# Panda Garra



## Nyri

I'm considering setting up my next tank for panda garra, and am looking for good tank mates for them. I'm trying to get my new 40 gallon breeder as close to a stream environment as I can in the tank, so I've got the biggest filter I could afford (it's an Emperor 400) and might get some powerheads and bubble stones later for it if that would make them happier. 

I've read that (and I'm copying and pasting this) they do well with "stream-dwelling Indochinese species", but pasting that into google doesn't really give me amazing results, so I was wondering if anyone here had good ideas on tankmates for them. I haven't been able to find a good source for what fish do well in faster water and what don't besides just looking up individual species and seeing if they're native to streams or something else. 

Also, if I plug different fish into aquadvisor, and it doesn't put up a red flag, does that mean they'd likely do okay together besides the possibility of them not doing well in fast water?


----------



## Nyri

Right now, this is what I'm looking at:








Nothing I'm extremely set on... kind of a random assortment, really. I might look into dwarf loaches or cories (can corydoras tolerate currents?) instead of zebra loaches, I just put them on there since they might eat snails... I really like cories better, though... but I've already used a gravel substrate, though it looks pretty smooth. 

I also know nothing about Badis badis except what about an hour worth of research has given me... I realize they're not an easy fish to keep, but I've found mixed results as to what they can live with... 

I do already have 4 platies and 3 cherry barbs since they were on sale at petsmart. I've never bought fish from there, so I thought I'd give it a try... so far my only casualty has been my only male platy. I really like the barbs better than I thought I would... I was kind of eyeballing the roseline sharks but since I know they get up to 6" I didn't want to confine them to a 40 gallon. I do have somewhere else I can put the platies if they won't do well here... like Tress was saying in the other thread, there's so much conflicting information about them, but I can find nothing about whether they'll do well in moving water or not. 

Obviously I'm still in the early stages of figuring out this arrangement. There will be plants and driftwood, maybe some river rocks, and some caves I can make out of those things... I am hoping to find more natural looking caves that are already made, because as nice as flowerpots look, I just don't think they'll blend into what I'm going for very well...


----------



## givemethatfish

I love my panda garras. They are super active and fun little fish. They are totally peaceful, so they will go nicely with anything that won't eat them. Mine are all over the tank from the bottom to the top, but when they aren't spazzing around they are mainly bottom dwellers.

I would probably not get the badis badis. They are very shy, temperamental, and hard to feed.

I have a LOT of current in the tank they are in. It's a 120 gallon with two Emperor 400s, a 400 gph canister filter, and a small powerhead.

I have them with:
--a pair of german blue rams
--10 peppered cories (who don't mind the current at all)
--12 roseline sharks
--10 yellow barbs
--10 harlequin rasboras
--15 neon tetras
--a pair of apistogramma cacatuoides
--3 sparkling gouramis
--20 or so ember tetras
-10 or so kubotai rasboras
--10 rummynose tetras
--umm. I'm probably forgetting something

Everyone gets along great.


----------



## givemethatfish

Ooh and to make a natural looking cave - get a rounded bowl slightly larger than the cave you want to make. Get river rocks and aquarium silicone. Glue the rocks together inside the bowl going up the sides of the bowl, leaving a cutout for the cave opening (try not to glue them TO the bowl), and once they dry, you have a nice rounded cave that looks natural.


----------



## Nyri

Thank you for the reply! Your tank sounds beautiful, and that's an amazing idea for a cave. I will have to try it out! Yeah, I probably won't do the badis, on one hand it sounds fun having a fish that actually needs something special, but at the same time, I'm still very much a beginner. My gravel is pretty smooth, so maybe I'll put some cories in there. I really love having the little ones in my other tank.


----------



## Nyri

Just ordered a pack of 6 panda garras on aquabid. I'm so excited to meet them... kind of nervous. Almost feels like a blind date


----------



## givemethatfish

Lol. They are super cute little spazzes. You'll love them!


----------



## ZZD

I LOVE Panda Garras! I have had 2 greys for a couple years and I'm planning to get some yellows eventually. I actually have my pandas in a 29gallon with my betta and ghost shrimp. I was not made aware they like a strong current when they were sold to me, but we make it work. I have the filter on one end and a large driftwood piece along with a large cluster of tall plants to reduce current to the other end of the tank for the betta. The three cannot bare to be separated and chase each other and some times sleep in a pile and all eat together on the floor of the tank.

Pandas really are the chillest, yet craziest fish I have ever seen. I do recommend a bubble wall. Mine love playing in it and even lay on the bubble stone. They actually get distraught when I am doing work on the tank and it turns off.

My betta is like 6 years old now and I don't intend to have another in this tank after him so I will probably look to amp up the current a bit for them at that point.


----------



## Nyri

You haven't noticed either of yours bossing the other around? I read that if you have two one of them will bully the other, but I don't know how prevalent that is. I was going to buy the two at the petstore, but reading that stopped me from it... and then I found a six pack on aquabid for less than the two at the store, including the shipping, and they even came with an extra in case of DOAs, so I have seven of them now  They're so cool to watch. Right now they're still in QT in a 20 long, but they're pretty tiny.

Oh, and if anyone is looking at that badly thought out stocking list, I've pretty much changed everything on it at this point


----------



## ZZD

Nah. Mine have been buds. One is a bit bigger and excitable and sometimes in a frenzy bumps the smaller but they tend to hang out together. I think it may be because my betta is with them and he keeps them both in line. They all 3 take turns chasing each other around so maybe they don't see a need to exert dominance either. I literally just left the pet store with 3 more though. I went to get some taller plants to finish out the back of my tank and they had 3 tanks.full of baby pandas. Mine are the grey/white and black instead of yellow so they tend to run a but cheaper I find.


----------



## givemethatfish

I have never seen my panda garras bother each other. In fact, they are often swimming all over each other, seemingly oblivious that the others are even there. Although, I only have 10 in a 120 gallon, so they have plenty of room to spread out.


----------



## Nyri

I think what I was reading was that you should definitely not have two (apparently a pair normally doesn't work out) so you should either have only one or six or more... which is why I ordered six... so ten should be good. 

Maybe all of the fish are different and sometimes two work out? The two at my fish store seem fine, but i don't see them all the time


----------



## ZZD

Fish I find are a lot like farm animals. You always hear farmers say cows and sheep and large group animals are just animals, but the truth is they don't spend time with them to see the different personalities. Same thing with fish, most people just say they are fish because they don't do much other than feed them/turn the lights on and off, and such. My first betta is the chillest fish in the world and happily lives with things people always say bettas shouldn't live with. I've gotten a lot of funny looks and people telling me I'm doing things wrong and all my fish/shrimp are going to die because I have a betta in the tank. Instead I have baby shrimp being born all the time and growing healthy and swimming all over and Mystery snails and Pandas sleeping with my betta and my betta demanding food on the ground so he can eat with all the other fish.

I keep checking my tank since my new 3 pandas are about half an inch and I always hear that pandas are adventurous and end up getting stuck in filters when you first get them, but so far so good! I was a little worried about Big Momma the shrimp, but she seems to ignore them too.


----------



## Nyri

Yeah, one of my little guys swam up into the filter when I first got mine. No harm done, but I'm constantly doing a head count to make sure I don't have to take the filter apart again.


----------

