Panda Cory Fry Questions

[chokko]

My panda cory fry are in their own nursery tank from eggs laid in main tank an hour apart or so.

Was feeding the fry today and got 2 surprises. I thought I only had 6 fry (that's all i've seen for past 6 days in what is essentially a bare tank), but saw 8 of them today?!?!?!

1) In addition to those 8, on the surface of the water darting around was what looked like a cory fry... but 1/4 of the length+width of the others...it was so slim and tiny it defied belief. Is it normal for fry to differ in size so much?

Normal fry:

Skinny fella:

2) what does the yolk-sac look like, is it the yellow ball on each cory in this pic taken a few days ago ?

This was taken tonight...still looks like yellow ball after 6 days?

Although this fella looks different again:

And this one has yellow pointy thing coming out the back:

 

[chokko]

Some more pictures whilst waiting for replies

7days old - happy birthday !

Looks like a conjoined twin, with it's own eye, on the side...?!?

 

[Mowbz]

Serious congrats on your fry, Panda's can be a nightmare just to keep, let alone get them to breed and not eat the eggs or the have the fry die!

Looks as if you have some great quality fry, the orange ball which has now gone on most is indeed the yolksack, and they feed of this for the first 24-36 hours, and then need something else. If you leave them in the tank with adults they'll often find enough microscopic "junk" on plants etc to grow out and eventually eat crushed flake.

The third "eye" you can see on one of them is probably where the shell around his head is covering up. Corydora's means; Cory -"Helmet" Dora - "Skin". Helmet Skin.

They dont have scales like most, but basically and interlocking armour shell, very much like the suit of armour an old soldier would have worn. Their head is pretty much a single peice, their front fins individual peices, and then the body looks more "scalelike", but it is infact hard.

Incase your not already aware, Corys can sting you. I've only heard of it happening once, but if you look at your adults, you'll see a point on the end of each front fin, and on the very top of the dorsal fin. Keep your fingers away from them. The husband of HayZ on here (i think) took the first sting ive ever heard of, and his arm swelled up and went numb.

I have a newfound respect for mine now!

Hope this helps.

 

[Harlequins]

Fab shots of your fry

Yes it is normal to have varying sizes,guess some fry are greedier than others

 

[DBT85]

I just have to say that those are some fantastic pictures. What lens did you have on the D700 (the camera of my dreams)?

 

[chokko]

Thanks for the kind words and helpful comments people.

Nice to know the 3rd eye isn't the result of nuclear radiation exposure

Re: Lens...it's the Nikon 105mm with VR turned off (i rest lens on table), and i put a SB800 into the side of the tank to ensure there's enough light.
In my pepper cory thread, a couple of pix were taken with the 50mm placed on the camera backwards with reversing ring...but thats only viable with stationary targets i've found out.

Onto todays photo spammage

First, the mystery surface dweller...still looks the same 2 days later. Someone suggested it looks like a guppy fry...and i just so happened to put some java moss in the nursery tank which came from a livebearer tank at the shop...so could be a hitchhiker.

The panda cory pix to date were all hatched in the nursery tank...9days old now:

Finally..whilst cleaning the adults tank today (removed everything except sand), i was shocked (and very pleasantly surprised) to discover two little panda fry swimming around.
Actually i should say "big panda fry", cause they're about 1cm which is much bigger than the nursery hatched fry above. I'll leave them in the big tank since they've survived this long.
The big question is...when were they hatched?
- 9 days ago, but they're much bigger because theyve found more scraps in the big tank to feed on?
- The previous time the Pandas laid eggs, which was about 5weeks ago?

Have a nice day!

 

[Harlequins]

Reckon its a good 5 wks old meself - they've done well to survive

 

[Mowbz]

I agree, looks to have survived since their first spawn. Ive had a few get that far and then disappear, and they're in a species only tank! Awesome pics!

 

[chokko]

couple more pix - 14days old

1 fry started acting crazy (swimming upside down, letting itself get blown by the airstone current etc) then died the following morning...i suspect water quality being the issue. So i removed the remaining 7 fry (plus the mystery fry) and put them in my tank with pygmy and hasbrosus corys.

all seem to be getting along well so far

amazing how 1 cory fry doesnt seem to have changed size in the past 7 days, but others are now double the width and 50% longer. unfortunately examples of the extremes haven't sat next to each other, so i can't get a photo.

Edit - 16days old

Two panda fry eating Hikari First Bites (the khaki stuff).
Here we can see how slim/undeveloped the left hand (out of focus) fry is compared to the right fry.

Panda fry already passing a sand grain through its gills...looks painful

Blue steel

Edit - 20days old

Edit - 25days old

Already eating black worms (whilst MrHasbrosus looks on in jealousy)

 

[karawr]

Incdible photos, love the gold shimmer on them... Beautiful. And I cringed at the one where he passed the sand through his gill!

 

[chokko]

4 weeks old, can see the black spot forming at rear

Another 4week old panda. Look how rough the barbels seem.

And this is one of the two panda toddlers (age unknown) in my big tank (first posted at end of jan29 post)

 

[Teapot]

I'm inlove with your photos.

 

[snazy]

Really nice pictures and fry. Well done.

 

[chokko]

7 week old fry. Almost 2cm. Some of them have jet black dorsal fins, but unfortunately they are hiding in middle of tank.

Next to adult Hasbrosus cory

Age unknown

 

[snazy]

They are lovely. Great pictures too.