Random cory deaths

[plankton]

Hope things pick up and the phantom heals well.

[Caol Ila]

Update: I set up a 100L tank, tank 3 (oy) because the Bolivian ram and cherry barbs needed to not be where they were. While rearranging fish, I moved the panda corys into my 125L tank. A third one had gone missing. You're probably right - the raphaels were most likely eating them. The two remaining pandas seem a lot happier in the 125L, alongside c. habrosus and c. pygmaeus. BUT here's the problem: that tank also houses an L260 and an L262, who need a warm temperature. It's at 26/26.5. I know pandas really should be at a colder temperature.

Should I leave it as is, or move them to the 100L once it's more established? They would share it with one ram, seven cherry barbs, and a clown pleco. I don't have any other corys in that and two corys on their own isn't ideal, either.

[Stephen]

When I had panda cory they were tiny when bought (about 1cm) they did not last long.
They are lovely little cory but I won't stock them again especially if they are so tiny in the LFS.
I generally look for larger cory (3cm+) when buying nowadays.

Sorry to hear of your losses

[VikingMummy2015]

I’d love pandas but won’t keep them above 24.
Cories generally stick together by species, so 2 pandas together in a tank with other Cory species or not, I don’t think it helps either way so i’d be inclined to move them wherever it’s cooler.
I’m in Tayside and the pH will just drop out in your bigger tanks. My 240L would go from 6.6 out the tap to 6 and possibly lower in the tank. I ended up doing two smaller water changes each week and adding some potassium bicarbonate buffer when I remembered to (to help keep the kH in existence). That worked well for the fish and the plants. I think it was 40L each time.
Doesn’t happen so much in a nano tank but I end up doing twice weekly water changes all round, just to be safe.

[plankton]

My pandas are at 22C and quite happy, well they breed and eat and keep me amused.....I would put them in a cooler tank when you can and build the herd up.

[Caol Ila]

The three species of corys (c. schulzeii, c. carlae, and CW045) in my 240 often school together, and the cory experts have said that different species will shoal. The c. schulzeii and c. carlae frequently do so. The CW045s are a much more closely knit group, but a couple of them like swimming with the carlaes. In the 125, the pandas will shoal with the c. habrosus but not the c. pygmaeus, but the pygmaeus and habrosus often shoal together.

Anyway, the pandas will move to the 100L tank once it has matured enough -- so roughly the first week of August -- and they'll get some friends.