Was doing a water change and filter clean out before tea and wrapped round one of the ceramic rings in the external was this:



Looks like my pandas are breeding in the communty tank . The little fella is around 10mm atm, and thats a spare bit of rigid piping from the external behind him in the shot. Right now he's living in a net breeder in the main tank with a large net around it to keep him away from the bigger angels - don't want them to attack him.

Any tips on what to feed him from you guys. cory babies are new territory to me. I've put some crushed tabimin for now, see if he likes it.

congragtulations you should feed live foods such as micro worm newly hatched brine shrimp or cyclops to start with

you might want to try Mysis shrimp also.

Ordered a microworm culture and got some brineshrimp on to hatch meanwhile I'll keep crushing flake and prima etc until they're ready and drop a half coconut shell with some java fern on in the trap since the adults are forever foraging in it, think I'll also get it a plastic breeding trap tomorow since I caught a BN trying to get into the net around the trap.

I've traditionaly been a dried food man myself. Either micro-powder food, or finely crushed of any other food (pellets/flakes).

Have a look in other Catfish Topics. There should be a few Cory Fry Posts from Dec and Jan. At least three of us had them breeding at the time.

Looking at your picks Kana he's looking about the same size as your 4-5 week old pictures, which fits for around when I last did a filter check and clean and I don't reckon he could have survived the main tank for too long before being sucked into the external. I got to have a good look at him before lights out though and he's fully coloured up and just looks like a miniture adult. Sorry still sat here with a massive grin on me face - I like trying to breed different types of fish, and this is the first time I've had an egg layer just spawn and somethings survived from it this long without my help .

Well I had on Cory get behind my filter partition as a young one. Would've had to have been just a couple of weeks old to fit through the grill. When I discovered her, she was an adult, over an inch long, and laying eggs! It was the eggs on the pump I was puzzling over, that led to discovering her.

Yeah they can suprise us on how well they do on their own sometimes, though if I hadn't pulled that little critter out now I don't think he'd have lasted much longer. I did go over the rest of the filter media with an eagle eye but couldn't see any more - there was one more in the bucket where I drained the external water on but it must have been in the bottom compartment with the filtermats cos it was a bit gone :/. But I've got one more cory that I didn't have yesterday so I'm happy .

I got the baby a plastic breeding trap thursday to stop the angels getting it through the net one it was in. Turned the lights on this morning and checked the trap, nothing. Took the plant out of the trap, no sign of it and its not in its tunnel. Bugger its jumped into the main tank with the angels and thats it, its a snack.

Long story short, it survived its trip into the big tank and seeing how it wants to shoal with the adults I've put the pandas in a 30" tank of their own now, so with a bit of luck this will be the first of many baby pandas .

Heres a quick picture of the cory tank now its settled .

I sort of lost track there - Is the little Panda still with us or not?

And that's the first Flower Pot I've ever seen in a tank upright!

I'm not sure on the setup of your Mesh Fry Trap. But what I do to stop Angels pecking at the bottom, is to place a sheet of perspex in, as a false bottom. This is also good for food to sit on, as foos on the mesh always attracts fish from below.

May I also suggest, Monkeh, pop out to a Newsagency, or Art Shop, and get some graphic art colored cardboard, and adhere to the back of your tank. I personaly use black, but they'd have 50 odd colors. You'd be surprised how much more natural the tanks looks, when you aren't looking through to your wallpaper.

Yes the baby is still alive - it moved from the big tank as part of the bogwood with java fern on it. The tank is without back atm because it was setup in a rush. If it was planned I have a tin of blue emulsion for the background colours . The plant pot is to pour fresh water into without kicking the sand all over the shop, works pretty well and the cories like hiding in it.

A neat idea with the Plant Pot. As I dislike any non-natural object in my tanks (except the equipment), I tend to pour into the center of a Sword Plant.

So you paint the rear window. That sounds a tad drastic. You should go Arty, cut-out some plant shapes in shades of green, glue them to a black backdrop...

I've never taken to Blue backdrops, for some reason.

I chose blue because its brighter than black, which looks good but when you get a wall of them can be a bit too dark from past experience anyways. This ones a nice little tank though not like the 6 I'm using on the rack so it'll probably get some nice backing on it when I buy some more frozen food this week.

What? It sounds like you're gunna slop some offal up against the glass!

I think the Black adds depth (an 'unknown' depth). But of course, I'm a heavy planter, so the two probably compliment.

The blues I've seen so far, I've felt looked 'synthetic'. There was no sense of 'belonging'. Maybe it's a conditioning sort of thing - I know that freshwater fish do not swim in 'blue' waters... That probably comes from my Country Hick upbringing, on the river, where water visibility was only a couple of inches!