WARNING! This is not a professional website! I am NOT an expert. Do NOT believe everything on this site.

Last Updated: 2/17/08

Quick Information
Description
Setup and Water Preferences
Sexing
Breeding
My Panda Cories and Photos
Links

Note: Much of the information on this page (except physical description) holds true for many of the small South American cory species.

I also have these pages on other corydoras catfish:
Corydoras habrosus
Corydoras trilineatus

Common name: Panda Cory
Scientific/Latin name: Corydoras panda
Maximum length: 1 to 1.5 inches
Colors: White and black (like a panda)
Temperature preference: 69 to 75 degrees F, can withstand 65 to 90 degrees F
pH preference: 6 to 7
Hardness preference: Soft to moderate
Salinity preference: Low
Compatibility: Excellent
Life span: 2 to 10 years
Ease of keeping: Easy
Ease of breeding: Moderate

Corydoras panda or panda cories are small black and white cories. They have black over their eyes (like panda bears), on their lower dorsal (back) fin, and in a splotch right before their caudal (tail) fin (on the caudal peduncle). Panda cories come from the Rio Pachitea in Peru. They grow to about 1.5 inches. My original panda cories only lived about one to two years but I suspect they normally live much longer. They are very peaceful and cute. My local aquarium store has carried cories that look like panda cories but are twice as big. They call them panda cories as well but they are obviously larger, and their white and black colors are not as intense as the fish I had. In 2001, I got some panda cories from the store which truly are panda cories.

Panda cories require clean, oxygen-rich water. They live best between 68 and 75 degrees F. They do not tolerate high temperatures for long periods. Some people manage to keep them in the high 70's degrees F and even low 80's without problems (they say). They can live in hard water it is said but mine do fine in soft water. Another source says that they prefer soft water. Panda cories like water that is slightly acidic (pH 6.5 to 7). Because they are small, they can be kept in tanks as small as 5 gallons for a few of them. About six in a 20 gallon with a few other peaceful fish would be a good colony. Individual cories, without companions, will waste away. They are most active at feeding time and dusk. Provide small pots, plants, etc. in which they can hide. Also, feed sinking tablets. There are many types made specifically for cories. They are omnivorous, eating whatever appeals to them in the substrate. Favorite live foods include black worms, tubifex worms, brine shrimp, and microworms. These little vacuum cleaners are known for their cleaning abilities. They will eat leftover foods. Panda cories do not eat fish feces and other waste like some people believe. They never ate any plants in my tanks and so are great for planted tanks.

Females are larger and fuller. Males are noticeable smaller. It helps to view them from above. The female will be noticeably wider. If you catch them breeding, you can be sure of their sexes. The female will be the one carrying the egg around.

Breeding Triggers:
High protein diets full of beef heart, seafood, and fish help to condition panda cories to spawn but are not required (I never used them). Small currents in the tank also help. The largest breeding trigger is a large water change with cooler water. Every week, I changed 50% of their water (usually near 75 degrees F) with water of about 70 degrees F. For more assured success, use water 10 to 15 degrees cooler when the barometer is dropping (before a storm).

Spawning:
They spawn at dusk (right before or right after the lights go out) in the typical cory manner. (Many other cory species spawn at dawn.) The female panda cory appears to suck up the male's sperm while in a "T position." She somehow places the sperm within reach of her singly layed egg (many ideas exist). Other species of corydoras may lay and carry around multiple eggs at a time. Each female panda cory carries a single egg in her pectoral fins and deposits them around on glass, fake plants, etc. She will then repeat the process. Cories normally have small broods but panda cories' are especially small. Mine typically only layed about six eggs in one night. The rather large fry hatch in 4-6 days and lay on the bottom where you can suck them up (with a Python cleaner, etc.) so that other fish do not eat them and raise them in their own tank. After a few additional days, they search the bottom for food.

Rearing Fry Outside of Their Parents' Tank:
Alternatively, one can utilize a razor blade or credit card to gently cut the eggs off of the glass (if on a plant, just pick up the plant or its leaf) after they are fertilized and hatch the eggs away from hungry mouths. They should be raised in shallow containers of 3 to 5 inches deep. Like most catfish, they need to gulp air. Their first gulp is essential to fill their swim bladders. Newborns should be given sinking microscopic foods. Newborn brine shrimp work well since they move all over the tank. Microworms also work. In small containers, the bottom should be vacuumed of uneaten food daily. Fifty percent daily water changes may be necessary in small containers with lots of fish. When they are larger, black worms are baby panda cories' favorite, and fry will grow fast once they can eat worms. You should cut up the worms at first, or the fry will try to eat a 5 inch worm that simply will not fit in his or her body!

Panda cory fry usually cost $5 to $10 each because each female only lays a few eggs a week, and the fry are very slow growing. In 2001, I got mine for about $5 each.

More information on panda cory breeding can be found at this Corydoras species page (Note that as of 9/99, this site no longer works. Please e-mail me if you know what became of it.), this Corydoras Panda page (which apparently no longer works either), and this great Corydoras panda page which includes good photos (and does not work any more either!!) as well as this new panda cory page I found.

For information on fry care and feeding, go to my breeding and fry care page.

By 2/24/05, I have two or maybe a few more panda cories. As of 3/2/04, I had 9 panda cories I think plus one baby I found on 1/10/04 that is now in the 20 gallon tank! The original five adult were two males and three females but at least three of them have died. The rest are their surviving offspring out of at least 20. Some of the smaller ones must have died off and been eaten although I never saw any bodies.

On 6/1/01, I added 6 panda cories to my 50 gallon tank! I love them! I had previously had 4 of them in there years ago with my goldfish until they started chewing on a sick goldfish's fins. They were active breeders in there. Then, I moved them to a 20 gallon tank where they quickly died. After the goldfish died in 2001, I re-did the tank for other fish including the cories. One of the cories died on 6/13/01. This may have been because the new guy who netted the cories beat them up pretty well (I asked to net them because he could not catch any of out a school of 100 but it is against store policy, even though I worked there myself years ago!). None of the fish seem ill.

The panda cories, which appear to include only one or two males, have begun reproducing. I saw 8 developing eggs on the glass on 8/11/01 behind some java moss attached to a suction clip. I cleaned the tank and left the eggs but moved the suction clip enough that the adult cories promptly ate most of the eggs. Later, I began collecting eggs before they were eaten to hatch elsewhere.

By 9/10/01, I began collecting cory eggs and putting them in a net breeder. The eggs are hard so I can pick them off the glass by hand without squashing them. Once born, the cory fry are eaten right away if not in the net. There is one baby born around 8/24/01 in the net who made it large enough that I released him/her on 10/6/01. He/she is my first to make it all the way! There were four other smaller fry born around 9/1/01 that were doing okay as well and another born in late September. Not only were there five in the net as of 10/10/01, and one that was released, but there appeared to be another in the tank that made it on its own! I asked my brother to see if he could find the baby I released the day before. He immediately found a baby but it was half as big! That means that one survived all by himself! These guys were raised on Liquifry, sinking freeze-dried brine shrimp crumbles, sinking shrimp pellets, and half a dozen other small portions of sinking foods. They seem to be okay without live foods. The oldest by three weeks seemed like a real panda cory. He/she had the panda mask but no black on the dorsal or caudal fins yet. By four weeks, the black developed in all the right places. See the photo above under the breeding section!

By about five weeks, I released the baby. On 10/13/01, I let the next two oldest babies go. They were about half an inch long and seemed to do well UNTIL 10/16/01 when I found one upside down and dead. His tail was gone! I searched for the others. While the larger baby was still fine and eating with his/her parents, the other baby also had its tail removed! This baby was alive but was never seen again and must have died from his injuries. Since the fish are small and docile, I think my rainbow shrimp must have eaten their tails off! So, if you have shrimp, do not release babies until they are an inch long. I do not plan to kill any more cories this way.

There were three left in the net but while cleaning in October, one got squashed between the net and the plastic net supports. This is one of the leading causes of death in a net breeder. Due to their small size, in order to clean the tank, I have to remove the net breeder, and I use a small paper cup to collect the babies before removing the net breeder. In the past, other methods of baby removal were usually highly fatal due to squishing events which filled me with guilt and remorse (especially for babies I had raised so perfectly for weeks or months up to that point). Another baby got a bent spine and died a few days later. This did not happen during the time I was doing maintenance so I am not sure if it was an injury, defect, illness, or parasite.

I was surprised on 10/26/01 to see two large babies at once so the one that made it on its own apparently did not get its tail eaten like the two younger fish. I was even more surprised to see three large babies at once in the main tank on 11/3/01. Since they all had their tails, I assume two made it on their own or one that I saw tail-less before was one that made it on its own. I was shocked to see four babies at once on 11/8/01! Plus, the net now has one larger and four smaller babies. Where are they coming from? Need I say it? On 11/17/01, I saw FIVE babies in the main tank at once. Again, on 11/28/01, I saw SIX babies at once in the main tank. Ok, on 11/30/01, I saw eight at once including some smaller than those I am protecting in the net breeder. On 12/22/01, I let one of the babies out of the net. One in the main tank was found dead (a medium-sized baby), and I put another egg in the net. On 12/29/01, when I collected the babies in the net for cleaning the tank, there were only 6, down from10 so they are dying probably due to overcrowding and perhaps lack of food. I found another newborn in the gravel-vacuumed waste water to add. A baby in the net died on 12/30/01. I added another on 1/5/02. By 1/19/02, I counted 7 in the net. On 1/26/02, there were only 6 in the net but I caught 3 more newborns from the waste water from gravel vacuuming the tank.

On 2/9/02, I let five babies out of the net, and there were six in the net. On 2/16/02, two babies were removed dead from the main tank, and only three were still in the net so some are dying. On 2/23/02, there were only two left in the net, and I found a small dead cory in the main tank. I put those two tiny fry in my 5 gallon tank with three tiny fry (rosy barbs or longfin blue danios) and put up the net. I counted about 12 cories at once in the main tank. So, as of 2/25/02, there are about 12 adult and sub-adult panda cories in the main tank and a few in the 5 gallon tank. There are always eggs in the java moss but I do not rescue them. I've got too many! If I suck up any babies with the weekly cleaning, I will put them in the 5 gallon tank for now.

On 4/6/02, I moved five baby panda cories from the five gallon tank to the 50 gallon tank. There are some 15 cories in there now! I will no longer try to raise babies (if I find any, I will put them back in there where the rosy barbs have apparently now started to eat them). There are too many! Since the barbs have been in now for a while, I no longer remove any baby cories anyway but that may be because the cories mostly spawn during the colder months.

As of 6/20/02, there are about 15 cories. Since I added the rosy barbs in April, 2002, I have not found a single baby cory. They may have stopped breeding for the year as they tend to breed in winter, and/or the rosy barbs may be eating the eggs. I do not see eggs on the glass anymore. It does not bother me as the tank is overloaded with fish now!

On 7/15/02, a small cory died. I counted 15 cories I think left that I could see. They have stopped breeding (too warm I guess, and the rosy barbs eat eggs). Another small cory died on 7/20/02. Many of them are now losing their barbels. After doing so well, it looks like they are in trouble. Most likely this is due to the overcrowding from the many rosy barbs I did not plan on having. The water chemistry tests fine but I can see the water is not as clear as it was. Cories are very sensitive. On 8/3/02, I removed two more dead panda cories. One may have been one of the original five cories. Another died on 8/6/02. Yet another large one died on 8/13/02. The remaining cories are slower than usual, and some are missing barbels. They were doing so well last fall, and now, they are dying off. I count 12 left in August of 2002. At their peak, I had about 30! On 1/11/03, a small cory that should have grown much bigger was removed dead. Only about 10 remain, perhaps fewer. Most have lost their barbels. This began happening after the rosy barbs overpopulated the tank. Although I do weekly 50% water changes and keep the filter clean and the tank looks clear and has no ammonia or nitrite, perhaps the tank is simply no longer pristine enough for the panda cories. Barbel loss is supposed to be due to poor water quality. My water seems fine but there are so many things we do not test for and do not know how they effect sensitive fish like these guys. In July of 2003, I counted 11 panda cories at once.

On 12/1/03, a small panda cory was removed dead. :-( Another small one was found and removed on 12/13/03. I think the overcrowding from all the rosy barbs (I started with one and now have about 30 adults as they survived fry-hood without intervention) has effected the water quality enough to hurt the cories which are more sensitive. Water testing is normal (excellent) but test kits only measure a few of billions of things in water.

I could not believe it when on 1/10/04, while draining the bathtub of water from my 50 gallon tank, I saw what at first glance seemed like a tadpole wriggling against the tide of the draining. Now, I always scan the waste water for animals but someone I missed this guy! He is a baby panda cory, the first in almost two years!! Since I had a net breeder with about 10 baby glowlight danios in my 20 gallon tank, I put him in there. He hides under the plastic part of the net during the day but comes out at night. I hope he makes it! As of 1/24/04, he is still alive and growing fast! On 2/28/04, I let the little dude go (about 7 weeks old)! Since the tank he came from is overcrowded, the cories have lost their whiskers, and some of the rosy barbs have tuberculosis symptoms, I left the baby in my 20 gallon tank even though he has no cory buddies with which to play. The 20 gallon fish are all healthy and there's plenty of room so I thought he'd be safer there. He is having a good time I think driving all around! He went missing for a week but was back on 3/16/04 none the worse for wear.

On 5/20/04, a poor panda cory died in my 50 gallon tank. Most of them have lost their whiskers and some have degraded fins. Despite good tank maintenance, I believe this is all due to the overcrowding resulting from the rosy barbs. The baby who is almost full size in my 20 gallon tank has his whiskers and looks better than the others which is why I left him there without any buddy cories.

On 2/12/05, I removed a dead panda cory from the 50 gallon tank. There are at least two left that I have seen at the same time but not much more than that. There is a lot of java moss in which to hide so I cannot get an accurate count. The survivors look pretty bad. But, the now mature "baby" in my 20 gallon is in perfect health! I made the right choice in leaving him there.

On 6/11/05, I found and removed a dead panda cory from the 50 gallon tank. On 6/17/05, I found the head skeleton of another in the java moss. I do not know if any remain since it is a jungle in there.

On 7/30/06, I found a dead panda cory in my 50 gallon tank, dead a few days. I think there is still another one in that tank. The lone panda cory in the 20 gallon tank is still fine.

By 1/22/07, the cory in the 20 gallon is fine, and I recently saw one in the 50 gallon tank. I think there is just one in there now. It has slightly hazy eyes and no whiskers but looked up at me like, "I'm still here!". He is at least five years old.

On 3/17/07, I moved the surviving panda cory in the 50 gallon to the 20 gallon tank with the other panda cory. At first, they ignored each other. After a day or so, they were buddies and mostly hang together now. The one from the 50 gallon is only 70% of the size of the healthier one from the 20 gallon. The 50 gallon one also has stronger black on him and no barbels (or mouth intake at all). I think the 50 gallon tank one is male and the other female but the differences could simply be health related.

On 1/8/08, I added two young longfin panda cories to my 20 gallon tank with the two old panda cories. They immediately became buddies and hang together. My older cories seem more active, and the babies are really active. Their fins are longer than regular panda cory fins but not overly so.

Photos of My Panda Cories

Photos are from newest to oldest.

Longfin panda cory on 2/16/08.

Some 20 gallon tank animals on 1/13/08. A panda cory is in the middle on the right.

Panda cories on 1/8/08. An adult is obvious on the right but there is one of the new longfin baby panda cories near his tail. He is much smaller.

Two panda cories in the 20 gallon together at last. They are buddies. Sorry, the photo is fuzzy. [Oops, I later found these two photos do not list a date (my error). I moved the remaining panda cory from the 50 gallon tank to the 20 gallon tank on 3/17/07 so these two photos were taken shortly thereafer.]
Two panda cories in the 20 gallon, another fuzzy photo. Trust me; they are cute!
Panda cory in my 20 gallon tank on 9/4/06.
Panda cory along with other fish in my 20 gallon tank on 6/25/05. The baby is all grown up!
Panda cory in my 20 gallon tank on 10/30/04 (full grown baby I raised there).
Panda cory in my 20 gallon tank (the baby I raised there all grown up) on 10/9/04.
Here are two photos from April of 2003 that my brother took of the fish in my 50 gallon tank including a panda cory in each photo if you can find it: cory and cory.
Two panda cories on 4/28/02 with a female rosy barb on the right.
Adult and baby panda cory, 10/29/01, adult on left, two-month-old baby on the right, same as photo on top of this page.
Adult and baby panda cory, 10/29/01, adult on left (notice the large mouth barbels), two-month-old baby on the right.
Baby panda cories, 9/20/01, four week old at bottom right and two week old at top left, in net breeder.
Moving panda cory, 6/3/01
Panda cory with otocinclus, 6/3/01
Panda cory with otocinclus, 6/3/01.

Note: Most of the following sites no longer work. For some reason, it seems that pages on panda cories do not last! If you know of a working site I should add, please e-mail me.

Planet Catfish - a UK catfish page with information on lots of catfish. I did not see anything specifically about the panda cory.

Corydoras Panda - a page on breeding panda cories - no longer works!

Corydoras species - information on a hundred or so cory species. As of 9/99, this link no longer works. This was a great site so please e-mail me if you know of its current location, assuming that it still exists somewhere.

Corydoras care and breeding - this was also a great cousin site to the above site but is now gone. Please e- mail me if you know what became of it.

Corydoras panda - one person's recounting of their panda cories' spawning including some great photos of a female with an egg in her fins being followed by males and also babies.

Breeding Corydoras panda - a photo and some information on breeding panda cories. This site has vanished too!

Cory encyclopedia

I Love Corydoras! - site includes photos of C. panda and lots of other cory stuff.

Corydoras panda - photo; other cories at main page.

Corydoras World - a large cory site.

Corydoras panda - a breeding story included

Scotcat.com - a site dedicated to catfish.

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