Just a quick break from the all-carder-all-the-time postings which you may expect over the next little while, to share a cool discovery from when I cleaned my fish tank over the weekend.



A couple background updates since the last installment of The Panda Cory Show:

• I stopped collecting eggs and raising fry from the cories a bit over a year ago.
• The three oldest cories disappeared from the tank, and I'm assuming that they died natural deaths, given that they were 4+ years old.
  
• When we moved last October, I consolidated the 7-gallon tank and the 14-gallon tanks. Taking care of two tanks was too much work, plus there isn't a good place for the second tank in the new house.
• The 14-gallon tank fits perfectly on the counter between the kitchen and dining room, and I really like it there because you can see both sides of the tank.
  
• All the fish (5 glowlight tetras, 2 black neon tetras, 5 panda corydoras catfish, 1 otocinclus catfish) have been doing great since the move, and the plants are growing well and providing lots of cover. This is good because both sides are exposed and they can't go hide in the back anymore, though I did put a pothos plant trailing across counter on the dining room side to screen it a bit.
  
• Since the move, the glowlight tetras and panda cories have spawned at least five times each, and the rest of the fish have thoroughly enjoyed the caviar.
  
• I got 4 more otocinclus catfish last weekend, because they like to be in schools, and the singleton I had was lonely.

Then, early this week, after the new otos had had a chance to adjust to the new tank, I did a routine 30% water change and cleaned the filter. Luckily, I dumped all the water from the filter into a bucket and not straight into the sink, because when I went to empty the bucket, I saw this:



A little baby cory that has been living in the filter! I'm guessing he's about 6 or 7 weeks old, based on the amount of pigmentation on his head, dorsal fin and tail. He was about 3/4" long, give or take. I released him into the main tank, and hopefully he's thriving and enjoying the extra room.

Panda cories are tough little fish.

It's a pretty aquarium, and always provides something interesting to look at when I walk past. I enjoy it.

An update on The Panda Cory Show:



I have 9 mostly-grown-up babies now, bringing my total to twelve. I haven't collected and hatched any eggs in a while, and I think I'm going to take a break for now. I was getting tired of the daily water changes for the fry, and I've got too much else going on at the moment. Plus, I'm out of tank room.

These guys are so personable and active. I just love watching them trundle around the tank in a group, nosing through the gravel.

The Panda Cory Show is still going full force. I have now released three babies into the big tank, to make room for all the babies still in the fry tank. The oldest baby now in the big tank is 13 weeks old, and is rapidly approaching the adults in size. The next oldest is 10 weeks, and the smallest is about 8-9 weeks. I still have ~20 fry in the fry tank, growing like crazy. By the time we get back to La Grande, there should be two or three more at release size. However, I may not have to put them in the big tank. Yesterday I found this at the Thrift Store:



Have I mentioned how much I love the thrift store here on the island? It's a 2.5 gallon glass tank, for only $3. New, they run about $13-15, and this one is is in near-perfect condition (one 1/2" scratch). The fry look so much happier with all that room.

This is the tank size I was actually looking for when I went to get a fry tank, but no place in La Grande had one. The smallest I could find was 10 gallons, and that was way bigger than I wanted to go. The nano-filter I had on the smaller tank works just fine on the new tank, and so does the heater, so now I'm all set.

I still haven't figured out what I'm going to do with all these panda cories as they grow up. The big tank is pretty much maxed out in terms of fish capacity. It's just so fun to watch the fry grow up.

Still not thinking about a bigger tank, no no no....

The panda cory I released into the big tank is doing great, and has grown quite a bit. I managed to get some video yesterday that wasn't too bad:



I also released the second-oldest fry into the big tank this morning. He's only 7 weeks old and still slightly smaller than the other was when released him, but is big enough that the tetras can't eat him. The fry tank is getting a bit crowded, since I have 15 more babies in there as of yesterday! That brings the total in the fry tank to 20! I'm not rescuing any more eggs for a while.

While I was at it, I shot this video of the adult female eating an algae wafer.



You can also see a male panda cory, glowlight tetras (the orangy striped ones) and black neon tetras (the black striped ones). The black neons are the pushiest fish in the tank, especially the large female. She doesn't like any of the other tetras getting too near her spot when there's food around! The tetras like algae wafers, but seem to be intimidated by the cories and also have a hard time seeing the wafer when it's flat on the gravel. So they mostly eat the pieces of wafer that break off and float around in the current.

The Panda Cory Show had a landmark episode today. The largest of the fry, being fully eight weeks old:



graduated:



to the big tank.



He seems to be doing really well. He hid in the plants for about ten minutes, then started trundling around with the adults, nosing in the gravel and picking out morsels of food. This next picture is really bad, but you get an idea of the relative sizes of the juvenile and the adult. The juvenile is 13/16" long from tip to tail (I measured while he was in the net).



Hooray for the fry! I'm so proud of us both. The remaining babies in the fry tank (13) are doing well, and the largest of them is 5 1/2 weeks old and starting to get the adult pigmentation.

I raised a baby fish from egg to release size!!

The Panda Cory Show, week 7 1/2.



He's pretty much fully colored up now, just a tiny bit more to go on the dorsal fin. About 3/4" long, and extremely active. His 8-week birthday is next Tuesday, and to celebrate he's graduating into the big tank. I think he'll really appreciate the extra swimming room.

As for the other 14 (one is 5 weeks old, the ones I rescued from the main tank as fry are probably about 3-4 weeks old, the rest are 4-8 days old)- they're doing well and very active!

Well.

So, I was cleaning the big aquarium last night, just doing a routine water change and vacuuming the gravel a bit. As I was vacuuming around the big driftwood, I noticed a panda cory fry wiggling on the gravel! Apparently one of the black neon tetras noticed as well, since she zoomed down and ate the fry. I lifted the driftwood a bit, and saw several fry wiggling. I immediately put the driftwood back down, stopped vacuuming, and ran for the net. I netted out all the adult fish and lifted out the driftwood again. Using a combination of the gravel vacuum and the net, I captured and removed four cory fry and put them in the little tank. I also picked fifteen eggs off the big java fern and put them in the fry tank.

As of this morning, about half of the eggs have hatched, and I haven't seen any dead fry floating around. Hard to get an accurate count, but I think I've got around 14 babies in the fry tank again.

The rollercoaster ride continues.

The Panda Cory Show has now been running for six weeks, and once again, there has been a tragic development. We are now down to just two fry. I'm not sure what's going on, but it's been a sad week, losing a fry a day.

The remaining babies are the big one (I'm quite attached to him, and am so glad he wasn't one of the casualties...) and one of the younger ones. The younger one is not quite four weeks old, and is at the stage of beginning to lose the finfold and get a dorsal fin. The older one is looking very grown up, and probably doesn't appreciate being called a baby anymore.



He now has a well-developed spot on his caudal peduncle (base of the tail), and the dorsal fin is about half pigmented. I'm thinking he's probably about ready to go in the big tank, but I like being able to watch him so closely in the little tank.

Speaking of the little tank, I ended up getting a real filter for it this weekend. Emma and I had to go back to La Grande to fetch some things from the house, and mow the grass. It was a superfast trip, and went like this:

• left Friday Harbor on the 6:00am ferry on Saturday
• stopped in Burlington to get Emma new sneakers- she wears size 11 now!
  
• stopped in Seattle at Weaving Works just on general principles, and got a Super High Speed whorl for my wheel (!!!) and also an Addi Lace needle in US3
  
• drove all day
  
• got to La Grande around 4:00pm
• played with Cobalt, who was very glad to see us
  
• mowed the grass
  
• gathered assorted forgotten things
  
• ate dinner
  
• watched the last episodes of the season for Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis on Tivo
  
• slept
• washed the sheets we slept on and hung on the clothesline (housesitters will take down)
  
• continued gathering forgotten things
• back on the road ~9:00am Sunday
  
• drove all day
• stopped in Burlington for dinner and Petco
• caught the 8:25 ferry, very last car on (whew)
• home in Friday Harbor at 10:00pm
• slept

It was a long weekend, and Emma and I were both heartily tired of being in the car. The stop at Petco was good, though. I found the cutest, tiniest little filter I've ever seen.



It's a Red Sea Nano-Filter, and it looks just like a regular filter, except that it's so tiny! It's rated for tanks up to 3 gallons. In my little one-gallon fry tank, I have it turned to the lowest flow setting, and it still gives quite a bit of current. I put a sponge over the intake pipe to keep the fry out, and that helps slow the flow too. The fish seem to be doing OK with the increased current. I did put the little java fern on the rock back in the tank, to break up the current and give them some shelter. I'm hoping that the filter will improve the water quality, as that may be what killed all the fry. Plus, it's quieter than the airstone, which is nice.

For comparison, here's the Penguin Mini I have on the big (7 gallon) tank. I thought this filter was very small when I got it.

The Panda Cory Show, now on Day 36- five full weeks!



This is the same individual I've been photographing all along, the largest of the batch. He... I keep saying "he," but that's just convenience... I have no idea if this is a "he" or "she," but "he" is nicer than saying "it"... he is ~1/2" long, and developing beautifully. As you can see, he's getting some more pigmentation. In addition to the eye band, which has been there for a couple weeks, he's getting some spots of black at the base of his tail and in the dorsal fin. For reference, here's the picture I posted of one of the adults. Hard to tell in that picture against the driftwood, but the dorsal fin is completely black.

There has been a rash of unexplained deaths this week, mostly among the younger set of fry. I'm not sure why, but I'm down to 8 babies, now. They seemed to not be eating very well, and sort of wasted away. Very sad. I also took out the rock permanently, as I think the waste and uneaten food that tended to collect in the inaccessible area behind it was degrading the water quality. So now the tank is just plain sand, and will hopefully do better. It's certainly easier to clean this way.

The Panda Cory Show is having a very successful Season 2. A month! We made it to a month! The fry are 27 and 10 days old now, and as far as I can tell, I have 15 (maybe 14) of the 18 fry still swimming about. The younger set is still pretty hard to see against the sand, so it was hard to count them, but the four older ones are definitely still alive. I know for sure I lost three of the fry because they had some sort of malformation or injury, and couldn't swim except in frantic spirals. It was kind of a relief when they expired. The rest look good- they're eating and swimming, and seem healthy. I love watching their bellies fill up when they eat.

I took the java fern and rocks out of the tank this afternoon so I could do a thorough cleaning of the sand (food and waste tends to collect behind the rocks, where I can't get at it), and took the opportunity to get a headcount and some pictures.



It's blurry because of my camera's horrible video quality, but you can see the specks of cory fry zooming around. It's so fun watching them nose around in the sand looking for bits of food.

The biggest of the lot is really looking like a fish now, with fins and everything!



He still has a bit of the finfold left, but the unpaired fins that develop from it (dorsal, adipose, anal, and caudal fins) are well developed, as are the paired pectoral and pelvic fins. His body shape has really changed, too. This guy is much deeper-bodied and shorter-tailed, relative to total length.

I tried to get a video of him nosing around in search of morsels in the sand, but this was the best I could get.



You can see how he does the typical cory pattern of "nose nose nose I FOUND SOMETHING chew chew rest rest rest nose nose nose." So very cute.

Well, we made it to Friday Harbor. The trip was pretty uneventful, though I truly hate the stress of packing and moving. Especially un-fun was the stress of packing for three months. We're basically setting up housekeeping here for the summer, but Shaun also had to bring a bunch of lab equipment, so the space in the car was limited. In addition to the aquariums and the cat, I wanted to bring my spinning wheel and some fibery things to play with during the summer, Emma has a few toys, Shaun has his bike and assorted training gear (running, swimming, biking: he's doing a triathlon in July). We did save some space by leaving the big litterbox at home and getting a smaller litter pan, and having the car-top carrier for the suitcases and non-fragile gear really made it possible to bring all our toys.

We're actually not supposed to have pets (cats or dogs) here at all, so we're being all illegal and sneaky-like. We did end up leaving Cobalt (our dog) at home, since she's too hard to hide, but we had to bring Naia (the cat) because our housesitter is allergic to cats. We're also not supposed to have anyone else but us live in the house in La Grande, according to our lease, so I guess this is our summer of sneakiness and rule-breaking.

I won't even go into all the feeling of guilt and abandonment that I feel about leaving Cobalt behind. She is doing much better, and has somewhat recovered from her troubles last spring, but she's still not her old self. I hope she doesn't have any more problems before we get home. I've never been away from her for this long, since we got her in 1994. And to abandon her when she's semi-ill.....I feel terrible. (Because she's more than a pet, she's a friend.)

Anyway, I'll move on to The Panda Cory Show. Season 2.5 started yesterday.

I had the four fry, and seven eggs that I found on June 1. When I was breaking down the tank for the move yesterday, I found seven more eggs on the java fern in the main tank. So I packed up the four big fry and the 14 eggs in their own cooler container, the adult fish in a separate one, and piled the fry tank and all the aquarium supplies in the empty tank. Tra la la, off we went to Friday Harbor. Eleven hours later, (7 1/2 hour drive (including breaks for lunch and dinner), 45 minute wait for the ferry, and 2 1/2 hour ferry ride- I love how the last 20 miles takes a third of the total trip time), we got to the island. First thing I did was to open the fish containers so they could get some air. When I opened the fry container, I saw this:



Every single egg hatched during the drive! I now have 18 panda cory fry! I'm pretty impressed by the toughness of this species. The adults recovered much faster from the trauma of the ride than the tetras did, and were actually mating about half an hour after I put them in the tank. The tetras were still looking a bit pale and stressed (different water, shock of travel, etc), and hiding under the driftwood, but the cories were, well, yeah...

It's amazing how much the older fry have grown. They are 20 days old today, and the difference between them and the day-old fry is huge.



I mean, yes, they are both pretty tiny, but what a difference three weeks makes! I put all 18 into the fry tank, and the younger ones immediately dove for cover. If I didn't know they were in there, I would have no idea. The older fry nosed around a bit, ate some of the flake food I put in, and took up their stations under the rocks and plants. The largest of the four big fry likes to hang out under the front of the rock with the java fern on it.



He seems to rest there a lot, in between trundling around the tank, sifting through the sand and looking for food particles. I just love these fish.

The Panda Cory Show, day 16. The fry are now solidly 3/8" long, and have filled out a lot.



Even more exciting is this picture:



If you click to enlarge, you can see the start of real fins!! There are rays in the dorsal and tail fins, and distinct fin outlines beyond the outline of the finfold.

The Panda Cory Show is still going strong. I'm pleased to report that the remaining four fry are now 14 days old, two full weeks. This feels like a triumph, since the oldest one of the last batch only made it to 11 days. I hadn't seen all four at the same time recently, and usually I only see one at a time, but when I fed them last night, I saw all four at once! They are so cute, the way they hop around the tank and nibble at the food particles in the sand.



See that white blob behind his head? That's a full tummy! They have really gotten the hang of this eating thing. After I feed them microworms, their stomachs turn white like that, and after I feed crushed flakes, their stomachs turn orange.

I also added seven more eggs to the tank on Friday. They are looking pretty close to hatching, probably in the next day or so.


new eggs and 14 day old fry

The adults are still spawning every couple days, so maybe at some point I'll see a juvenile cory appear in the main tank as if from nowhere. If any survive the tetra gauntlet, that is. Those guys will eat anything that moves, if it fits in their mouths!

Of course, now that I've bragged about two-week-old fry, they will probably all die. This coming weekend is going to be stressful, in any case. We're going back up to Friday Harbor for the summer so Shaun can teach a class and do research, and the fish have to come along, since we're going to be gone for close to three months. I'm a bit apprehensive about this. The adults handled the move from FH to La Grande just fine last fall, but I'm afraid the fry won't make it.

Emma and I went on an excursion to Catherine Creek State Park yesterday afternoon. We had fun hiking a bit, splashing in the creek, and looking at the pebbles and various critters.



In addition to the water striders, which Emma found fascinating, we saw lots of Variable Checkerspots (New for my Life List! The ones I saw looked like the "chalcedon" form/subspecies/population/variety), and several of what I think are rainbow trout juveniles. Please correct me if I'm wrong!



Speaking of fish, The Panda Cory Show has a redecorated set.



On our way back this afternoon, I picked up a handful of coarse sand from Catherine Creek (not from inside the State Park, farther downstream in a field). I've been reading up online about raising cories, and one thing most sources say is that it's better to keep fry (and adults, for that matter) on some sort of substrate. Even with cleaning, bacteria, fungi, and other nasties can build up a film on the bottom of a bare tank that can erode the cory's barbels and pectoral fins, since they are bottom-dwellers and are basically resting on it constantly.

I was going to use the gravel I have in the main tank, but decided the grain size was too big and the little babies would get down in between the grains and risk getting crushed. So I added some sand. I didn't want really fine sand, because it's a pain to clean, but at the same time I wanted smooth grains because sharp sand is too abrasive. Catherine Creek is a fairly high energy stream, so the sand is well polished.



This was taken yesterday afternoon, when the babies were 10 days old. Can you find him? The fry are much harder to see now, but I think this will be better for them. They probably feel more secure on the dark substrate, as well. They are starting to get more pigmentation, and have the eye band just like the adults now.

I also put in another rock from the main tank. I lost two of the fry on Tuesday night, and I wanted to be sure the tank had enough good bacteria to keep it healthy, so I added another rock.

The oldest four panda cory fry are eight days old now, and they are really starting to act "cory-like." They scoot across the bottom and up the sides, nose around on the bottom of the tank and investigate the rock and plant with their barbels, and best of all- I actually saw them eating the microworms this morning!

This batch (in the 1-gallon tank) look much happier than the last batch (in the little tub floating in the main tank). They have darker pigment, are bigger, and are much more active.

Go fry go!

Panda cory fry, seven days old.

I couldn't decide which picture to put in, so you get both. As always, click to get the full effect. The first one shows the shape of the tail end of the finfold really well. The oldest four are starting to get some pigment in the tail region, and what looks like the beginnings of rays.



And the second shows his cute little forked barbels really well.



We went camping this weekend, and were gone two nights. I thought about these little guys the whole time, though I tried not to worry about it too much. I did a water change before we left, and gave them a good feeding of microworms (though not too much, so the water wouldn't foul).

I was also worried they would get too hot or cold, because the weather has been so changeable this week. I've been leaving the light on during the day, then turning it out at 9:00 or so at night and covering the tank with a blanket for insulation. This has been keeping it right around 68-70F, but I didn't want to leave the blanket on all the time, in case it got up in the 80's again during the day. But it's also been getting down into the 50's at night, so they probably needed some sort of insulation. I compromised by leaving the light off while we were gone, putting the blanket just around the back of the tank, and leaving a back bedroom window slightly open (the tank is in the dining room) and all the shades closed.

As it turned out, we had a cold night last night, down to 38F (31 where we were camping in the mountains) . The indoor temp of our house went down to 55F! And the tank was at 56F when we got home at noon today! Yikes! Luckily, these guys seem to be fairly tolerant of low temperatures, and they were all still swimming. I immediately did a 30% water change with ~62F water (so as not to shock them too much), and turned the light on. Now, six hours later, they're back up to 68F, and still swimming, and don't seem any worse for the wear. All in all, I'm glad the temp went too low, rather than too high.

All the eggs in this batch have now hatched, six in total. (The sixth hatched sometime this weekend.) I'm not sure what happened to the seventh egg- it disappeared during the transfer from the little tub to the new tank.

Panda cory fry, four days old.



Definitely click and enlarge this picture- they're so cute. They have itty-bitty little barbels! The pectoral fins are visible, but their other fins won't differentiate for a month yet. They still just have a single continuous "fin" (actually called the finfold) across the top, around the tail, and back across the bottom. It looks like a hazy halo around the tail.

I started feeding them microworms yesterday, three days post hatching, because the yolk sacs seemed mostly absorbed. I think they may still have a bit of yolk left, the greeny-brown mottled bump at the base of the tail, though that's also the position of the stomach and it's possible that they are already eating the microworms.

Four of the panda cory eggs hatched last night, and one this afternoon! In an attempt to keep this latest batch alive, I got a mini tank.



It's a 1-gallon (tiny!) acrylic tank, not useful for much except raising fry. It came as one of those tank-in-a-box package dealies, with the tank, hood, one incandescent bulb, undergravel filter plate, an air pump, tubing, and air stone. Not expensive ($5.99) and also cheap (-quality). This is not the thing to get if you want a real tank. For the fry, though, I think it will work fine.

I didn't put in the undergravel filter, since I didn't want the fry to get lost in the gravel or under the plate. I just put the air stone in the riser tube and plugged the lower end with a bit of fiberfill so the babies wouldn't get sucked up and bashed around. The air stone creates an upward current, agitates the surface for gas exchange, and keeps the water in the tank moving gently. Just what I needed. I don't plan on keeping this tank running on a permanent basis anyway, just until the fry are big enough to go in the main tank (cross your fingers), so I didn't want to deal with gravel.

I put a rock and plant from the main tank in there, for two reasons. First, it gives the babies someplace to hide.



Two babies visible in this picture. Although it wasn't planned, I like how the cable-tie I used to attach the java fern to the rock holds it up off the bottom. Much less danger of the babies getting crushed, and it makes a sort of "cave" for them.

The second reason for putting the rock and plant in there is for nitrogen conversion. This tank was obviously just set up today, so is not cycled. The rock and plant came from my existing tank, and should be coated with the beneficial bacteria. This will hopefully work to process the small amount of waste from the tiny fry immediately, and seed the tank surfaces and fiberfill in the bubble tube so that as the bioload increases as the fry grow, all will be well. I was going to use gravel from the existing tank for this, but decided to go with a bare floor for now so I can see the fry. Hopefully the rock and plant have enough bacteria to start the process.

There's no heater, since I couldn't find one small enough, but I think the incandescent bulb (a large nightlight bulb) will throw off enough heat to keep it warm. Our house is at about 65 right now, and the tank has been holding steady at ~70 for the past four hours, so it should be OK. My main tank has a fluorescent light, which is much better, but definitely would not maintain the temperature by itself. Yet another lesson on why fluorescent is better than incandescent.

I feel so much better, now, having the fry in this set up rather than in the little tub. There was no circulation in the little tub, and I think even twice-daily water changes weren't enough. Plus, all that water-changing was probably pretty stressful.

We shall see.

I am woman, hear me roar!!! Today I fixed my garbage disposal, all by myself.

Google is my friend. I had a jammed impeller (the scary spinny-around thing that you can see from above). Did you know that there's a hole in the bottom of most garbage disposals that fits a hex wrench, and if you turn the hex wrench back and forth, it turns the disposal innards back and forth and clears the jam? I didn't either. But it works!

Yes, I know I should be composting and not using the disposal.

Anyway. Time to update you on The Panda Cory Show. Sadly, Season One ended on a low note. The last lonely brave baby didn't make it either. I'm not sure why none made it past 11 days old. The last one appeared to be eating, and was perky the night before the morning when he was floating. Perhaps he was too stressed by the high temperatures that one day. Perhaps the water quality in his little tub wasn't good enough, despite twice-daily water changes using water from the big tank. I just don't know.

Happily, Season Two starts today! I found 7 more eggs! Four of them are older eggs, with the larva visible inside, three are still very young, with nothing visible. I have removed them from the big tank, and they are in the small tub, but I'm seriously considering getting a small tank and a sponge filter for them. Maybe being in a larger volume of water will work better for them. It will at least be easier regulate the temperature, that's for sure.

Finally, just because I can after our walk today, I'd like to show you this:



and also:



as well as:



not to mention:



I love orchids.

The Panda Cory Show had an unexpected and tragic plot twist this past week. Panda cory fry do not like to be too warm. Last Thursday, the temperature hit ~85F here. Though my tank is not in direct sun, and I had the windows open and the curtains closed, the house still got hot. Emma and I were out and about, doing errands, and when we got home I noticed that the temperature of the aquarium was 80F. Eek! I have the heater set so it doesn't go below about 71F. I immediately turned off the light and removed the hood, but it wasn't enough. The adult fish were fine, in fact they probably prefer it warmer than I normally keep it. I'm just trying to save a bit of electricity, and the fish seem fine. However, 80F was just too hot for the fry.



One brave and lonely baby left. I took his little tub out of the main tank, and he's now living on the counter next to the tank, and seems to be doing OK. Still looking active and swimming. I think this was the last one to hatch, since he still had a tiny bit of yolk sac left on Thursday, so maybe that worked in his favor. So sad. I hope this little guy makes it.

On a happier note, the microworms seem to be working out well. The cultures are well established now, and I've been feeding them to the baby. I think he's eating them- at least he's very active and has grown. He's nearly 3/8" long- the end of his tail is so transparent that it didn't show up very well in the picture. He actually looks better than any of the others that got to this age (10 days old now). I think the others just weren't eating enough. I should have gotten the worms sooner. Racked with guilt now, yes I am.