Pygmy Id/feeding

[LauraFrog]

Well after a few weeks of agonising over the price (too high), and whether it will be overstocking (I decided on no)... I finally blew some of my Christmas money on a couple of these little beauties. I've got two, and I think I've been given two different species. They look different. They're about the same size (and both tiny) but one has a single dark bar down its side, and is much more pigmented all over, the other is almost white with almost greenish markings and a broken row of dots down its side. I'll look up the species again in a minute and try and work out which they are.

They're in a 6 gal that's been cycled for well over 6 months. Currently it's got some half-grown platys in it... it's a bit of a work in progress, the intended stocking all along has been 4-5 pygmy corys and I'm still working out whether I'm going for sparkling gouramis, ember tetras, psuedomugils (an aussie native... ) or maybe even a betta. (Or some betta sisters, I know where to get ones that don't bite.) But I've finally started on the 'intended' stocking. I know they are schooling and won't be happy with just two, but the shop only had two, so I bought those and when they get more in, I will buy two or three more.

Anyway, if I can get some photos of them (probably tomorrow, they freaked out when I put them in so I turned the lights off) can you guys positively ID the species for me? I don't think it would really matter if they aren't the same since i don't really care if they breed or not...

Also, what should I try feeding them? I've got a pretty big collection of vegetables... fresh fish flesh... Hikari sinking algae wafers... NewLife Spectrum flakes, which I can crush up and put in a meat baster and squirt on the bottom to get them past the gutsing platys... the pellets I have all float no matter what you do to them, so they are probably no use, but i can get sinking shrimp pellets as well if those are better.


Thanks in advance, I'll try and get some photos of them. They are so unbelievably cute...

 

[OldMan47]

Pygmy cories eat the same things as larger cories. The will eat any flake that comes to them and really go for frozen foods. A small sinking pellet would be ideal because it would go right where they will eat it. As with most fish, some of the algae based foods are also good to add in.

 

[LauraFrog]

Okay, thanks! They are looking happy now, settled in quite well and definitely qualify among the cutest fish I've ever kept!!! Definitely worth the (excessive, this IS australia) price.

And now I'm thinking they are both the same species? Remove the stress from being in a small bag (with a rather big female betta) for about two hours and they look quite happy now. The pigmentation has evened up a lot - I think one of them went really dark and one of them went really light, because now you've got two medium coloured fish, one with a row of dark blotches down the sides, and one with a straight dark line. The markings both seem to gel with habrosus, because they are way too marked for hastatus (which all the photos show with only a few dark marks right on the caudal peduncle) and the lines seem too thick and dark for pygmaeus.

I WILL get photos, I've just sort of half obscured the tank with a frog tank, I've got a sick little frog (which happens to be an endangered species) taking up a bit of attention.

 

[OldMan47]

Hi again Laura

One of my habrosus

One of my pygmaeus on the left with a Heterandria formosa to his right.

Maybe this will help with the ID.

 

[LauraFrog]

Thanks for that! I think they've gotta be habrosus, they have the striped markings on the tail as well which pygmaeus doesn't have. I'll put up some photos when I can get them to upload, I got a few decent ones of both fish. On Google Images there were some habrosus with a single streak like yours and some with blotches like one of mine. The bloke who owns the store said he thought they were a male-female pair.