Breeding The Panda Corydora

Reading a few topics online made me want to give a go at breeding Panda Cories.
Apparently they are easy to breed, but I have no other experience than my T. Ocellicauda and my Endlers.

They currently live in a 20 gallon long tank, with a bit of plants (will add more) and a group of 10 Mosquito rasbora and a L134 leopard frog pleco.

I have not tried anything nor fed them anything special.
Yesterday I started feeding them bloodworms, and will do so for three consecutive days.
This weekend I will do a water change with cooler water and look for breeding activities.

Any tips on breeding these would be greatly appreciated.
It is a show tank so I'm not really found of dropping a spawning mop, but if you guys tell me it's going to make things MUCH EASIER, I might just do it.

Cheers!

Pandas do seem easier to spawn.  They are being commercially raised, not wild caught, and have been for a decade or so I believe, which is not the norm with cory species.  Of the more than 150 species, I don't think there are more than four or five being commercially spawned.
 
I have a group of five, and I know they are spawning because just two weeks ago I recovered a panda cory fry when I was last cleaning the canister on this tank, which is my largest (5-foot, 115g).  I just took a couple photos of the fellow, he is about twice the size now, and loves chomping into shrimp pellets.  The leaves are important in fry tanks for the infusoria, and I see him grazing the dried oak leaves regularly so presumably this is providing good nourishment.
 
First thing is, how many you have, and are there male and female.  I'll leave that for you to deal with.
 
It is difficult to obtain any eggs/fry in display tanks with other fish because these often eat the eggs as soon as they are laid.  My cory fry have all been rescues from the filter, and several species do spawn in this tank (there are 40 or so corys, in various numbers representing 12+ species).  One problem I see with your tank is the pleco.  Even primarily vegetarian loricariids will get eggs/fry, but the L144 species is primarily carnivorous, and active night and day.  You will likely have to move the pandas to a small tank for spawning, or remove the pleco.  The Boraras brigittae are not likely to eat cory eggs or fry.  The pandas themselves may or may not eat eggs if they find them, I don't know how many you have.  My pygmy corys are in the 10g, and I just leave them alone and eggs and fry are regularly showing up and a number of fry survive; but pygmy corys are considerably smaller.
 
The eggs will be placed individually here and there on surfaces, so spawning mops are pointless with corys.  Plant leaves, especially the underside, the glass tank walls, filter stems, are all normally selected by the fish.  I have never seen the eggs in the big tank, just the fry that survive, but in the 10g the pygmies place the eggs in Java Moss (but individually, a couple or so each spawning), on dried oak leaves, plant leaves, and the tank walls.
 
Conditioning the corys can be important.  A major water change with slightly cooler water, especially if carried out on a day when a low pressure system is approaching or present, usually works.  I'm not trying to get mine to spawn, but I do see increased interaction during low pressure days and after most water changes.  Good quality prepared sinking foods should be sufficient; I would be careful of feeding bloodworms too much, mine get them once a week.  They are high in fat and not especially nourishing nutrient-wise.
 
Food for the fry is probably the trickiest aspect.  Dried leaves like oak, beech, Indian almond are excellent and now known to increase the growth rate of most any fry.  I have a couple dozen in my 10g.  If the tank is established, live foods will be present all over the place, around wood, on plants.  You can buy fry foods.  I think Akasha has gone down this road, so if she sees this she will certainly chip in.
 
Byron.

Cory fry are relatively large and can probably take microworms as soon as they are free-swimming. A culture of these is very easy to start.

I'm a here to chip in lol
 
Well, I've trying to breed my panda cories for a while now and I'm mostly failing... much to my frustration!
 
Firstly my lot usually spawn in the night when I'm not around to collect a load of eggs. By the time I'm around to collect the eggs half of them have been eaten by my tetra's. In general I usually manage to collect between 4 and 6 eggs - of which maybe a couple will be infertile. Collecting the eggs and getting them to hatch is not the main problem though. The main problem is keeping them alive. Most die within the first 48 hours, 
I use sponge filters, I have oak leaves on the tank floor, I add liquifry twice a day and I've got a moss ball and a clump of java moss. All to no avail. I did manage to get one fry to about 1cm and doing well but then I woke up one morning and it was dead. I still have no idea what killed it. My water was all good, the only thing that it could be was not enough food. I'd tried to get it to eat cory pellets but it just wasn't interested.
 
Several years ago I bred my peppered cories and I took a heck of a lot to my lfs to swap for credit and I did nothing different than what I've done for my panda's. The only thing was the peppered fry would eat anything I put in front of them.
 
I would say if you want to successfully breed your panda's I would move them out of the main tank. Add 2 females to a male and condition them with good food. I would agree bloodworms are not the best as they are, as Byron has already said, really fattening for them. Artemia would be a better option.
 
I've tried the cool water change thing, and I've tried the low pressure thing - nothing happened. This would seem to be more coincidental in my experience. Perhaps it works in other countries? Differing weather systems etc? I can't say. What I can say is it's not working for me and I've tried it several times.
 
I would agree with everything else that Byron has said though. As you are in the same neck of the woods as him you could try the cool water change thing. I'd be interested to know if it works - if it does it may be that it just doesn't work in the U.K!! Or just doesn't work for me!!

Any incentives we as aquarists might use cannot be guaranteed, as the fish themselves must be ready to spawn, or willing, whatever.  I don't see corys spawning after every water change, or during every rainstorm, but sometimes with difficult to spawn species, doing all this can entice them.  
 
Evolutionary instinct tells these fish that they must spawn when the wet season begins.  The creeks, streams and rivers flood the surrounding forest, sometimes to depths of over 30 feet (10 metres) and for thousands of square miles/kilometres.  The fish move into the now flooded forest, where vegetation is thick (remember, most of the watercourses themselves are devoid of any aquatic plants) and food (insects, larvae, worms) are plentiful for fry to be hidden and feed.  And the rains are slightly cooler than the watercourses.  So combining all this may entice spawning, but only if the fish are otherwise so inclined.
 
Last week my four C. sterbai went on a rampage of spawning behaviours.  They were together in a group (rare for them, they normally spread out) and charging around like crazy, nudging one another and tickling each other with their sensitive barbels.  This was clearly pre-spawning/spawning behaviour.  But I don't see this at every water change.
 
Byron.

okay, so what your saying Byron is to watch for the spawning behaviour and then grab my buckets? Effectively watch them and wait for them to show that they are considering a spawn and then do the water change to push them into it?
 
I see them darting about and I can spot the pre-spawning 'friskiness' and think that they are going to spawn but it often leads to nothing. 
 
I'll try waiting and watching for that pre-spawning thing and then do a cool water change and report back. I've not had eggs for weeks now, surely they must be due another spawn soon.
 
Just to say - my bronze lot do the tickling whiskers thing but they are all boys so I'd considered that to be just play. They tend to tickle whiskers whilst swimming round in a circle - usually after they've had something from the freezer to eat! 
 
My panda's dart up and down the glass walls - usually a female followed by a male or two. Sometimes I see this late evening and sometimes I wake up to eggs but other times I wake up to nothing

Some spawning behaviours are also used generally.  I rarely actually observe spawning itself, but I know it is occurring and I just don't see it; the fry I rescue from the filters indicates they are obviously spawning.  I have noticed that my C. duplicareus and C. sterbai frequently behave as the same species, i.e., a male C. duplicareus with charge around with one or two obviously female C. sterbai, trying to "spawn," though it may be play.
 
I once read someone who likened the whisker-tickling as gentle kisses in humans.

according to PC my melini and panda's can interbreed and I do see them often joining in when the panda's are darting about but thankfully they never go that far. I have witnessed the panda's spawning just once or twice (depending on what time I go to bed) but my peppered lot used to spawn in day time in full view with the lights on and everything.
The first time I saw I was gobsmacked. It was amazing the watch

My best opportunity to see corys spawning is in my 10g which is home to my pygmy corys.  I have been able to watch a female carrying an egg in her pelvic fins, accompanied by two (usually) males, nudging her continually, swimming around looking for the "perfect" spot to clean and deposit the egg.  As the corys are alone in this tank, and they seem to ignore the eggs and fry, I have fish that are so small they are a black speck on the sand and only visible when they dart around, up to the full adults.  I put the six corys, which happened to be 3/3 male/female, and there are over 30 corys now.  Obviously not all fry survive; I add no food to this tank other than the normal adult cory sinking pellets, but I do put 3-4 dried oak leaves in every week after the water change, and leave them until they are pretty much decomposed naturally.  Plus the fact that the tank has two old chunks of wood with thick moss, and aside from water changes and sand vacuuming along the front, receives no cleaning.  I periodically see almost microscopic critters on the glass and pygmy chain sword leaves so there is likely sufficient live food for some of the fry early on.
 
I also raise my Farlowella fry in this tank, as they ignore the corys at any stage, and vice versa, and the leaves provide crucial food for the Farlowella.  They are very slow growing, but when they attain around 2 inches, I move them out.

Thank you all for this valuable input.
I have only 4 panda cories, I think I should get more of them.
Byron, you said I had a L144 altho I said I have a l134, I believe the l134 are more nocturnal as I rarely see it during daylight.
 
This weekend I gave my cories tubes so they can have more places to hide, one of the cories adopted one of them as a home right away. ^^
 
I'll have to buy Artemia for them, you are right that bloodworms are really fat.

l_l_l said:

Thank you all for this valuable input.
I have only 4 panda cories, I think I should get more of them.
Byron, you said I had a L144 altho I said I have a l134, I believe the l134 are more nocturnal as I rarely see it during daylight.
 
This weekend I gave my cories tubes so they can have more places to hide, one of the cories adopted one of them as a home right away. ^^
 
I'll have to buy Artemia for them, you are right that bloodworms are really fat.

Click to expand...

 
That was just a typo, I did mean L134, species is Peckoltia compta.  [The nocturnal aspect has no bearing to what we are discussing, just so you know.]

Byron said:

 

Thank you all for this valuable input.
I have only 4 panda cories, I think I should get more of them.
Byron, you said I had a L144 altho I said I have a l134, I believe the l134 are more nocturnal as I rarely see it during daylight.
 
This weekend I gave my cories tubes so they can have more places to hide, one of the cories adopted one of them as a home right away. ^^
 
I'll have to buy Artemia for them, you are right that bloodworms are really fat.

Click to expand...

 
That was just a typo, I did mean L134, species is Peckoltia compta.  [The nocturnal aspect has no bearing to what we are discussing, just so you know.]
 

Click to expand...

True..
Actually, after research, I should had said it is a L129.
My L134 are in my much bigger tank lol.
Anyways, doesn't change anything to my plans

Hi, to answer your query about your panda's. I only had four when my lot bred. I left the eggs to be eaten but then a few weeks later this little mini panda turned up from nowhere ... a survivor from the spawn that had hidden itself away in my java fern until big enough to venture safely out. It then happened again a few months later and so now I have 6. 
Provided to have a good female-male ratio there's no reason why it can't happen for everyone. Provide enough cover and you'll find the odd one that survives

I successfully bred pandas, in a community set-up unintentionally.
 
 
Step 1: Get a group of pandas.
Step 2: Lots of plants... and lots of plants.
 
Step 3:  Wait for little to pop out sometime in the future.
 
 
I never did anything special.  One day I saw a single egg on a leaf.  Then about 3 weeks or so later, 3 panda fry popped out.  It happened on multiple occasions.  Never did I encourage it.  Never saved the eggs.  I just let them do what they do naturally.  Good husbandry, large water changes... but be forewarned:  the tiniest fry is nearly impossible to see until they move, and I know that on one occasion I nearly siphoned a fry out.  So, I'm sure that I DID more than once.
 
I had some java moss in the tank, here and there, Java fern, amazon swords, crypts, etc.   The pandas dropped the egg that I saw on a crypt leaf.  Not sure where else they were hidden (I had a LOT of hidey spots).  And the plants provide infusoria that the fry can naturally feed on.   A bit of extra leaf litter, if you can... and don't remove too much detritus, believe it or not, this is beneficial for young fry.  Some fry actually can't survive without it... as they need bacteria in their digestive systems that come from the adults systems (This is generally more true for BN Plecos, but might be true for cories as well.)

How big are eggs ?
I haven't noticed any.
I'm thinking I might only have males as I don't see any fatter cories.