Corydoras pygmaeus

Hello!

These are my first cories, and they are awesome! I got 6 of them about 5 days ago, and they seem pretty happy. The only thing I am worried about is whether they are getting enough to eat. I think I read that they are night feeders, so I have been trying to leave them something when it's dark and see if it's there in the morning... I haven't always remembered to look before I feed them again. I haven't noticed a lot of food accumulating on the bottom, but I do have some small stones mixed with my sand, so it's a bit hard to see every little crevice on the bottom.

I have been feeding them a mixed bag of things, but trying to go heavy on the meat. I first tried feeding them pretty soon after I got them home, so they may have still been stressed out and not hungry. I tried crushed omega flake and frozen hikari baby brine shrimp, but they didn't seem to go crazy over either. I have been sprinkling in hikari first bites mainly, because it seems they have teeny little mouths, and this is the smallest thing i have. They haven't been eating much when I first put it in, but they are often scavenging in 1 or 2 groups around the sand and rocks, and it looks like they are getting stuff from the bottom.

I'm going to try frozen daphnia tonight, and see how that goes, and if they don't go crazy over that, tomorrow night I will try frozen baby brine shrimp again. If anyone (I'm looking at you, Cory) has had good experiences with a particular food, let me know. I would assume repashy might be irresistable for the little guys, but it's spendy. I might try it, though.

Share your experiences with these guys, or similar species- I have heard there are a couple other dwarf cory species out there, which might interest me.

Come by the shop for a sample of Repashy food. These guys also love live blackworms. You might try putting an algae wafer on a little dish so that you can remove it if they don't eat it.

One of these days. I gonna go to your store, cory. 1hr drive though. Someday.

They did seem to like the daphnia, although they weren't really going at the bulk of it, more swimming about and grazing the small bits off the bottom and off the java moss. I will try a sample tomorrow, I would ideally like to find something that they will eat all at once, so it doesn't foul the water in the small tank I have them in. That might be the ticket, using small amounts of something nice and smelly like that.

I have a feeling they are getting enough food, because they are active and keep grazing the bottom and swimming around nicely, no signs of stress or lethargy. I'm probably just being ultra-sensitive and worrying too much. This tank has been outside in the greenhouse for quite a while with little maintenance before I brought it inside, so I'm sure there are plenty of little microorganisms in there that they are also feeding on.

I wasn't sure if they would be able to eat blackworms with their little mouths, but I will get a portion or two of those tomorrow as well. I might see if I can keep some of the worms alive for a while on stale bread or something, they don't seem to like the veggies I have tried, just got a bunch of dead worms.

I have pygmy cories and H. cories. and I just feed them ken's veggies sticks, and shrimp pellets, (same diet my shrimp get hahaha... shrimp eating shrimp!!!)

They seem to do fine, had them for 3 months now, no deaths (cept for some pygmy's I overdosed a tank with co2... which caused a giant ph spike and.... death)

SiRWesDragon wrote:One of these days. I gonna go to your store, cory.  1hr drive though. Someday.

I live in Bremerton, drive up to Kingston (45 mins) take the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds (35mins) just to work at the store, three times a week.

1 hour is nothin'. ;-) . . . lol!

You should come and visit us at the store!

To stay on topic:
I have 10 of these little critters and have had them for a while now, in my 20 gallon long planted tank. Ever since I put them in there, they've vanished (they're really great at hiding. lol!) The only time I see them is when it's feeding time, I usually feed them a mix of live black worms, frozen blood worms, and ken's veggie sticks with added calcium.

After eating a bit, they like to swim off in a tight school, it's really neat watching them swimming through the leaves and whatnot!

My tank is mainly hardscape, with a little bit of java moss in there. I'm thinking of moving them to my 20 gallon though, cause they might be happier with a little extra space. I'm afraid if I do, I won't see them, though.

I got some samples of repashy from Aquarium Co-Op, I think since Cory was spoiling them on that stuff before I got them, that's what they expect now. Thanks Cory

So, been a while since I started this, but the little guys are doing well in the 20 gallon!

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They have made my cleanup crew even more effective (now my cleanup crew is at least half the creatures i have in there hahaha), and they have started schooling together and doing cool stuff like that.

Awesome, they look great! May I ask where you found these little critters?

the fiance ha about 35+ in a 55g..they eat all times of day for us and eat just about anything that hits the water.

Kaosu wrote:the fiance ha about 35+ in a 55g..they eat all times of day for  us and eat just about anything that hits the water.

Have they ever spawned for you? And, that must look pretty neat having that many schooling & shuffling around.

We have them here at the store at aquarium co op for 2.50 each :-)

fishNAbowl wrote:

Kaosu wrote:the fiance ha about 35+ in a 55g..they eat all times of day for  us and eat just about anything that hits the water.

Have they ever spawned for you? And, that must look pretty neat having that many schooling & shuffling around.

not yet we are still slowly gathering our numbers but we are working on it ^_^

our goal is to be about 50, and it does look pretty awesome to see a big school of them running around the tank.

For spawning, you'd probably be best off with a species tank, because I'm sure other things will love to eat their eggs. I think I heard that they themselves won't eat their own eggs, but don't quote me on that.

I would love to get a large number of these when I get a bigger tank in the future, it probably does look awesome!

There are also a couple other pygmy cories that are out there, if you can find them.

Kaosu: So nice putting a wafishbox name to your face! I never knew you were Kaosu, this whole time... LOL! Wow =D

I want to try my hand at breeding this fellas. I only have 10, and they're somewhere in my 20 gallon tank...unfortunately, they share the tank with white clouds, guppies, cherry shrimp, and snails. I'm gonna have to find a tank that's just them alone. Hrmmm...

Bumping this thread to give the Pygmy Cory more love! I still have most of mine (minus 1 that I found quite a while after it died; good thing they are small!), and they are an excellent accent to the typical small tank.

I just want to add, if you get them spawning... good luck stopping them lol! I have a group of about 12 adults and I get eggs about 2-3 a week from them. I just need to get better about food to the fry when they first hatch, live BBS doesn't seem to be enough to keep the youngest ones going so I am going to try mircoworms.