the-obstacle

So I should remove them then? Would they be ok in a tank with other juvie pandas or put the current juvies in the community tank to continue growing?

That I'm not sure of - it's only the first spawn so I figure I'll see how they go. The pandas are the priority to breed out as they're going to be the big school but I don't think the parents will do much in the way of parenting once the eggs hatch. I'll have to see.

I thought I'd better strip this out of my other thread as it's way off topic. I've got these eggs in my community tank. They've been there since this morning (big cold water change last night triggered it I guess) and now I have no idea what to do to make sure they don't get eaten / sucked into filters if they spawn etc. What should I do? fry trap? breeding net? separate tank? I have a 30L with some other pandas from BabyRuby that are currently growing. I can move the growing pandas into the community tank and use the 30L as a fry tank but what do I do once / if I can move the eggs? What I'd like to do is leave them where they are and be able to catch them as they hatch but I'm at work during the day and don't have the time to sit and watch for them to be able to catch them. Is there an easy way to do this? This is the first time anything has spawned for me so I'm pretty excited and freaked out at the same time. Doesn't help that my apisto pair have also got a cave full of eggs that the female is guarding like crazy too, at least they tend to know how to look after their own.

Wow, those are some seriously ugly fish!

yeah, my 5 foot 10mm tank was a nightmare with 5 people. You'll need at least 6 to carry it.

How?

so it turns out turning the tank lights on after the timer turned them off at 7 as it does every day is a really good way to scare the crap out of your fish. I've never seen them all move so fast and so skittishly. Needless to say I didn't get any photos of the male but I got a pic of the panda eggs. Here's a pic of the male from a while ago when I had 2 of them. The one I kept was the larger one on the right - he's coloured up a bit more since then.

I'll get some pics when she comes out of her cave. She has got the red in her tail like that pic has. The male has a really strong red at the base of his dorsal fin and is even starting to show some near the front too. I'll see if I can get some of him now that the ambient light has died off. Back soon....

Yeah, these ones http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/Apistogramma_cacatuoides.php in the double red variety (second pic down on that page). I think I got the last female they had but they had a bunch of males left. My female looks just like the pic at the bottom today. Awesome!

That's not going to happen! Interestingly there are 10 cory sterbai in that tank - can't see any at all in the full tank shot. The angels really steal the show in that tank which is not the goal. Maybe a big tetra school and a big panda school will be the way to go. hmmmm. too many ideas.

turns out they lay eggs all over your tank. Actually, you'll notice them almost fighting/dancing together around the tank and then a pair will for a T shape with the female putting her face to the male's middle.

That's beautiful! It seems a bit too angel oriented though... damn. is there such a thing as dwarf angels? :lol:

haha, yeah, I know what that's like. I have to overfeed my cardinals so there's enough lying on the sand for the cories when they decide to get moving and grab something to eat. The food is always gone about 20 minutes after I stop looking though and the cardinals don't seem to want to eat off the sand at all. Thanks, I'm really excited - it's the first time I've had anything spawn. I suspect that once I visited Ryan's setup my fish figured they'd better prove their worth or they'd be out for better breeders

Seems it was the night for it last night - my female apisto cockatoo is flouro yellow and guarding her cave like crazy. I thought she had left the tank this morning but she came out at feeding time tonight just enough to grab a bite then rushed straight back in. When I had a closer look she came out to the glass to check if I was a threat then went back in again. Could be a good week for breeding in my tank. I hope the pandas last without being eaten - there are 13 fertilised eggs that I can see on the glass and about 5 white ones that have been partially eaten or have fallen off the glass.

if you've still got them in a month or so I might just be keen. Yeah, I've been looking at them. Still not sure. I'd like to keep it as close to a biotope for the pandas as possible.

Because it's a really tall tank so I'd like something to live in the upper water column. I'll only be having 3 or 4 species max in this tank though - pandas, angels, maybe a bristlenose pair and maybe a large tetra school (20 or so of something that won't get eaten by the angels but will live in the upper part of the tank) but the tetras aren't a priority.

I agree - it's so easy to damage your head anywhere at any time while on 2 wheels. I've noticed a lot of people have stopped wearing them though with this latest resurgence of cycling. A woman rode past me on k rd this morning on a classic bike in a suit at about 30km/h in traffic that was doing 50km/h and she didn't have a helmet and was holding up traffic by riding in the middle of the lane. Insane! Anyway, I say police the helmet laws and get people back into wearing them before it becomes the standard not to wear them again. There was a great interview on bFM last week about why we're here. Basically NZ hasn't had a cycling community since the 80s - now there are 10-20 times more bikes on the road than this time 5 years ago and the roading and drivers have never had to deal with bikes so no consideration has been in place for them. The roads are too narrow, drivers are not used to bikes being around and councils didn't have to care about the 'fringe' group sof cyclists. Now that fringe has become a large part of the community and the councils and roading bodies are all of a sudden having to consider bikes again. It can only get better right?

The juvies would be and they'd have to take a few bites to get the adults. I figure some P. Scalare that look like altums would do the trick. If others are having no problems with their cories then maybe I can chance it. I'll try to get the angels as juvies which should hopefully let them get to know the pandas before they start asserting themselves. On another note - I've got about 8-10 eggs on the glass of the community tank this morning! They're too big to be snails and it's in too much of an open area to be the cockatoos so I'm hoping they're pandas. About 3 or 4 are white and don't have anything in them and 2 have been eaten but the rest are a brownish colour with dark bits inside. If they're still there when I get home I'll transfer them into the grow out tank. What's the best way to get them off the glass? Anyway - thanks all for your advice! keep it coming if you've got any more ideas.

is it the equivalent of an albino in the clown loach world?

It also doesn't help when things like cordura or kevlar are heavy unbreathable fabrics and when you're as unfit as I am you need all the ventilation you can get. I guess the strange thing is I wouldn't ride a motorbike without armoured cordura at least but I'll bomb down city streets on my mtb at 50km/h in jeans and a t shirt. I guess I'm probably not setting a good example. At least it's not lycra.

Yeah, I've got 10 juvies in a 30L tank one their own and 5 adults in the community tank at the moment and the difference between a school of 5 and a school of 10 is huge. I can't wait to get a massive school going - I expect it'll be a completely different sight entirely.

So I'm planning this big tank which I expect will be up and running in January at this rate and the main school of fish will be a large group of panda corries (~30-50). The tank will be planted and will have a bit of rock like a land slide on one side with some drift wood built into it and then a fair amount of swords and other SA based plants through it. The substrate will be sand of some sort over a fert soil of some sort but that's off track. Here's the question - what other fish should I put in there? I was considering altums but after talking to a few other people have had my fears confirmed and I probably run the risk of losing a lot of pandas to them. What would you stock your SA tank with if it was based around pandas?

If you do throw them straight in make sure you don't throw any river water in with them.

hey phoenix - on your way up north can you swing by and scape the big tank? I've got tim tams and bryl creme

Yeah, I found the ones I just threw into the 25 degree water have lasted and the ones I acclimatised slowly didn't last at all. I've still got 3 or 4 in the tank and they're loving life, the other 10-15 are gone. (I also suspect they were a snack for my cockatoos)