Transitioning between Cory types?

Alright so I’ve seen a few threads asking if different corydoras will school or shoal with mixed answers and a lot of people seem to say situationally with others saying yes and no. But I didn’t see anything about regular sized and mini sized cories (specifically talking about pandas and pygmies), and the situation is a little odd. My (still quite small) panda Cory was bought to exist in a group of others that have since died. I want to transition to having Pygmy corydoras instead. Don’t want/can’t have two schools. Will he be fine with a small school (4/5) of pygmies for company? Or a hould I get one more panda Cory in addition to the pygmies so that at least if he doesn’t always hang with the pygmies he’s got that option to buddy up with one of his own? I don’t want to create a cycle of buying pandas when one eventually dies down the line and needs a friend though. But I also don’t want him to be lonely and I’m attached to him the most of all my fish. Long story short, I’m trying to transition to just Pygmy cories and I’m not sure how to do that since I still have a panda Cory left.

 

It's best to keep the same species of Corydoras in the aquarium. Can you mix different species in a tank together and that they will get along? Sure. However, the problem with mixing different species in the same tank together is that it could lead to hybridization.

 

Pygmy corydoras are much smaller and have a fairly different shape than panda cories. I'd be shocked if they manage to cross breed. They also act pretty different. I have 8 pygmies and a single panda (ordered 7 but the store ran out and just sent the 1 leftover guy, been trying to find more) in the same tank. The pygmies hang out in the middle of the tank and rarely go to the bottom, instead preferring to rest and hide on plant leaves. I can't tell if my lone panda is stressed and glass surfing or is mimicking the pygmies but he has started to swim along the glass and will swim with the pygmies for 10 sec before returning to the bottom to rest.

I'd recommend trying to rehome your panda. Or give in to multiple tank syndrome and get a whole school of them

 

They won’t school, and if you don’t want any mor me pandas I don’t think there’s much left to do besides either rehome him or get a new tank with some panda buddies.

 

Pygmy corydoras are much smaller and have a fairly different shape than panda cories. I'd be shocked if they manage to cross breed. They also act pretty different. I have 8 pygmies and a single panda (ordered 7 but the store ran out and just sent the 1 leftover guy, been trying to find more) in the same tank. The pygmies hang out in the middle of the tank and rarely go to the bottom, instead preferring to rest and hide on plant leaves. I can't tell if my lone panda is stressed and glass surfing or is mimicking the pygmies but he has started to swim along the glass and will swim with the pygmies for 10 sec before returning to the bottom to rest.

I'd recommend trying to rehome your panda. Or give in to multiple tank syndrome and get a whole school of them

I wish I had the space for multiple tanks!! And yeah whenever I originally got this panda he glass surfaced the first few days—I think I was just a bit stressed about moving in—and one of the others eventually just started doing it with him; they turned it into a type of tag after a few days and then chilled out and switched to playing in the bubbler. I would hate to rehome him and stress him out again, but if he’d ultimately be more stressed staying I’ll have to try to do that I think.

 

They won’t school, and if you don’t want any mor me pandas I don’t think there’s much left to do besides either rehome him or get a new tank with some panda buddies.

Sad but expected that might be the case. Thank you