyond saving but while the panda are more robust the best thing would be to move them to a cooler aquarium. If you want a bottom feeder with rams you really should go with pleco or loaches (kuhli or zebra).

[Slick_Nick]

On 11/5/2021 at 9:34 AM, anewbie said:

While 80 is probably border line ok for the rams (some people have success at 78 but 82 seems the optimal); that is too warm long term for the panda. They won't die over-night but they will suffer long term. The rams are delicate and by the time they stop eating they are probably beyond saving but while the panda are more robust the best thing would be to move them to a cooler aquarium. If you want a bottom feeder with rams you really should go with pleco or loaches (kuhli or zebra).

I’ve read lots of mixed things on this and heard from many people who have had Corys with their rams at those temps for years without any problems. I’ve had the Corys for a little over a month now and they seem to be enjoying life. I am going to keep them in there I will just keep a close eye on them and watch for any signs of problems with them! 

[anewbie]

On 11/5/2021 at 2:15 PM, Slick_Nick said:

I’ve read lots of mixed things on this and heard from many people who have had Corys with their rams at those temps for years without any problems. I’ve had the Corys for a little over a month now and they seem to be enjoying life. I am going to keep them in there I will just keep a close eye on them and watch for any signs of problems with them! 

It is the species; the only cory I hear of people keeping with  rams are sterbai; sterbai should be kept a bit cooler but can tolerate warmer water a bit better. Panda (the species you have) tends to prefer cooler water. Two websites with useful information on species of fishes are:

seriouslyfish.com and planetcatfish.com

While all sites might have some errors and the tolerance of tank raise species vs wild species differ you should read the text and not look at the raw numbers. Frequently a range is a tolerable range but the prefer range is not at the extremes. seriouslyfish for example makes a point of indicating significantly reduced life span at the higher range for panda cory.

[Slick_Nick]

On 11/5/2021 at 12:21 PM, anewbie said:

It is the species; the only cory I hear of people keeping with  rams are sterbai; sterbai should be kept a bit cooler but can tolerate warmer water a bit better. Panda (the species you have) tends to prefer cooler water. Two websites with useful information on species of fishes are:

seriouslyfish.com and planetcatfish.com

While all sites might have some errors and the tolerance of tank raise species vs wild species differ you should read the text and not look at the raw numbers. Frequently a range is a tolerable range but the prefer range is not at the extremes. seriouslyfish for example makes a point of indicating significantly reduced life span at the higher range for panda cory.

Like I said when I’ve researched I made sure to put panda Corys and there’s many people who have kept them together. I understand it may not be the ideal temp, but they look like they are loving life so I’m not going to mess with them at all. I appreciate your help though. 

Anewbie do you happen to know how much it shortens their lifespan? 

[anewbie]

I can't quantify that easily but i would say from what i've seen more than 40%. The thing is that many things contribute to decrease lifespan including water quality and temp so trying to isolate it specifically to temp would require a very long detail experiment. Most cory (and I believe this is true of panda) can live over 10 years but most people keep them in unfavorable conditions including non-soft neutral or alkaline water and warm temperature. From my readings of various forums people who keep them cooler water and very soft acidic conditions claim significantly longer life spans frequently exceeding 10 years.

[Slick_Nick]

On 11/6/2021 at 1:28 AM, anewbie said:

I can't quantify that easily but i would say from what i've seen more than 40%. The thing is that many things contribute to decrease lifespan including water quality and temp so trying to isolate it specifically to temp would require a very long detail experiment. Most cory (and I believe this is true of panda) can live over 10 years but most people keep them in unfavorable conditions including non-soft neutral or alkaline water and warm temperature. From my readings of various forums people who keep them cooler water and very soft acidic conditions claim significantly longer life spans frequently exceeding 10 years.

Wow that’s actually really impressive for such a small fish! Well I appreciate your knowledge thank you for letting me know.