Corydoras Panda Frantic Swims

**allblacks** · 2nd Sep 2012, 18:27

I have observed some weird behavior about my 4 C.Pandas since Friday.
They have been swimming up and down in an almost circular motion on the side of my 2 feet tank around the corner of tank where I usually feed live worms and other food.

I can not seem to find the reason for them doing that because I have them in the tank for over 3 months and before i fed them live tubifex worms everyday since last Monday until Friday, they were fine.

By definition of "fine", I mean that they were doing the usual shy behavior, hiding away when they see me and sometimes peeping out from the bogwood.

3/4 of the tank is with plants, bare bottom tank (because I have not decided what to add since soil was a disaster the last time), with 5 guppies, 7 cherry barbs and 2 otos...

Is it because they feel that the tank is too crowded ? but I have not added new fish so far...

so I don't think this is the reason for their strange behavior.
When I turn off the lights, they seemed to calm down a bit but when I turn on the blue night lights, they do their frantic thing again.

Does anyone out there know what is going on and what should I do ?
Many thanks.

**soltari007** · 2nd Sep 2012, 19:56

Your tubifex is infected I think

**allblacks** · 2nd Sep 2012, 20:05

Any solution to that?

**allblacks** · 2nd Sep 2012, 20:23

I really give up feeding Live food to my fishes ... Although I know they thoroughly enjoyed live worms, its hard to prevent deaths due to infected worms.
Not sure what I should do now ..anyone has some advice ?
Meantime, I feed them hikari sinking wafers .....received by all with lukewarm responses.

**xXXXx13** · 2nd Sep 2012, 21:15

I'm feeding my c. pandas with hikari sinking carnivore pellets sometimes frozen bloodworms or bbs. They will seek out the pellets once it hit the bottom of the tank.

**vannel** · 3rd Sep 2012, 06:51

Hmm. That might also be them "cleaning" the glass surface in preparation for spawning activities too. Many people have recorded similar behaviour before reporting eggs on their glass walls. This is especially likely since you have been conditioning them for breeding via the Tubifex feeds. Do you see them "chasing" each other around..? Or tagging along closely to another Corydoras..?

**allblacks** · 3rd Sep 2012, 21:21

Hi vannel
Yes usually it's three of them chasing each other around the side of the tank.
The lone ranger hides behind some plant or bog wood ....
Is this indicative of breeding and what should I do to keep their eggs safe from being eaten or sucked into the filter ? Thanks for your advice !

**allblacks** · 3rd Sep 2012, 21:56

Originally Posted by xXXXx13

I'm feeding my c. pandas with hikari sinking carnivore pellets sometimes frozen bloodworms or bbs. They will seek out the pellets once it hit the bottom of the tank.

Yup I do mix in some hikari pellets like what you mentioned. But the cories don't take much and it's only guppies and cherry barbs who take nips into it.
I think the cherry barbs are spot on in all kinds of food-especially live tubifex. Once they see the floating worms, they zoom in and even with their small mouths, can gobble a big pile of worms and swim back to claim any ones which happened to drop off. The guppies don't care , just take small nips at the worms.

**vannel** · 3rd Sep 2012, 22:31

Originally Posted by allblacks

Hi vannel
Yes usually it's three of them chasing each other around the side of the tank.
The lone ranger hides behind some plant or bog wood ....
Is this indicative of breeding and what should I do to keep their eggs safe from being eaten or sucked into the filter ? Thanks for your advice !

Its usually the males chasing the female around trying to position themselves in front of her in a T position. Sounds about right.

When you see eggs on the glass or plants, you can either finger roll them off.. Or, use a thin card or sponge to roll them off the glass. From there, just consolidate the eggs in another container and wait for them to hatch. Watch for unfertilized eggs or mouldy eggs and remove them whenever possible. Unfertilized eggs will be whitish.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

**xXXXx13** · 4th Sep 2012, 07:16

Originally Posted by allblacks

Yup I do mix in some hikari pellets like what you mentioned. But the cories don't take much and it's only guppies and cherry barbs who take nips into it.
I think the cherry barbs are spot on in all kinds of food-especially live tubifex. Once they see the floating worms, they zoom in and even with their small mouths, can gobble a big pile of worms and swim back to claim any ones which happened to drop off. The guppies don't care , just take small nips at the worms.

Give them some time and they will know that that's food in time to come. Not only my cherry barbs zoom in for the food but my tank of community fish will zoom right in when the food hit the surface even for my redtailed black shark which is supposed to be a bottom dweller.

**allblacks** · 5th Sep 2012, 22:21

Originally Posted by vannel

Its usually the males chasing the female around trying to position themselves in front of her in a T position. Sounds about right.

When you see eggs on the glass or plants, you can either finger roll them off.. Or, use a thin card or sponge to roll them off the glass. From there, just consolidate the eggs in another container and wait for them to hatch. Watch for unfertilized eggs or mouldy eggs and remove them whenever possible. Unfertilized eggs will be whitish.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

hm... no eggs in sight...
I guess they were just hanging around the feeding cup because they knew some worms would drop out when the guppies and cherry barbs fight for the chance to pull the tasty worms out.

**allblacks** · 6th Sep 2012, 22:06

Just to share a video on what was again happening a couple of minutes ago ...here's the small clip: https://fbcdn-video-a.akamaihd.net/c...79e8fb8c068ea9

Very worrying indeed , no eggs in sight and two of the C.Pandas have turned blackish

Sorry for the rumblings, has anyone encountered this before and if yes, what remedies were possible for you?

**KittyCat** · 6th Sep 2012, 22:18

Originally Posted by allblacks

Just to share a video on what was again happening a couple of minutes ago ...here's the small clip: https://fbcdn-video-a.akamaihd.net/c...79e8fb8c068ea9

Very worrying indeed , no eggs in sight and two of the C.Pandas have turned blackish

Sorry for the rumblings, has anyone encountered this before and if yes, what remedies were possible for you?

Bro don't worry. ALL my corys are like that, and there is no problem with them. Sometimes they just like playing in the current, or in the bubbles or whatnot. When mine has sunlight shining into the window they will all do that at the same place. They look frantic but it's pretty normal leh. No worries la. When they don't do that I get worried. Just keep a lookout for skin problems or barbel problems.

**allblacks** · 7th Sep 2012, 21:14

Transferred my QT inhabitants -, Julii, Sterbais , Pandas and Otos into main tank and they mix around with the existing 4 C.Pandas .... I think bare bottom tanks for them work best as they don't have to dig around for food like what they did when I had soil. Somehow the white part of the C.Pandas are turning into the color of the soil....

After removing the soil , my C.Pandas don't seemed to change back to black and white... I hope is not a lasting stain..