Experiences with pygmy cory breeding and/or amano shrimp please?

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hi, it's been a little while since I've been around!

Facing some decisions with my tanks right now; I will be moving all the tanks around to make room for the 57 gallon, so juggling stock and figuring things out since my other smaller tanks will have to move too.

Right now, I have a group of corydoras pygmaeus which began spawning unplanned in their half gravel/half sand tank a couple of months ago. That tank was only meant to be a temporary home, was always planning to move them to a different 15.5 gallon tank with only sand substrate. Still hoping to do that, but the fact that they're producing these tiny fry now (I left the eggs and fry in the parent tank, as a colony set up, and delighted to have three good size babies that have joined the seven adults now, plus a load of tiny fry hiding all over the place!). Their 'new' potential home has a good size colony of cherry shrimp which don't worry me, have heard that they are great at removing fungus from eggs while leaving healthy ones.

But it also has six amano shrimp in there. With newly hatched pygmy fry being such tiny little insect sized things, is it worth risking having the amanos in with the breeding pygmy colony? I wouldn't panic if they snatched the odd one, I know they're omnivorous, but if they're likely to hunt them all down or people have found them to be more predatory, I'd like to hear their experiences.

I'm fairly confident they're true amanos; they do such a great job of wiping up any algae. Would like to keep them together, but can move them to another tank if they'd pose more than a tiny risk to the odd pygmy fry. Not much info online about them, and conflicting reports of whether they're egg/fry eaters or not.

Hope you're all doing as well as possible! Have missed being here!

 

[Naughts]

Welcome back!

Congratulations on the pygmy fry, that's fantastic! Free fish and they're great in a large shoal

I have the species mentioned but no babies So I don't know if you'll have a problem but amanos are greedy sods, and like I said, the more the merrier with pygmies so my recommendation would be to move the amanos. Between the cherries and pygmies the algae will be kept in check.

Good luck!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Welcome back!

Congratulations on the pygmy fry, that's fantastic! Free fish and they're great in a large shoal

I have the species mentioned but no babies So I don't know if you'll have a problem but amanos are greedy sods, and like I said, the more the merrier with pygmies so my recommendation would be to move the amanos. Between the cherries and pygmies the algae will be kept in check.

Good luck!

Thank you!
Really nice to see you here, you've always helped me out a lot! Truly appreciated.

Aaaww, you gotta try to spawn your pygmies! What's their current set up?

The babies are unbelievably tiny and cute. And being able to leave them with the parents and know the eggs and fry will be fine is a fantastic plus. I'm sure it would be likely to get a higher yield if the eggs were collected and fry raised in a smaller container, I just didn't even know mine had laid eggs until I found fry! Then decided to leave the eggs I did see once they continued spawning, since I was already raising a batch of bronze fry, and just didn't have the time to dedicate to another set up. I read that they do well in colony breeding too, and I'm so happy to have a steadily growing number of them!

I did plan to get more pygmies, the store has just had a really hard time getting hold of them. I bought a single one who was alone, then reserved their next batch of four, but when I went to collect them, they only had one left, so I only had two for a while. They then managed to get a group of six, and I lost one, leaving me with seven adults. I had planned to get more to raise their school to around 12, but looks as though they're doing that for me I will get a few more unrelated individuals now and then to introduce some new blood though.

Mine were still babies when I got them, they seemed to hit maturity a couple of months ago and start spawning straight away. I was just cleaning the substrate one day last month, moving around a plant at the back, and two babies shot out! I couldn't believe it. Since then have spotted them spawning several times, eggs on leaves, and little fry everywhere, all different sizes. The three babies that are bravely out in the open and hanging with the adults are all different sizes, the largest about 2/3rds the size of an adult male, the smallest is still tiny, but has their adult colouration. The really tiny ones seem to like to hide under a slate cave I have, and the Indian Almond leaves.

They also wedge themselves down into the gravel... I had to abandon cleaning the substrate for a while, which makes me nervous. Especially since the back half of the tank is gravel. I worry about the muck gravel holds onto, and the potential for bacterial issues, but on the other hand, the mulm produces lots of tiny micro-organisms, which is probably what these babies were mainly living on. Also feeding live microworms, frozen daphnia and plankton, and crushing the Bug Bites micropellets. I guess that got the adults into breeding condition and also provided food for the fry.

I tried cleaning the gravel at the end of May, but despite trying to gently spook away any fry by moving my hand over the gravel before using the syphon, I still ended up rescuing 20 teeny fry from the bucket, and that was only one small part of the tank. They're so tiny at that stage that they're like insect larvae, almost impossible to see. But I read some info from someone saying that mulm is the secret to raising them, so perhaps the gravel has actually done me a favour.

I am concerned about whether moving them to their new set up will stop them doing so well! I never planned for this tank to be a breeding tank. I knew I wanted pygmies at some point, but impulse bought the first one since he was alone, and switched the substrate to half sand since I knew I'd be moving them and tearing the tank down soon. So it's kind of a mess, but a well established, stable, planted mess, and apparently they like it! Making me reconsider my tank plans now, perhaps I should keep them in there!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Sorry for the essay! But typing all that out, plus your input @Naughts , has made me really reconsider my plans. I might move their potential new home to where it needs to be, remove the amanos and they can go clean the algae in a different tank, then move just the adults and older babies to the 'new' set up. That tank is ten months old, also very stable and well planted, and will have the same water parameters before I move the pygmy adults over.

But instead of moving all the fry over and tearing down their current tank, I'll continue raising the fry there for a while, where they're doing well, and try to induce the adults to spawn in the new set up. If I can get them to spawn, and find some fry doing well, then I'll transfer the remaining fry and tear down the current tank, knowing that they'll still thrive in the newer set up.

Will delay my tank moving plan by a couple of months, but it'll be worth it! I'm not fond of gravel in a tank anymore, but if it helps the pygmies colony breed and produce babies, would keep it anyway! Oh, I forgot to mention that there's a group of otos with the pygmies too, so the cherry shrimp, pygmies and otos will be able to handle any algae I'm sure! I love having the otos and pygmies together, they really do hang out with other, and it's adorable.

 

[Naughts]

Thank you!
Really nice to see you here, you've always helped me out a lot! Truly appreciated.

Aaaww, you gotta try to spawn your pygmies! What's their current set up?

The babies are unbelievably tiny and cute. And being able to leave them with the parents and know the eggs and fry will be fine is a fantastic plus. I'm sure it would be likely to get a higher yield if the eggs were collected and fry raised in a smaller container, I just didn't even know mine had laid eggs until I found fry! Then decided to leave the eggs I did see once they continued spawning, since I was already raising a batch of bronze fry, and just didn't have the time to dedicate to another set up. I read that they do well in colony breeding too, and I'm so happy to have a steadily growing number of them!

I did plan to get more pygmies, the store has just had a really hard time getting hold of them. I bought a single one who was alone, then reserved their next batch of four, but when I went to collect them, they only had one left, so I only had two for a while. They then managed to get a group of six, and I lost one, leaving me with seven adults. I had planned to get more to raise their school to around 12, but looks as though they're doing that for me I will get a few more unrelated individuals now and then to introduce some new blood though.

Mine were still babies when I got them, they seemed to hit maturity a couple of months ago and start spawning straight away. I was just cleaning the substrate one day last month, moving around a plant at the back, and two babies shot out! I couldn't believe it. Since then have spotted them spawning several times, eggs on leaves, and little fry everywhere, all different sizes. The three babies that are bravely out in the open and hanging with the adults are all different sizes, the largest about 2/3rds the size of an adult male, the smallest is still tiny, but has their adult colouration. The really tiny ones seem to like to hide under a slate cave I have, and the Indian Almond leaves.

They also wedge themselves down into the gravel... I had to abandon cleaning the substrate for a while, which makes me nervous. Especially since the back half of the tank is gravel. I worry about the muck gravel holds onto, and the potential for bacterial issues, but on the other hand, the mulm produces lots of tiny micro-organisms, which is probably what these babies were mainly living on. Also feeding live microworms, frozen daphnia and plankton, and crushing the Bug Bites micropellets. I guess that got the adults into breeding condition and also provided food for the fry.

I tried cleaning the gravel at the end of May, but despite trying to gently spook away any fry by moving my hand over the gravel before using the syphon, I still ended up rescuing 20 teeny fry from the bucket, and that was only one small part of the tank. They're so tiny at that stage that they're like insect larvae, almost impossible to see. But I read some info from someone saying that mulm is the secret to raising them, so perhaps the gravel has actually done me a favour.

I am concerned about whether moving them to their new set up will stop them doing so well! I never planned for this tank to be a breeding tank. I knew I wanted pygmies at some point, but impulse bought the first one since he was alone, and switched the substrate to half sand since I knew I'd be moving them and tearing the tank down soon. So it's kind of a mess, but a well established, stable, planted mess, and apparently they like it! Making me reconsider my tank plans now, perhaps I should keep them in there!

Hey, I see you're still burning the midnight oil

My pygmies are in a community tank with cherry shrimp, otos, embers, male endlers, one neon, one pencilfish and a nerite. (The amanos are in the other tank.) It's 125l, well planted, play sand and driftwood. No gravel and I rarely add leaf litter.

I did see a pair of embers hunt something tiny but it was eaten before I could work out what it was.

Any recommendations? I bet you could easily trade any surplus pygmy at the LFS! Once you've got a nice size shoal of 30 or so for you!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Hey, I see you're still burning the midnight oil

My pygmies are in a community tank with cherry shrimp, otos, embers, male endlers, one neon, one pencilfish and a nerite. (The amanos are in the other tank.) It's 125l, well planted, play sand and driftwood. No gravel and I rarely add leaf litter.

I did see a pair of embers hunt something tiny but it was eaten before I could work out what it was.

Any recommendations? I bet you could easily trade any surplus pygmy at the LFS! Once you've got a nice size shoal of 30 or so for you!

Haha guilty! I have insomnia sometimes, but I also do shift work, so my sleep/wake schedule is all over the shop.

My LFS definitely wants any pygmies I can get them! But I've said that it'll be while if ever, since I want a good sized school of them, and I'm finding it hard to part with my bronze cory babies as well... the latest batch of ten is probably ready to go to the store now - or at least very soon, but finding it much harder to part with cories I've bred myself than I do with livebearers! The livebearers I usually can't wait to bag a load and take them to the store to make some space...

I gotta take some bronzes in though, I'm officially overstocked with those now. They also produced a single bronze baby in their tank themselves. Just found a smaller baby in their tank last month too! I guess most of the eggs were eaten, but that one managed to escape attention and raise himself in the tank, lol.

Tips for spawning the pygmies... um, lol. Feels weird, because I'm far from an expert, and I didn't intend to spawn them yet either!

What kind of filter(s) are on the tank? Mine had a HOB and an internal filter, but I switched the internal filter for an airstone since fry could have been sucked up into the internal filter. The HOB has a sponge over the filter intake. Airstones are good for them, helps prevent fungus on the eggs and is apparently good for the fry too.

Personally I'd add a good amount of leaf litter and alder cones. They produce micro-organisms that the fry can graze, and the leaves when placed flat on the substrate provide a great hiding spot - when I move the ones in my tank, I find the fry hidden under them. I have some male guppies in that tank too, so I think that let them hide. Also other hardscape that makes little caves, ledges and hiding spots really seems to appeal to mine. If mine breed with male guppies in the tank, yours can manage with some endlers Strange about Embers hunting them, they're often suggested as great to have with breeding fish since they're not likely to eat eggs/fry, and I'd planned to add Embers with my otos and pygmies once the male guppies were gone... please keep me updated on how yours do together!

Also think about what plants you have; some dense moss is often recommended and will also provide a feeding ground for tiny micro-organisms, but also be careful about things like algae! I've been battling hair algae in that tank since I set it up, and when I pulled a load of hair algae that was wrapped around a plant the other day, found a pygmy fry trapped in it I thought it was dead at first, but it wriggled when I brushed against it, yet couldn't escape the algae. I attached a breeder box to the tank and gently pulled away the strands of hair algae until he was freed and swam away from me into the breeder box. Luckily he can't have been trapped long, because he was absolutely fine and I let him back into the main tank after monitoring him for a while, but those fine strands can easily wrap around tiny fins and gills, and he definitely couldn't have untangled himself without my help. It's lucky I happened to spot him when I did. Casscats also rescued one of her pygmy fry that managed to get trapped in some moss.

Introduce some more variety and perhaps up the amount of food to get the adults into breeding condition, especially live and frozen foods if you can. Any of the microworms (walter, banana, micro etc) can be eaten by the adults and the fry, and are super easy to culture! The tiny frozen foods I use include daphnia, cyclops, rotifers and moina. De-encapsulated BBS are apparently good too if you can get hold of them, I haven't personally.

Then some cooler water changes to replicate their wild breeding season Just needs to be a few degrees cooler than their usual temp. If you see the females starting to look a bit fat, do a cool water change and watch for spawning! The males start chasing the females around, then you see them do a T position, and the female goes off to place an egg. These guys seem to prefer laying on plant leaves (or a spawning mop if you go that route) rather than glass like the bronzes.

I found this channel both helpful and endearing Plus he gets some great shots of the pygmies spawning and T positions

 

[vanalisa]

Eeeeek
And
Arrggh
@AdoraBelle Dearheart & @Naughts
I was just coming back around....and look who shows up.
Can't catch up with the 2 of you now but will follow this thread soon....
Been waiting forever for some FOREVER
Apparantly so has my LFS

so excited baby pygmies yay!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Eeeeek
And
Arrggh
@AdoraBelle Dearheart & @Naughts
I was just coming back around....and look who shows up.
Can't catch up with the 2 of you now but will follow this thread soon....
Been waiting forever for some FOREVER
Apparantly so has my LFS

so excited baby pygmies yay!

Hey Vanalisa! One of my favourite posters Were you away for a while too? I haven't been on for ages, life just got busy, you know how it goes. But I always come back!

My LFS has had a hard time getting pygmies too. I don't know why they seem to be hard to get hold of, they really do breed easily. Hope you can get some soon. They truly are adorable! So fun to watch, especially when the babies start swimming about in the open. You gotta experience it to get it!

 

[Naughts]

Haha guilty! I have insomnia sometimes, but I also do shift work, so my sleep/wake schedule is all over the shop.

My LFS definitely wants any pygmies I can get them! But I've said that it'll be while if ever, since I want a good sized school of them, and I'm finding it hard to part with my bronze cory babies as well... the latest batch of ten is probably ready to go to the store now - or at least very soon, but finding it much harder to part with cories I've bred myself than I do with livebearers! The livebearers I usually can't wait to bag a load and take them to the store to make some space...

I gotta take some bronzes in though, I'm officially overstocked with those now. They also produced a single bronze baby in their tank themselves. Just found a smaller baby in their tank last month too! I guess most of the eggs were eaten, but that one managed to escape attention and raise himself in the tank, lol.

Tips for spawning the pygmies... um, lol. Feels weird, because I'm far from an expert, and I didn't intend to spawn them yet either!

What kind of filter(s) are on the tank? Mine had a HOB and an internal filter, but I switched the internal filter for an airstone since fry could have been sucked up into the internal filter. The HOB has a sponge over the filter intake. Airstones are good for them, helps prevent fungus on the eggs and is apparently good for the fry too.

Personally I'd add a good amount of leaf litter and alder cones. They produce micro-organisms that the fry can graze, and the leaves when placed flat on the substrate provide a great hiding spot - when I move the ones in my tank, I find the fry hidden under them. I have some male guppies in that tank too, so I think that let them hide. Also other hardscape that makes little caves, ledges and hiding spots really seems to appeal to mine. If mine breed with male guppies in the tank, yours can manage with some endlers Strange about Embers hunting them, they're often suggested as great to have with breeding fish since they're not likely to eat eggs/fry, and I'd planned to add Embers with my otos and pygmies once the male guppies were gone... please keep me updated on how yours do together!

Also think about what plants you have; some dense moss is often recommended and will also provide a feeding ground for tiny micro-organisms, but also be careful about things like algae! I've been battling hair algae in that tank since I set it up, and when I pulled a load of hair algae that was wrapped around a plant the other day, found a pygmy fry trapped in it I thought it was dead at first, but it wriggled when I brushed against it, yet couldn't escape the algae. I attached a breeder box to the tank and gently pulled away the strands of hair algae until he was freed and swam away from me into the breeder box. Luckily he can't have been trapped long, because he was absolutely fine and I let him back into the main tank after monitoring him for a while, but those fine strands can easily wrap around tiny fins and gills, and he definitely couldn't have untangled himself without my help. It's lucky I happened to spot him when I did. Casscats also rescued one of her pygmy fry that managed to get trapped in some moss.

Introduce some more variety and perhaps up the amount of food to get the adults into breeding condition, especially live and frozen foods if you can. Any of the microworms (walter, banana, micro etc) can be eaten by the adults and the fry, and are super easy to culture! The tiny frozen foods I use include daphnia, cyclops, rotifers and moina. De-encapsulated BBS are apparently good too if you can get hold of them, I haven't personally.

Then some cooler water changes to replicate their wild breeding season Just needs to be a few degrees cooler than their usual temp. If you see the females starting to look a bit fat, do a cool water change and watch for spawning! The males start chasing the females around, then you see them do a T position, and the female goes off to place an egg. These guys seem to prefer laying on plant leaves (or a spawning mop if you go that route) rather than glass like the bronzes.

I found this channel both helpful and endearing Plus he gets some great shots of the pygmies spawning and T positions

Fab, thank u for all the wonderful info. I'll try and set up a species tank for the pygmies in a month or so. My water may not be ideal (GH 8, pH 7.5) so I might need to add rain water.
Please post updates of how they're doing!

 

[Naughts]

Eeeeek
And
Arrggh
@AdoraBelle Dearheart & @Naughts
I was just coming back around....and look who shows up.
Can't catch up with the 2 of you now but will follow this thread soon....
Been waiting forever for some FOREVER
Apparantly so has my LFS

so excited baby pygmies yay!

Hey, I hope you are well. Look forward to seeing you (and hopefully your new pygmies!) around the forum.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

This is the tank they're currently in;

All the little brown dots on the sand are tiny pest ramshorn snails. Population has exploded recently (I'm probably overfeeding a bit, trying to make sure there's enough tiny food to reach all the newly hatched fry) which annoys me since they're so hard to remove - but on the other hand, they're doing me a favour by helping break down waste into some good mulm. It's a 15.5 gallon with six male guppies, four otocinclus, seven adult pygmy cories plus the pygmy fry. Few MTS and the pest ramshorns.

Got some terrible photos of babies, sorry for poor quality! Haven't been taking photos for a while, camera settings are messed up and I'm no photographer. Need to re-read the manual to figure out how to reset them when I have time.

This is the largest baby, about 2/3rds the size of the adult males

Blurry pics of a baby, still has the fry colouring, looks as though it'll be changing to adult colours soon. Sorry it's so hard to see! That's their slate cave on the right, the brown patch is a bit of almond leaf, and the fry is perched on the leaf, just his tail poking out over the gravel - can anyone see it?

Have also been paying attention to the Amano shrimp in particular at feeding time, and will definitely not be keeping them with the pygmies! They're so fearless going in and grabbing food and taking it away, I couldn't trust them not to snatch a fry. At the moment, they're in this 15.5 G tank with the batch of ten Bronze cory fry I'm growing out, plus the cherry shrimp colony;

I added a couple of tetra shrimp wafers today, and this Amano snatched a whole one, climbed halfway up a vallis leaf away from the baby cories, and kept it to herself... lol

 

[Cydeth]

Welcome back @AdoraBelle Dearheart.

Congrats on all the babies, I've got some apistos sitting on eggs right now so I may be in the same boat soon myself.

The pygmy cory are certainly tempting, my local shop got some in the other week and the tank was packed with them. It's a shame I haven't got a tank free to grab a dozen of them, they were selling them for £15 for 6.

Your greedy amano is quite amusing, I've got some in one tank that are pretty pushy feeders too although not quite so selfish. The females in that tank are holding eggs right now, it's a shame they will never hatch.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Welcome back @AdoraBelle Dearheart.

Congrats on all the babies, I've got some apistos sitting on eggs right now so I may be in the same boat soon myself.

Thank you! It's good to be back, I missed this place and the people here so much. Life has just been busy lately, haven't had much free time to be online. But will be popping on when I can. Need to pick some people's brains about my plans to move tanks and stock around too. Pygmies breeding has thrown a bit of a spanner into that, but I'm so delighted to have the fry, and that they're happy enough to breed, that I don't care about the complications, lol.
Oh nice! What kind of apistos? Would love to see a pic if you can share! Apistos are on my list for fish I'd like to keep one day, some really beautiful varieties, and must be fun to breed too. Man, we never have enough tanks do we!

The pygmy cory are certainly tempting, my local shop got some in the other week and the tank was packed with them. It's a shame I haven't got a tank free to grab a dozen of them, they were selling them for £15 for 6.

That's not a bad price at all! Mine were £4.99 each or 6 for £25 if I remember rightly. Might be misremembering the group discount price. They're such a cute little fish, and really entertaining to watch! I've fished a lot of teeny fry out of buckets now, and I still can't get over how small they are. Mosquito larvae are larger and easier to see I swear. Once they're bigger and join the adults, makes my heart melt to see them swimming about and exploring! Earlier today saw three adults chilling on top of their slate cave

With a smaller baby sitting between them, like they were protecting him. So cute! I can't recommend them enough for anyone who's looking for a peaceful nano tank that's 10-20 gallons. A nice sized group of the pygmies, six or more otos, cherry shrimp, and some smaller midwater species like Ember Tetra, Chilis, celestial pearls or kubatoi, something like that - that's my dream nano tank I'm planning! Haven't picked a mid-water species yet, need to do more research and see what my store can get in.

Your greedy amano is quite amusing, I've got some in one tank that are pretty pushy feeders too although not quite so selfish. The females in that tank are holding eggs right now, it's a shame they will never hatch.

Aaaww, I agree, it's sad to see the females working so hard fanning their eggs and knowing that they'll never hatch... This is my first time keeping amanos, think only 2/6 are female in my group, both have been carrying eggs for a long while. Any idea how long they carry them before they drop them? I did look into how to hatch amano eggs/raise them, but way too complicated and difficult for me to want to attempt. Not that keen to breed amanos! Would rather focus on breeding the fish. I do feel sad for them when I see them working so hard to fan their eggs, but I doubt they feel any emotions around it, and are just following their instincts, so try not to feel guilty!

 

[Cydeth]

Thank you! It's good to be back, I missed this place and the people here so much. Life has just been busy lately, haven't had much free time to be online. But will be popping on when I can. Need to pick some people's brains about my plans to move tanks and stock around too. Pygmies breeding has thrown a bit of a spanner into that, but I'm so delighted to have the fry, and that they're happy enough to breed, that I don't care about the complications, lol.
Oh nice! What kind of apistos? Would love to see a pic if you can share! Apistos are on my list for fish I'd like to keep one day, some really beautiful varieties, and must be fun to breed too. Man, we never have enough tanks do we!

That's not a bad price at all! Mine were £4.99 each or 6 for £25 if I remember rightly. Might be misremembering the group discount price. They're such a cute little fish, and really entertaining to watch! I've fished a lot of teeny fry out of buckets now, and I still can't get over how small they are. Mosquito larvae are larger and easier to see I swear. Once they're bigger and join the adults, makes my heart melt to see them swimming about and exploring! Earlier today saw three adults chilling on top of their slate cave
View attachment 139080

With a smaller baby sitting between them, like they were protecting him. So cute! I can't recommend them enough for anyone who's looking for a peaceful nano tank that's 10-20 gallons. A nice sized group of the pygmies, six or more otos, cherry shrimp, and some smaller midwater species like Ember Tetra, Chilis, celestial pearls or kubatoi, something like that - that's my dream nano tank I'm planning! Haven't picked a mid-water species yet, need to do more research and see what my store can get in.


Aaaww, I agree, it's sad to see the females working so hard fanning their eggs and knowing that they'll never hatch... This is my first time keeping amanos, think only 2/6 are female in my group, both have been carrying eggs for a long while. Any idea how long they carry them before they drop them? I did look into how to hatch amano eggs/raise them, but way too complicated and difficult for me to want to attempt. Not that keen to breed amanos! Would rather focus on breeding the fish. I do feel sad for them when I see them working so hard to fan their eggs, but I doubt they feel any emotions around it, and are just following their instincts, so try not to feel guilty!

The apistos sitting on eggs are macmasteri, but I've got some bitaeniata that are also showing signs of breeding again.

More new additions - macmasteri

I picked this pair up last night, along with a group of 6 Nannostomus Marilynae. They are still settling in, but so far they are looking quite comfortable. So far I have been able to get them to eat some frozen daphnia and I will probably try them with some flake or granules later this evening...

www.fishforums.net

New Apisto acquisition. Bitaeniata

I picked this guy up on Saturday along with a female that he is very bonded with. They've already picked out their hide and are beginning to explore and make themselves visible to the big ugly thing on the outside of their tank. This was the first time the male really came out to feed. He is...

www.fishforums.net

I'll take your word for it about the cute babies, I've never bred pygmies and I'm not sure my brain would jump to cute as a descriptor.

I'll enjoy any photos you may share of them for now, but if I have a tank open up that would be suitable for them I may have to give them serious consideration.

I was also making the decision about mid to upper dwelling small fish recently and I seriously considered a group of Microdevario kubotai as the dither for my macmasteri. In the end I went for Nannostomus Marilynae, and I'm not disappointed.

I believe amano hold eggs for about 6 weeks.

 

[Gypsum]

Nice to see you back.

Want some Aspidoras spilotus to go with your pygmies? I'm being overrun.