Extremely picky Pand Cory

[WicketTheRat]

I got 5 panda cory several months ago, they were very small when I got them, less than a half inch, basically large fry size (which I relaize was a bad idea, but I wasn't having a lot of luck finding them).  They would not eat anything in the first few days of quarantine.  I de wormed them with both paracleanse and levamisole.  The levamisole twice, and later, because of another issue with a differentl tank in my house.  Before I got them to eat one died.  Finally about a week in I tried frozen bloodworms and they went nuts for them.  When I was less worried they were starving to death I tried to add other foods by skipping feeding them a day then offering it, but nothing took.  Finally after a few weeks of fattening them up on bloodworms I moved them to my display tank wondering if they needed a change of scenery to eat other stuff and still they would only eat frozen bloodworms.

I was thinking of trying to add some kind of vitamin to those, when I found hikari vibra bites.  To my shock, they loved them too.  I guess they only want to eat bloodworm shaped food?  It is a pain, because the guppies they live with are very pushy about the bloodworms and vibra bites, so I usually reach in and bury it under a little bit of substrate (its a planted tank), and they dig it up and eat it.

I do plan to get a few more when I can find them, and I am hoping the new batch might lead by example and they will eat more stuff?  Is this normal for cory?  I am very new to them!  

Here is a list of what they don't eat: xtreme sinking catfish wafers, omega one veggie rounds, xtreme krill flakes, hikari sinking carnivore pellets, sera nature tabs, frozen brine shrimp, live baby brine shrimp, frozen daphnia, freeze dried tubifex worms, new life spectrum tropical flakes, repashy soilent green.  Some of these things I never expected them to eat, but I tried everything in my house.

This is fine right now, but one day I will be traveling for work again, and my husband is terrified of fish touching him and won't stick his hand in my tanks.  I would like to get them on a more "drop and go" food, at least some of the time.

[Ken Burke]

My pandas love tetra shrimp wafers. We feed it daily and the fish are spawning regularly. 

[WicketTheRat]

2 hours ago, Ken Burke said:

My pandas love tetra shrimp wafers. We feed it daily and the fish are spawning regularly. 

I don't have shrimp, so I didn't even think of shrimp foods, thanks for the suggestion!

[Ryan W]

When are you feeding them and when are you trying to observe their eating behavior? Also, how long did you give each individual offering before deeming it a “no”? Meaning, did you try every day for a week or just once or twice? I’m brand new to Cory cats and about a month ago I got 6 pandas for my tiger barb/black neon tank. They tend to spend most of their time grazing on biofilm it seems. Mine seem to be doing great and they are nice and active. Mostly at night, I’m convinced they are mostly nocturnal. Lately, I haven’t even worried about feeding them until after lights out. I’ve been having relative success by offering them Repashy Grub Pie, Xtreme catfish wafers, frozen bloodworms, and Vibrabites (pre-soaked for softening).

The first time I tried target feeding them was with the Xtreme wafers and they wanted nothing to do with them. I went out and bought some frozen bloodworms and gave a heavy feeding so the bloodworms would settle and collect for them to forage for. That worked pretty well but I didn’t want to keep doing that daily because I didn’t want to feed the entire tank bloodworms for every feeding (tiger barbs are pigs and I usually feed Xtreme flakes). I then got the Repashy Grub Pie and made a small batch and although the cories “ate” it, they still seemed hesitant but willing. After the cories didn’t seem to really want that either I thought to myself “great, almost $30 in food for nothing”.
 

Then I started watching their feeding behavior. Sporadic and almost uncontrollable is how I would describe it. I also realized that they did a majority of their foraging after lights out. So, I started trying the wafers and Repashy about 30-60 minutes after lights. Then I noticed that by morning the gel/wafers were about half gone. I know they didn’t dissolve because both are very stable in water for at least 24 hours (in my experience). Considering the barbs and tetras sleep at night, my only conclusion was that the pandas had taken to them. Lo and behold, after a few weeks of observation, they had! It wasn’t until I started feeding them at night that they really started taking to the Xtreme wafers. Now, about 5 weeks after purchase, they seem to enjoy the wafers and the gel significantly more than when I got them.

Considering you said you’ve had them for several months and they appear to be healthy, your tank has something they want whether you’re giving to them or not! Honestly, at this point, I’d just continue doing what you’re doing. They are proving to be eating something enough to sustain them so why fix what isn’t broken?

Having said that, I completely understand picky fish and wanting to give them a varied diet. My barbs I’ve had for about 6-8 months and they eat like toddlers. Sometimes all they will eat is flakes, sometimes it’s pellets, and sometimes it’s frozen and you never know when their appetite will sway or what they will want lol. 

[WicketTheRat]

51 minutes ago, Ryan W said:

Considering you said you’ve had them for several months and they appear to be healthy, your tank has something they want whether you’re giving to them or not! Honestly, at this point, I’d just continue doing what you’re doing. They are proving to be eating something enough to sustain them so why fix what isn’t broken?

Thank you for replying, it is good to know other people have picky fish.  I also agree, they are mostly active at night for me too!

So, this is really the problem, if I stop feeding bloodworms/hikari, after about a week I am seeing them get skinny again.  I would say that I am basing the idea that they aren't eating other things when I am not looking on that.  In QT it was a bare bottom tank, so the lack of poop was also an indicator.  The one I lost was super emaciated when it died.  I feed a few minutes after the lights turn off, as you said, to cut down on the other fish taking food, but guppies... they are a little relentless.  No way that a piece of wafer would be left by morning with them.  I really have to bury the food or the guppies are getting most of it, and as you said, I don't want to be feeding them bloodworms every night.  I could go on like this forever, but once I start traveling for work again this will be a problem.  Or maybe not, if they can go 2 weeks or so without food once they are full size.

The tank is right next to my desk, I work from home, and usually in the late evening.  So I sometimes watch for hours after I drop food in.  They school around, and barble at everything (can barble be a verb too), its totally adorable.  My house never truly gets dark, because the 3 adults who live here work totally opposite schedules, so it is possible that has something to do with it?

As for offering the food, I would not feed a day (my thinking was so they were pretty hungry), then keep offering the new food until I thought they were starting to loose weight, usually 3 or 4 days, then chicken out and feed bloodworms.  At that time though, they were sooo teeny.  I would feel better about going longer now that they are bigger, maybe I should give it another go.  It is just the guppies, I love them, but they are little piggies.  I should add that when it comes to bloodworms, the cories are not afraid to push them away to get to worms.  It is the motivation to get the food first that seems to be lacking.

[Gabrielle]

I have six pandas; I've only had them for about three weeks. They seem to eat everything. My group was made of two larger, two medium sized, and two very small ones. I think you are on the right track, with getting some bigger ones with better eating habits, to show the "babies" how to eat like Pandas.  Mine are running over the moss balls, over the rocks, through the water sprite; they even suck on the poor mystery snail. What I have noticed, is that the bigger ones will "push" the little ones, and get them to eating and following them. I'm sure with your dedication, your pandas will adjust, and start eating like catfish. Take care.