Rip Little Pandas

[Bex]

Two of my little panda cory's died last night

Came home from work and saw 2 sitting together. Both of their faces were red and they both had growths on top, just above their eyes. They were fine the day before so all this happened while I was at work. Got them into quarantine but they didn't make it and both passed away within a couple of hours.

Not really sure what happened as all water stats tested fine and had done a water change at the weekend. They were all eating and water is crystal clear. I've read that Panda's aren't the hardiest of cory's so perhaps it is just one of those things?

We're going away for the weekend tomorrow and now I'm worried about my other fish in there. My mum in law is coming round to feed them but she won't be able to do anything if any others get sick. She wouldn't know what to look for. I have some baby red whiptails in this tank and am really quite worried about them. The quarantine tank is occupied still with a platy from our other tank, who has had previous problems and is a little bloated so we are treating him at the moment, so they can't go in there for a few days. The other Panda's and other fish all looked ok this morning and were all eating last night.

Fingers crossed for my little fisheys, hope we don't come home to carnage!

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Sorry to hear that Bex How lond have you had the pandas? How big were they? Not sure what was wrong with them, red faces and growths. That sounds very sudden. I hope all the other fish in your tank are ok, and that it had only affected your pandas.

Good luck and hope all's well when you get back.

 

[Bex]

We'd had them about 1 month so thought we were out of the woods with them. One was a female just under 1" and the other was a baby boy, only about 1/2".

I always check all the fish very closely every day because if any get ill I always hope to catch it early and be able to treat it. The worst one, the little boy, looked like he had the beginnings of fin rot also. The worrying thing was the size of the growths - they were about 3-4mm big off of their heads. Considering there was nothing there yesterday they came up very quickly.

The one thing I have learnt about fish which is the most frustrating thing, is that by the time any symptoms show it is probably too late.

Like you say, hopefully it is something that has only affected the Panda's. The other 5 look very healthy and no signs of anything bad. The little whippies also seemed good this morning. We did a big water change last night so have hopefully got rid of any nasties that might be lurking. Going to be worried about my babies all weekend now!

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Really sorry again Bex. Pandas are one of my favorites and I couldn't imagine loosing any. I have lost about 3 fry, but they were very small babies still. Hopefully the water change has done the trick. I just can't think what could have caused this though. Hopefully someone who knows more will see this thread and shed some light.

Hope you have a nice trip and try not worry too much about your babies. I know what you mean though. If I know eggs are going to hatch or a fish is ill, even a trip to the shops is hurried so I don't miss anything.

Speak soon
Carmen

 

[Bex]

Thanks Carmen!

Yeah, it's a nightmare when you don't know why. The tank isn't overstocked and all the fish are very peaceful so the Panda's aren't getting bullied or anything.

The platy from the other tank is sick, I think because 1 of the other platy's has been chasing him about non-stop and I think it has stressed him out, but the Panda's will probably remain a mystery!

For anyone else who reads this and might have an idea, tank stats are:

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10-20
pH 7.4
Temp 79

Only new additions were the little whips about 1 week ago and a water change with stress coat on Sunday.

I think my mum in law will freak if any others die while we are away. She'll probably think it's her fault!

Will be keeping all my fingers and toes crossed this weekend!

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Bex

I'm so sorry to hear about your little pandas.

This is a good example why I don't recommend pandas as often as I would like to. They are just not as strong as most of the other readily available corys and when they get sick, it progresses fast, often before you even notice anything is wrong.

I have an established colony of pandas that spawn regularly and I have to watch them carefully. At the very first sign of any unusual behavior (like they stop spawning or have a white spot on one of them) I give them a dose of MelaFix. This usually heads off the problem, but I lost many pandas before I started doing this. They were the hardest of all my corys to get to even survive.

You might find that they are sensitive to problems in the tank well before the other fish are effected by them, so perhaps their deaths alerted you to something wrong and the extra water change you did will have saved the others.

Please let us know how things are when you return.

 

[Bex]

Thanks Inchworm

I had read about them not being very hardy and had read a few post where people lost all of them, but they were just so darn cute in the LFS we thought we'd give it a go. Like you said, when they get sick it progresses really fast. Thinking about it now, the bigger female cory did look a bit pale the other day so perhaps that was the first sign and I didn't pick up on it. Mainly because I have seen them go very pale on other occasions, when they are scared, like when doing water changes etc.

I think I might do another water change before we leave tomorrow just to be sure.

I will let you know how they are when we get back. I'm even a bit worried about going home tonight in case anymore are sick!

 

[Bex]

Well got back from a weekend away and my other Panda's are all ok!

We were really worried as just as we were leaving it looked like another one was sick but had no time to do anything about it. Think the extra water changes might have helped though. We were really expecting to lose at least one more.

Hopefully we won't lose anymore as we only have 5 now and we want to keep them in a nice big group. It's a shame panda's aren't a little hardier as they are such cute little corys

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Great to hear Bex. Bet you were worried the whole time. I've been keeping an eye on mine since you lost yours. You never know if things progress so quickly with pandas. But thankfully mine seem fine too. Our tank full of panda fry is as active as ever. I love our little "sea" of panda babies.

Got any pics of those tiny whiptails yet?? You've been teasing me for over a week now!!

Speak soon
Carmen

 

[Bex]

Morning Carmen!

Yeah, I was really worried about them, couldn't get through the front door quick enough yesterday.

Would love to see some pics of your panda babies, bet they are gorgeous

Piccies of the whippies coming soon, I promise! They're only on a camera phone and we have a bit of trouble getting them on the computer. They seem to have grown recently too, but the piccies we got are when we first got them, so they were still tiny. I promise to get them on here this week!

 

[Xebadir]

I know how you feel bex, i lost two of mine recently after over 2 months stable without any problems. I have no idea what got them, one day they were fine, the next dead as dodoes. They died a week apart, which was the weird thing, in exactly the same fashion. Its depressed me enough to give my others up on thursday, just worried about loosing them and they are so cute.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Sorry to hear about your loss Xebadir, I remember how happy you were to find some.

Bex, I'll post some pics of my cories later. I just took some really nice one's of my sterbai.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Bex

I'm so glad to hear that your remaining pandas are doing well.

The key to keeping pandas seems to be avoiding problems rather than trying to solve them. If you keep your tank clean by doing frequent water changes, and keep the water on the cooler side (72- 75 degrees) and well oxygenated, your effort will go a long way toward keeping them healthy in the future.

 

[Bex]

Hi Xebadir

Sorry to hear about your Panda's It's terrible when it's so quick cos you can't do anything to help them.

Hi Inchworm

Thanks for the advice! I'm finally getting the temp back down after all the hot weather we've had. I'll be keeping a very close eye on the others. Having a sand substrate is good too because we can see any dirt building up straight away and can clean it out.

Hopefully we won't have any more problems but I won't be too surprised if we do!

 

[Xebadir]

Well considering the outrageous cost I paid for the cories, and my desire to have a small planted tank I have found a solution.....yet another tank *grins evilly*, It will be smallish but perfect for 4 Pandas(thats all), sand sub...just gotta find an effective method of filtration for a smallish tank.