Has anyone been able to keep panda cories alive over the long term?

[paradisefish]

I have read in some places that a lot of people have trouble keeping panda cories alive for more than a few months.
Since I had already bought four of them before I found out about this :-P, I'm curious about if anyone here has been able to keep them for a long time? If so, was there anything special you did to keep them healthy?

[H3D]

To ensure success keep them in an adequate group size, like 8 or more. Make sure they are housed in a 30 gallon or larger aquarium with places to hide. Make sure that you feed them enough.

[boofish2]

I've had pandas for a while now who are growing rapidly and doing great; however; I went through a couple of batches of them in the beginning before getting to where I am now. I think what I learned from keeping these guys that the water conditions have to be as perfect as possible with a maintained 0 - ammonia level. The first signs I noticed that the water was off was deterioated barbels. Pandas are one of the smaller breeds of cories and in my opinion this makes them more delicate and suseptible to stress. Proper acclimation is also very imporatnt when introducing them to your tank. I floated the bag for about 15 min to stabilize temps, the added some tank water to the bag, waited 20 min, more tank water, more waiting, you get the picture... I was so paranoid about them dying so I acclimated them for about 3 hrs... (probably excessive) When the bag consists of mostly tank water net them and release them in to your tank. You can also dump as much water as possible and put whatever is left w/the fish in to the tank. I've also had this success with albinos. Of course like pp said having at least 4 for schooling is a good idea although I've had as little as three and they've been ok. I love my pandas, they are social and playful, not to mention cute! A little difficult at first but don't give up on them yet - it's worth the work!! HTH :)

[saray2004]

I have had my cories for a couple of years now with no problem. They were extremely tiny when I first got them. I don't think the 75 gallon tank helped in that comparison either! ;) However they are cute and mine readily eat flake food, algae wafers, and shrimp pellets too.

[Dixon]

i moved this to bottom feeders.

anyway as long as you keep the water in check and supply them with a decent home they should be ok unless the fish are of poor quality.
good luck with them
dixon

[DaisyTattoo]

I recently bought 3 and had 2 die already, but they came from Petsmart, so that could have been the problem. The last one seems to be doing fine and if he makes it, I will get him some buddies.

[ratherbe]

Just curious, what's wrong with PetSmart? I won't be getting any more fish soon, but eventually I'd like to get more. Where should I go then?

[webcricket]

Individual petsmart stores will vary. My local store carries great quality fish. The only fish I've lost from them in the last couple of years was an oto. No surprise, they're hard fish to acclimate anyway. Everything else is still alive and kicking.

[ljse]

I have never had problems with cories (other than them getting picked on). Ive only lost one panda out of five. I had them for over a year before I gave them to the lfs when my apistos started killing them off.

[drgold]

I went through about a dozen before I sold the few that I had left. Water was always pristine but they just didn't do well. I had thick gravel and it probably irrirated their barbels and initiated bacterial problems. I've heard they do great on sand.

[paradisefish]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm glad to hear that some people have been able to keep them, since I read somewhere that they are a problem for even experienced cory keepers. When I bought these guys, I just assumed that all the commonly found cories were pretty easy like the bronze and pepper ones are!
The sand hint is interesting. My tank has rounded gravel so I am hoping that it is smooth enough to be okay for them.

So far they seem very healthy and active, so I'm hoping they make it over the long haul. I like them a lot. If I was sure that they would survive, I'd get more of them to round out the school, but I'm still not too confident.

[ljse]

I kept mine in a tank with gravel and they were fine.

[DaisyTattoo]

I have mine in a 55G with sand, but his top fin looks a little ragged and I think someone is picking on him. I think I may move him to my 10G until he gets a little larger.

[quiksilver]

i wouldnt dump water in my tank that came from the lfs.

[dorris]

Me neither. Net your fish out and ditch the water from the lfs. I had a tank where the gravel I decided was too deep and coarse and I had a real bad bacteria problem that killed any cory I tried to put in there. It coaused problems for the rest of the tank inhabitants if things got too crowded and stressfull also. Basically if you keep your water and gravel clean and don't overstock your tank you should be ok, as long as you have the correct water paramaters for amazon fish.

[coupedefleur]

It's a better idea to drip acclimate new fish, rather than floating the bag. This is how you should treat fish you get through the mail, but I do this with everything.

Take a bucket, or one of those critter-keeper plastic tanks, and put the fish in there. Use airline tubing to siphon water into the little tank- using a plastic valve to slow down the flow, or tie the tube so it drips about once a second.

Keep an eye on the tank so it doesn't overflow! I now put the tank in a plastic dishpan or bucket in case I get distracted.

After about 15 - 20 min, net out the fish and put them in the new tank.

For substrate, I'm wondering if Turface would also be OK, since it's so much lighter than gravel. Has anyone tried tumbling it to smooth the edges for corydoras?