Panda Garra Profile and Care Guide - A Beautiful Hillstream Algae Eater

Hello YouTube and welcome back! This is a video profile on a beautiful fish that I’ve had the pleasure of keeping - the Panda Garra. All of the footage in this video is from fish that I’ve kept personally in my tanks, not taken from elsewhere on YouTube.

Hailing from hillstreams and mountain rivers in Myanmar, the Panda Garra (Garra flavatra) has evolved specific adaptations that allow it to thrive in an environment with fast-flowing current. It has a fairly flat underside and thick set of sucking lips that let it graze on algae and biofilm on surfaces such as rocks or wood. Its lips also give it a strong anchoring ability that enables it to hold on to surfaces against fast-flowing, torrential currents. It is an excellent tankmate for peaceful, subtropical hillstream fish such as Sewellia and Gastromyzon loaches as well as Danio, Barilius and certain minnows and barbs. I keep mine in an unheated 75 gallon tank with temperatures ranging from 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit. I have also found ways to provide them with fast-flowing current.

These fish really do best and exhibit their most interesting behavior when kept in groups of at least 3-5 fish, preferably more. They should be kept in a tank of at least 30 gallons with plenty of lighting and surfaces for algae and biofilm (their primary diet, upon which they’ll graze all day long). Additionally, their diet should be supplemented with a high quality pellet or flake food with a balance of protein and vegetable matter (such as spirulina). They also enjoy frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms.

Once adapted to your aquarium and water chemistry, the Panda Garra will prove to be a hardy and unfussy fish!

They are a little harder to find from pet stores as they are typically wild-caught or bred overseas so you may have to look online for them. Remember to buy at least 3 of them.

I hope you enjoyed this video and thank you for watching! Let me know in the comment section what you’d like to see in the future from this channel or just say hi. If you like the content please subscribe and hit the notification bell so you’ll know when I post a new video. Have a great day! Peace!

#subtropical #garra #algae