This is Mumma Ellie - my longfin Hoplisoma panda (formerly Corydoras panda). She is sitting quite high at her pectoral fins because she is carrying a tummy full of eggs - again. This is very normal for her.
Mumma Ellie is relatively new member of my 160 Litre, semi-planted (in transition to all natural plants), light coloured, fine sand substrate aquarium community, as I've only had her for about 6 months.
After QT, she and the one other longfin panda I traded some of my home-bred chunky founding panda offspring for (to one of my reputable LFFs), instantly settled in to their new home.
Their tankmates consist of about 15 other bouncy panda corys, 6 hyperactive peppered corys, 5 sweet kuhli loaches, a large, multicoloured colony of neocaridina (cherry) shrimp and Rhubarb the yellow mystery snail.
All of my corydoras are regular, frequent spawners, with the Peppered corys "splattering" masses of eggs on the glass, and covering the bottom of my Anubias leaves almost daily. It is hectic!
What makes Mumma Ellie special is this: Unlike my also much loved other Mumma pandas, who fertilise one egg at a time - up to between 10 - 20ish per session, Mumma Ellie consistently holds and fertilises two eggs in her fins, laying up to 50 eggs per session - sometimes every 2 days!
Rather than slow her down, as can happen, Ellie's long, flowing fins seem to give her extra speed and manoeuvrability when avoiding the 4-5 swarming males who compete for her 'favour', adding a beautiful element of grace to the frantic, often rough-looking mating dance of this incredibly entertaining species of fish.
I don't do anything to deliberately 'trigger' spawning conditions. It can only be attributed to diet, biological conditions and quality of life (happy little fish).
Their diet is varied and needs to cater to the needs of each species and includes the following: Fluval Bug Bites (for bottom dwellers); Hikari branded sinking wafers, micro pellets, vibra bites, mini algae wafers, first bites and shrimp cuisine; Dymax Bottom Feeder Elite sinking mini wafers; Aqua Natural dried blood worms and Ocean Nutrition shrimp wafers - all in moderation. I usually have frozen BBS and Blood Worms on hand, and hatch my own BBS (mainly for the many fry and juvenile corys in the other 4 tanks), and they love chasing them down a couple of times a week.
Water quality is taken care of most efficiently by the Aqua One 'Aquus 1000' canister filter, cleaned about every 6 weeks, approx 30% water changes every 2 weeks, with evaporation top-ups every few days. I treat tap water with Seachem Prime before adding it. Indian Almond (Catappa) Leaves and Alder Cones take care of browsing material, and I have attached Dwarf Anubias and some tall growing leafy plants (hydro/limnophila?) to a great piece of driftwood, potted hair grass and plenty of floating Wisteria as a beginning to the transformation from an artificial to natural aquascaped environment. PH neutral, Ammonia 0 ppm, Nitrite 0 ppm and Nitrate varies at less than 10 ppm.
Thank you FF for choosing Corydoras as FOTM, and thank you all for reading
