Are panda corys hard to breed?

[tolstoy21]

I'm interested in breeding these for myself as I'd like to have a nice large school of them and would rather buy a few and breed the rest instead of dropping $$$$ on a large school of them.

I've had Salt-n-Peppa (ah, push it!) corys in the past and they kind of just reproduced on their own without intervention. Are pandas similar? Or do they take a considerable effort to get to spawn like some of the other cory species?

I understand I'll have to collect eggs so they don't get eaten, but I'm hoping it's not much more challenging than that. 

Any advice?

[Theplatymaster]

@nabokovfan87has bred them, from what i understand, its a temperature drop and live foods as with other corydora speicies.

[TheSwissAquarist]

@Cinnebuns and @Minanora have regular breeding, and @Guppysnail has the occasional 'tadpole'.

Keep us updated on your attempts!

On 2/9/2023 at 3:00 PM, tolstoy21 said:

've had Salt-n-Peppa (ah, push it!) corys in the past and they kind of just reproduced on their own without intervention

Have you read my journal? Trying to rub it in??😜

[Guppysnail]

You might get them to breed with a school of 6. I found 8 was a more reliable starting group to breed. Very easy breeding project and tons of fun. I just feed well and end up with eggs. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/9/2023 at 6:00 AM, tolstoy21 said:

I understand I'll have to collect eggs so they don't get eaten, but I'm hoping it's not much more challenging than that. 

Any advice?

I had mine spawn yesterday. A few days before. And I have a fry from about 2 weeks ago. Cute as heck, little dude is probably 1/4" already.

The main thing is conditioning, then triggering. A lot of people will tell you that you have to feed frozen/live/worms and that's what you do. A lot of people will tell you that you that they need (corydoras in general) high protein to have the energy to spawn.

I feed almost exclusively omnivore stuff and a lot of it doesn't have krill or fish meal as the first ingredient.  I've had a bit of trial and error, years of no fry and then all of a sudden they spawn like this.

There's a few notes that I can offer as advice and hopefully it helps....

1. They will regulate the size of the group on a tank. Sometimes they are smart enough to know there isn't room. Having a bigger group also means more hunting which means the females had better get really good at hiding eggs. Sometimes a spawn can be one or two pairs going nuts and the rest of the group are trying to sleep. Other times it's a massive ball of fish doing their thing.

2. I feed typically once a day. When trying to condition them for breeding I feed morning and then certain foods overnight. Adding more feedings, clean water, etc. Is all part of that process. I learned the trick for Cory and it does work. At night, drop in repashy a few times a week and let them eat. Do that a few times a week and then after a few days or so you can see some activity. It might take time for the females to have eggs so you want to keep that in mind. You'll see them visually be bigger and egg bound and ready to go.

3. Have things for them to lay on. Whether it's a mob on the ground or whether you're talking rocks with moss or a media bag on top of a sponge. The corydoras will do a lot of trial and error trying to find places to lay. One of my things I like to have for pandas is broad leaved plants that they use to go on the underside of and hang the eggs that way. Anubias, java Fern, etc.  They tend to use that a lot as well as moss or the underside of wood for me.

4. Keep the water clean! Yep. You're feeding more, so make sure you have good air and good parameters. Don't just toss a ton of food and end up with nitrates really high.

5. Colder water changes to trigger behavior, but a lot of times it's just clean water and changing a good volume of water. I generally match my temps, maybe a degree or two colder. I've also done 5+ degrees cooler in summer and to no avail. When the fish is ready they'll spawn. If you build it they will lay sort of thing. 50% WCs and they should thank you with behavior.

 

[Cinnebuns]

On 2/9/2023 at 8:00 AM, tolstoy21 said:

I'm interested in breeding these for myself as I'd like to have a nice large school of them and would rather buy a few and breed the rest instead of dropping $$$$ on a large school of them.

I've had Salt-n-Peppa (ah, push it!) corys in the past and they kind of just reproduced on their own without intervention. Are pandas similar? Or do they take a considerable effort to get to spawn like some of the other cory species?

I understand I'll have to collect eggs so they don't get eaten, but I'm hoping it's not much more challenging than that. 

Any advice?

I have bred dozens of cories both by pulling eggs and just passively. I actually made posts showing my setup with pulling eggs and then some tips for breeding without pulling eggs. Funny enough, I bred my Pandas by mistake before I got any guppy fry while trying. So to me, cories are easier than guppies!  Imagine that!  We all have our quirks I guess haha. No lie tho I have had more struggles with breeding guppies than with breeding cories. I currently have dozens in my fry tank and about 1 dozen in my juvenile and adult tanks. It's a fun fish to breed for just a few for yourself or a bunch if you want!

[TOtrees]

I've bred pandas in a community tank, but only occasionally. I've found they are more likely than other cories to lay eggs on plants rather than on glass, which makes seeing/finding/collecting the eggs harder. 

I'd be curious if 4-6 in a 5 or 10 gallon tank, with a 0.5" layer of sand, some 1" size pebble piles in a couple corners, and some rock caves/slabs for cover might promote them to lay on the glass. Feed lots, change water lots. 

[Ken Burke]

To be honest, (like you’d want me to lie) I never pull the eggs with either of the Corydoras I breed.  In fact, I never see panda eggs.  The sailfins frequently deposit on the glass, but my pandas like hiding the in the plants. I primarily feed flake and tetra shrimp wafers, and occasionally frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. 
 

I think the trick is to have lots of hiding spots for the babies 👶 (forgive the dirty tank in the pictures below, it’s time for a wc.  And the water level is low, so lots of bubbles where the HOB spills into the tank)

[Phoenixfishroom]

Panda Corys are hard not to breed lol. Start off with like 8-10 individuals, grow them out together. 75° low/moderate current, sand substrate, moderate/heavy planting and lots of little caves and hiding places so they are comfortable. I drop the temp by like 5° when I do water changes. As long as they are old enoug and conditioned for breeding (I supplement with occasional frozen/live protein, feed repashy spawn and grow mixed with community variety frequently, and feed bug bites bottom feeder and community formulas daily.) Mine spawn in a community  tank with emerald dwarf rasbora, cpds, a couple hillys, and a breeding trio of albino bristlenose. I don’t breed intentionally for sale, I have a lot of other corydora species I am working with for that, so I don’t ever pull the eggs or fry and I still get between 5-10 fry make it long enough to be past the risk of getting eaten after most water changes (which I do once monthly on that tank with just small spot cleans to suck up the pleco poop in between)

[Phoenixfishroom]

Quote

On 2/9/2023 at 7:56 PM, Ken Burke said:

To be honest, (like you’d want me to lie) I never pull the eggs with either of the Corydoras I breed.  In fact, I never see panda eggs.  The sailfins frequently deposit on the glass, but my pandas like hiding the in the plants. I primarily feed flake and tetra shrimp wafers, and occasionally frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. 
 

I think the trick is to have lots of hiding spots for the babies 👶 (forgive the dirty tank in the pictures below, it’s time for a wc.  And the water level is low, so lots of bubbles where the HOB spills into the tank)

 

I also never pull eggs, if I want a better hatch/survival rate I just plan tank mates around it, every species I breed except for khulis either lives and breeds in a community tank, in fact I have noticed that a LOT of species of Cory and pleco are much more likely to breed in a community environment, they feel safer when they can observe prey species out in the open. My clown plecos, for example, won’t breed at all without dither fish, my L397s and wabenmuster ancistrus didn’t ever spawn in a species tank either but… not they are both in tanks with a species of Cory and a species of schooling too water column fish and I have 2 clowns, an alenquer tiger, an albino BN, and a wabenmuster on eggs right now that I know of all in community, planted, settings.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/9/2023 at 4:56 PM, Ken Burke said:

How often do you catch them in the plants on the right vs. the left trying to snoot around for hiding spots?  I'd imagine they dig the java fern just because it's slightly more dense.

[Ken Burke]

They really don’t spend much time in the crypts.  I’m thinking about moving it to another tank.  Just not sure…

[Phoenixfishroom]

Honestly I couldn’t even tell you what a panda egg looks like, I have never seen one, just new wigglers in the Java moss (cory fry love Java moss) from time to time. Found a panda fry in my upsidedown catfish tank the other day, I guess an egg hitched a ride on some plant clippings I brought over lol. Some cory species, like my emerald bronchis pretty much always lay right out on the glass. Others hide them so good you never see where. Even weirder I never see any pygmy or habro eggs OR fry but I definitely have way more of them than I ever purchased lol.

side note. I saw my smudge spot corys going nuts tonight after I cleaned their tank but I can’t find a single eggs. They are just teaching reproductive age and I am gonna be pretty happy if they just did their first spawn. I guess I will know in a couple days. 🤩

[Matt M]

I found them easy to breed. Main thing was a lot of food. Frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, repashy. Temp was about 75-76. Cold water change to drop the temp a few degrees triggered it after heavy feeding for a week or two. I'd also recommend adding a few dried leaves (catappa/guava/magnolia). It definitely seemed to help. Used a spawning mop laying down on the substrate which the panda corys loved to hang out in. They laid eggs in the mop and on some of the magnolia leaves. Raising fry was pretty easy as well.

[Minanora]

On 2/9/2023 at 8:01 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

@Cinnebuns and @Minanora have regular breeding, and @Guppysnail has the occasional 'tadpole'.

Keep us updated on your attempts!

Have you read my journal? Trying to rub it in??😜

Funny story, today I found my first baby panda cory in the plaza! I am just getting online to update my adventures.

My tank is planted, has quite a few plants, driftwood, rocks; its a 40 breeder. I keep the tank at about 74 degrees. pH is 6.8, KH is about 40, GH is like 300. I mainly feed dry foods. My cories spawn constantly. I rotate between several foods but not as many as I'd like. They lay eggs in the evening; they like to lay them on plant leaves. Also had one lay one on a shrimp.... *Shrug* I will say, i have very few snails in the tank; and only MTS, no other species of snail. Snails eat cory eggs. My three stripe cories lay LOTS of eggs but they all get eaten by the bladder snails.

@nabokovfan87 and @Guppysnail told me that one day I'd just randomly see a baby cory from the pandas. That totally happened today.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/18/2023 at 8:14 PM, Minanora said:

@nabokovfan87 and @Guppysnail told me that one day I'd just randomly see a baby cory from the pandas. That totally happened today.

😂

They are called "the panda horde" for a reason!

[TheSwissAquarist]

On 2/19/2023 at 7:41 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

😂

They are called "the panda horde" for a reason!

Through a crystal ball 🔮 I can see a future full of panda fry, with the next one being spotted sometime tomorrow. 😜

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/18/2023 at 10:42 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Through a crystal ball 🔮 I can see a future full of panda fry, with the next one being spotted sometime tomorrow. 😜

Feeding repashy tonight I see!????!!!???

[Minanora]

On 2/18/2023 at 11:01 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Feeding repashy tonight I see!????!!!???

I do feed mine spawn and grow every now and again. Lol

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/18/2023 at 11:07 PM, Minanora said:

I do feed mine spawn and grow every now and again. Lol

Community blend this week. I need to get some spawn+grow.

I am going to have to find a store local to get some igapo explorer. I think they'd lose their mind. They went NUTS for the bug food the first time they had it. (bottom scratcher).

I've never fed em bug bites, but I have tried to find it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/18/2023 at 10:42 PM, TheSwissAquarist said:

Through a crystal ball 🔮 I can see a future full of panda fry, with the next one being spotted sometime tomorrow. 😜

Weren't far off.... 😂

Any luck yet? @tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

On 2/23/2023 at 5:26 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Any luck yet? @tolstoy21

Not unless they are breeding inside a box in the back of a UPS truck!   😛

 

[rockfisher]

I didn’t read all the post but when I added tall ground moss I couldn’t  stop them. It slowly died and I removed it and the spawning stopped. I started using breeding mopsand they started to produce again. I do go overboard with them but I don’t care how the tank looks as long as there are fry to sell. I’m not a big water change guy but I do think it helps to do at least 10% before you want a spawn.

[Kenneth Carl]

The important thing with panda corydoras (or any species for that matter) is buying from reputable breeders. They are often mass-produced and are considered overbred, so their genetics and their health are often questionable. 

 

Good breeders will have a diverse gene pool within their breeding stock, they source multiple groups of fish from multiple sources to increase the chance of unrelated fish breeding with each other. Bonus points if their breeding stock consists of F1 (or fish recently bred from wild-caught fish) or some thoroughly quarantined wild fish. 

 

I found some breeders on Vivvy, aqua bid, and get gills. Don't be afraid to ask these breeders questions about their breeding stock, they should be more than happy to provide you with information. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/16/2023 at 8:12 PM, Kenneth Carl said:

 

I found some breeders on Vivvy, aqua bid, and get gills. Don't be afraid to ask these breeders questions about their breeding stock, they should be more than happy to provide you with information. 

This is a great point. Sometimes people forget this for the sake of trying to protect sales or someone interested in the same species. Even reputable breeders need to be able to vary genetics and understanding where the fish came from is a huge part of the battle.