Happy, Crazy Day... Found Panda Cory Fry In The Most Unlikely Place&#3

[eaglesaquarium]

So, as some of you may know, I am setting up a 110 gallon tank at my workplace to be a South American biotype of sorts. The tank has been set-up since around Thanksgiving. I added some plants a while ago, like a month or so, from my home tank, along with a bit of fish flakes to give the tank some ammonia source to start cycling over the holiday. And allow the plants to start growing in a bit - they are doing well - all except my anacharis, which has completely melted. I left it stay in the tank, to again add a bit of ammonia to the tank and help in the cycling process.

Since the New Year, I've been adding ammonia daily and getting it ready for a nice load of fish in a week or two. Currently the tank is cycling through about 2ppm daily completely - it was a bit slow on the nitrite, but its caught up nicely now. (I had added a bit of media from my home tank to seed the process and its coming along great.)


Anyway, I dosed it up to about 5ppm on Friday before I left, and the nitrite came back zero, the ammonia had a slight tinge to it, but less than 0.25ppm. I was feeling pretty good - so I dosed it to 3ppm, figuring I should start to ramp up the ammonia a bit to get it ready for fish.


When about 5 minutes after dosing the tank, I noticed something move...

There's no fish, so this has to be some sort of a stowaway. I looked closer - and its a panda cory fry!!!

Its about a half a cm in length, maybe a bit more, but I could clearly see the dark spot around the eye and the dorsal fin. I'm not completely shocked, because my panda cories in my home tank have been breeding rather regularly, and I've gotten some babies out of it (6 at home already have reached full maturity).


Then, I remember, I just dosed the tank to 3ppm ammonia!

Time for an emergency water change!!! So, I empty the tank down to about 25% of the water - can't go lower than that while working! A friend of mine runs to the store for some Prime, while the tank empties. Now, I've refilled, and I've added an extra bit of Prime to help the little guy out. Later this afternoon I'll be pulling ALL the decor out of the tank and trying to find the little guy to take home with me, and put him in the tank there - he's big enough, he should be fine with my fish. They never bother any of the cory babies once they are big enough to venture out of their hiding places.


Anyway, this was a completely unexpected situation! I'm a proud parent again, but wish I had known before now. I've been dosing this tank with ammonia for about 2 weeks now. He must be about 6 weeks old now, given that the plants were added at the end of November. He might have hitched a ride on one of my plants as an egg and just hatched in the new tank... no other explanation seems possible

 

[Shelster]

A least you found him, good luck on catching him now

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yeah, he's got 110 gallons to scoot around in, and tons of cover to hide behind/under. That's why I plan to remove EVERYTHING! Not what I had planned this afternoon.

 

[cpwebsite]

Congragulations. However, why do you plan on removing him? The ammonia he produces as he grows can help cycle the aquarium and you can slowly add one fish or more to help it cycle since it already has some 'starter bacteria'. So much easier than tearing apart the tank IMO. Plus where there is one baby there can also be more.

Plus I would be careful about adding ammonia to a live planted tank it can cause some problems.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks, I am well acquainted with the potential issues, but to be honest, I've kept the ammonia fairly low up until now, and I haven't had even the slightest algae show up.


The biggest reason to remove the baby is that we are planning to stock 24 bloodfin tetra and another 14 corydoras of two different species into the tank (either 7 days or 14 days from now)... having a 3rd species makes no sense. His tiny ammonia bioload isn't worth worrying about... Also, he'd be far better off with panda corys in my home tank.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Success!

Now I just need to take him home with me, acclimate him to my tank there, and see how he fares with his folks and big brothers/sisters.

 

[Shelster]

Awe, I want to see a pic of the little guy! Don't worry, that will be tricky but would love to see one of your workplace tank when all planted and stocked, sounds like its going to be good

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'll see what I can do... he's acclimating to my tank at home right now...

 

[Ilyas]

Neat story, thanks for sharing it.

 

[paradiddle]

N'awwww =)

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, he's in the tank now... He's already scooted into the 'regular' hiding places of the other cories and the other babies (a bit of slate leaned on another piece to create a bit of a cave. They've dug the sand out a bit more, and now are quite content now, based on the breeding rate.


As far as a pic... Sorry, I don't see getting a shot of him. My son was so excited for the release, I forgot about the pic, and he's now so buried, I won't see him again for a few days - as is the norm with these panda cory babies.