Corydoras Pygmaeus

[mikev]

I saw these little cuties at a lfs today & being very seriously tempted.... does anyone here keep them and perhaps wants to share any special requirements they may have? Difficult to breed?

(If I do get them, the plan is to put six of them into a heavily planted 6g with small dither to be added later: either microrasboras or blueeyes)

 

[Jodiem]

hi i have them, they are really cute but i kept them in my 2.5 g and today moved them in my 15g cos i was neglecting my little tank, they look so sweet.
they are quite hardy but the first batched died, only one survived but the second batch are fine (only 3 but going to get some more soon, when i find a shop)so i think it depends on the fish and slowly add them, like float for ages and add water float for more, etc.
the only requirement i can think of is food lol and a nice group, and heavily planted cos i hardly saw them cos they hid in the shipwreck lol
and breeding, i dont know i cant even save my platys babies

good luck!
Jodie

 

[OldMan47]

I have 8 in a well established tank with some heterandria formosa and they are doing great. They are very shy and hide out but the company of the heterandria seems to draw them out of hiding more. They are fairly new to me. I have only had them about 6 weeks and I want them to have a chance to breed. So far there has been no breeding but they are just starting to come into condition and I haven't been doing the large cold water changes to bring on breeding yet. They were scared to death in the tank I got them from because there were so many large fish in the pet store's tank. The one with the sign on it didn't even look like there were pygmaeus in it until we moved some ornaments and found them. In my tank with the smaller tank mates, they are out and swimming around like they are at peace with the world. My water is not ideal for them, being hard with a high pH, but they are doing very nicely in it.

 

[mikev]

Thank you very much, this was very helpful.

I got them today. A very big if now is if they survive.... They were fine at the store, were there for two weeks with no losses, and seem to be fine in my tank now (running around searching for small bits of food). The problem is that I tested the water in the bag when I got them home (I do this routinely). I cannot understand how my tests could give the readings they did.... or how any fish can survive even for a day if the readings were accurate.

Well, I guess we shall know in 48 hours.

heterandria formosa sounds like an excellent idea. Right now they are in company of three endlers (used to maintain the cycle), this should be fine for the time being, but h.f. should fit them better. You have any photos of the tank? -- I'm curious now.

 

[OldMan47]

I can try to get a picture but it is basically an undecorated 10 gallon with a huge clump of java moss that takes up almost half the space in the tank. The heterandria love the stuff and my pygmies seem to like it too. The filter is a small canister with a sponge over the intake to prevent sucking up the adult heterandria. I also keep endlers in other tanks and I know that the small cories work fine with them. I have habrosus in 3 of my endler tanks and they swim around with the endlers. The problem with endlers is I know they would not allow a successful cory breeding. They would be feasting on caviar and sushi.

 

[mikev]

I am mostly curious how they look like with heterandria...if it is as I'm imagining, I'll try to find heterandria.

It seems that at least half of them are alive (quite possibly all are, but the tank has a lot of Java Moss, and they don't come out all at once...maybe at night).

Very strange stuff is going on. The water in the bag showed TDS readings of 2700 (?!). This is high enough to kill any fish...and acclimating them to more usual hardness should kill them as well.... I acclimated them for ten hours..the best I could do. I cannot see any signs of osmotic shock....they seem to behave reasonably, maybe even a little more active than larger cories.

 

[mikev]

Question: they are about 1cm right now. Immature juveniles?

TIA

 

[OldMan47]

My heterandria are about 1.5 cm but the pygmaeus are a full 2.5 to 3 cm. I got only one picture, of about 30, that actually has a heterandria and a pygmaeus in the same frame. Let me see if I can post it here. The heterandria is top left and the cory is bottom right. Sorry it is not clearer but is one of the few that I actually kept.

 

[Syphoniera]

OldMan47, all I can say about your fish pic is

mikev, speaking as one who knows nothing, I've heard that many tests can be highly inaccurate.
Could that be a possibility?
And, of course, in the bag, even if the fish aren't in very long, ammonia and other respired toxins would build rapidly...
Probably no help at all...

But (speaking as the 'mum' of some,) aren't the pygmy cories The Best
(Edit: if I'd learn how to type or proofread...)

 

[Inchworm]

Hi mikev

It sounds like you have some young fish there. They should grow to over an inch long. If they have successfully made the transition to your tank, I think you will find them to be sturdy and easy to keep despite their small size.

 

[mikev]

Thank you!

Taking photos of them is pretty difficult...too small to focus, and mine run away once I aim at them.... Here are a couple:

It would take a long time to find out how many are alive.... yesterday night, eight were detected at once (out of the total of ten), but they have so many hiding spots in the tank, that finding them is difficult. Java fern is clearly favored over Java Moss, and it is hard to see a small fish squeezed between two leaves. Those that hide in the castle I cannot see at all....

They seem to be able to adjust their colors to the background like hillstreams do.

I think they are ok...an acclimation shock should have killed them already and I did not see any trouble signs; the behavior seems reasonable (albeit different from the Panda's and Metae's I have -- these seem to swim more and even feed from the surface).

H.Formosa should look good with them (thank you, OldMan!). Not the first choice upon thinking...I still probably will go with blueeyes or microrasboras. Maybe even neons....still thinking.

 

[mikev]

Hi mikev

It sounds like you have some young fish there. They should grow to over an inch long. If they have successfully made the transition to your tank, I think you will find them to be sturdy and easy to keep despite their small size.

Yep, I think they are doing fine.

I'm not entirely sure they are that young. A couple of them now look so much fatter than the others that they feel like mature females despite not coming even close to an inch. I would not be surprised to see the males chasing them anytime (not yet).

Anyway, I'm very glad I got them. I think I will be ready for another dwarf cory species before long ... recommendations?

 

[OldMan47]

My favorites are the habrosus. They are not as shy and don't try near as hard to hide. I often see them swimming around with my endlers as if they were endlers themselves.
This is one resting for a moment in an endler tank.

 

[mikev]

Thanks, OldMan,

the question was between hastatus and habrosus..it seems i can get either, and choosing is hard....

less shy would be nice. with c.pygmaeus, I typically see 6-7, sometimes 8-9, and really rarely all time....seeing 6-7 is ok, but seeing nine always makes me worry about the last one...
Yeah, I know that this is their way, my c.metae fry behaves the same way (one is almost always MIA), still worry some.

I like the way it looks like too, thanks for the photo.

PS> I went with gerts for the c.pygmaeus dither...

 

[OldMan47]

My hastatus are the very shyest fish that I have. I can sometimes spot one in the tank if I sneak up on it but I now there were 13 in the tank last time I removed the hiding places so I could count them. I see most of the habrosus within a minute or two if I stay in front of their tank that long. The pygmaeus are intermediate between the other two. I see a few but not the number that I know are there. If I pull the java moss out of my heterandria tank, I get to count them again.
Most often visible are the habrosus.