One and a half to two inches, all of it on the bottom
An adult panda corydoras tops out at roughly one and a half to two inches long, placing it among the smaller corydoras commonly kept. The pattern that names it, a pale cream body with a black mask across the eyes, a dark dorsal marking, and a black patch at the tail base, is fully formed well before the fish finishes growing. Females edge slightly larger and look rounder when viewed from above, while males stay a touch slimmer, but the difference is subtle enough that group behaviour is a more useful gauge of a settled panda than any single measurement.
Floor space, not depth, for a two-inch bottom dweller
Pandas spend their lives on the substrate, shuffling forward in little bursts, resting together, and periodically darting to the surface for a gulp of air. That lifestyle means the useful dimension of their tank is its footprint: a group needs open floor to forage across, with soft sand rather than sharp gravel, because their barbels, the whiskers they taste the bottom with, wear down on coarse surfaces. A group kept over sand stays active and intact-whiskered, rooting through the surface layer for food in the loose, social formation that makes the species so watchable.
Cooler, oxygen-rich water for a mountain-stream catfish
Panda corydoras originate in cooler, well-oxygenated foothill streams, and adults do best when the tank remembers that. They stay most active and keep their crisp black-and-cream contrast at the lower end of the tropical range, resting in the flow of filtered water and foraging with more energy than they show in a warm, still setup. In a community tank this makes them natural partners for other cooler-tolerant species, and a questionable match for fish that demand genuinely hot water. Their regular dashes to the surface for air are normal corydoras behaviour, but a group doing it constantly is asking you to check that the water is moving and oxygenated enough.
Feeding a small catfish that eats last
An adult panda's mouth is small and faces downward, and in a community tank everything edible that reaches the bottom has usually been found by faster fish first. Feed sinking foods after the main midwater feeding, ideally as lights dim, when pandas forage most confidently, and spread the food across the floor so the whole group finds some rather than the first two fish monopolising a single spot. Well-fed pandas show it in a gently rounded belly and unhurried confidence; a group that grows frantic and thin is almost always being outcompeted rather than underfed in absolute terms.
Group size and companions at panda scale
Pandas are group fish in the truest sense, resting in contact with each other and moving as a loose unit, so a proper group is part of the care requirement, not an optional extra bought when budget allows. Companions should be peaceful and sized so a two-inch catfish is neither prey nor harassed: small community fish overhead and other gentle bottom species alongside work well, while large or territorial bottom dwellers do not. Record the group's numbers and their preferred resting corner in the profile you keep, because a future keeper inheriting the fish needs to know the social unit they are taking on, not just the species name. When panda corydoras change homes, KinsLe's Transferrable Profiles let their profile pass to the new keeper with their history and routines intact.