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planted tank and pygmy cories & basic questions

10K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  tophat665 
#1 ·
How do you have a planted tank with pygmy cories? I understand they like sand and it needs to be shallow enough so they can snufffle through to the bottom of the tank? I know java ferns will attach to anything, but I saw this cool looking grassy stuff at the LFS and would love to have a patch. (Don't remember what it's called right now and I'll do more research before actually doing it.) So, it wouldn't be a fully planted tank but a mixture of live and silk.

I'm planning to upgrade my small 5 gallon to a larger tank and want to have a group of pgymy cories. They are so cute!!!! I'm in love already.

What do they eat?

Any thoughts about tank set up? I don't know exactly what size I'll be getting yet. This is all still in the planning stage.

Their tank mates would be some zebra danios and one apple snail.
 
#2 ·
They'll eat anything. Replace those danios with pencilfish. Danios can easily outcompete and deprive the corydoras for foods.
 
#3 ·
the substrate doesn't need to be shallow. They did for food but they don't need to reach the bottom.

They will eat anything as long as it's small enough. A staple food of flakes with treats of bloodworm/brineshrimp and some algae wafers and peas is a good varied diet for them. The same as any other cory really.

What size of tank are you upgrading to? As soon as you know let us know. We'll need to know his to suggest tankmates. I agree the danios could be a bit too quick for them when it comes to feeding. Another possibility might be harlequin rasboras or glowlights/neons.
 
#5 ·
I have 4 spotted cories in my 29-gallon tank. I just rotate flakes, brine shrimp, and bloodworms (which the cories don't EVER get any bloodworms because of the guppies & danios) :lol: .

The interesting thing is that although the cories do scavenge on the bottom (they are always busy and moving), mine also swim all through my watersprite stalks and leaves as if they were ottos. I guess they are feeding on micro-organisms growing on the plants. Anyone else had a similar experience?

I haven't tried peas yet. Could someone provide some more info on feeding peas to cories?

Thanks.
 
#6 ·
The interesting thing is that although the cories do scavenge on the bottom (they are always busy and moving), mine also swim all through my watersprite stalks and leaves as if they were ottos. I guess they are feeding on micro-organisms growing on the plants. Anyone else had a similar experience?
Mine do that also, especially the Schwartziis. They'll spend hours sifting through each leaf on the plants (even though they're fake, lol) all the way from top to bottom. I think they find little bits of leftover food.
 
#10 ·
Eco complete is fine for cories. I used to keep my pygmies in a planted tank with an eco-complete bottom. The neat thing about pygmies is, if you have a large enough group (10+) they'll chill out in mid water. If the morning sun hit's you're tank, they get really active. I fed mine flake, micro-pellets, shrimp pellets, blood worms, frozen daphnia, and frozen cyclops. They'll also nibble on algae tablets.
 
#12 ·
You could do a great 10 gallon for a shoal of 10 pygmies, but that's it. I would recommend a 15, with a glass top and a pair of 23 watt compact fluorescent desk lamps over it. Plant a nice lawn in the middle, get some nice branchy driftwood for the sides, plant stems in the corners, and get some nice, branchy driftwood and frame the tall plants and arc it over the lawn a bit. then put in about 10 pygmies, 6 red cherry or Amano shrimp, and a shoal of 10 small tetras (Embers or neons or lemons) or Microrasboras.

Get a layout something like this:


And maybe stack some small slates in that clear area in the back for hiding spaces.

The reason I suggest this particular layout is that it will get enough planting to allow you to push the bioload a little while still giving plenty of swimming room in the middle and security in the back corners, and well as overhead cover under the driftwood and rosettes. While a species tank would be neat, one of the fun things about pygmies is they will sometimes school with Tetras, so putting a school of small tetras in can enhance the behavior of both the tetras and the pygmies.
 
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