panda cory fry

[Akasha]

Hello, I have a question regarding some panda cory fry that I have currently.

I woke up 10 weeks ago to eggs all over my glass. I quickly removed them (with my tetra's circling) and added them to a plastic sandwich tray with an air stone and suspended it in the tank and waited for them to hatch. Many turned furry and because they were all stuck together in a clump this meant that I got just 5 to hatch from about 20 eggs.

Within a couple of weeks I'd lost two but three have made it thus far. They vary in size even though they are the same age. I've set them up a 30 litre tank with some moss and clumps of cabomba to hide in.

A few weeks after they'd hatched I spotted two babies in my main tank - one was much bigger then the other but a couple of weeks ago I managed to catch the smaller one and add it to the 30 litre tank with the three I'd raised from eggs. It was then that I spotted a difference.

It's obvious that there's at least a month difference in age but that's not all. There's a difference in colour. The three I raised look like panda cories but their black markings are faded - almost a mid grey. The one I rescued from the main tank is an obvious panda - it's got a jet black dorsal, tail spot and eye mask. It really stands out against the three I raised.

Now, at the time that the three where growing I was having some pH issues (I was water changing them with water from my main tank). I have very soft water with a zero gH/kH and so my tank pH is normally around 6-6.5 but I'd stupidly added some oak leaves and not kept an eye on the pH and unbeknown to me it fell to pH 4 for a little while. Once I'd found the problem I removed the leaves, did several 25% water changes over a few days and managed to get the pH slowly back up to around 6.

The reason I'm here is to ask if this fall in pH could have caused the cory fry to not develop colour properly. I'm checking them daily and they do appear to be slowly darkening the black area's (dorsal, eye mask, tail spot) but they are still faded compared to this younger one I rescued.
The older one that has also grown up in my main tank is also faded. It currently remains in the main tank as all attempts to catch it have failed.

And just to add ... there's a more important reason for asking these questions. I have 3 smudge-spot cories (lfs currently have more on order) 2 of which are female and so I'm concerned that there's a small chance these fry are a hybrid. What I'm trying to work out is if they are a hybrid or if the pH problem could have caused faded colour


sorry for the long explaination but I wanted to make sure I'd given all relevent info. Hoping someone can help

[Akasha]

guessing no one knows the answer to my question.

No matter, my Dad has agreed to take these little babies in and keep them in his tank so they never enter the public domain. We can't know for sure if they are full panda or hybrid so I think this is the best option. Thanks anyway guys