sugarkube

Hi all, I'm upgrading from a 5.5 gallon (has a few white clouds and glowlight tetras in there right now to help me with cycling, will plan to rehome them) to a 10 gallon and I'm trying to figure out what kind of corydoras to get. My plan is to get a Betta centerpiece, about 10 ember tetra and 5 or 6 corys. I will need to purchase online because none of the local stores near me have anything in stock. Pygmy corys seem much more available (and cheaper) online, but from all the videos I've seen of them online their mouths are TINY and I mostly see them swimming around mid-water instead of staying on the bottom...plus with their tiny mouths are they going to be any good at actually cleaning up stuff on the bottom? With my research, I'm really loving the Habrosus because they definitely seem like they stay at the bottom and maybe get only slightly larger than the Pygmys, but they're out of stock nearly everywhere online. Thoughts? Thanks everyone for any advice or support 🙂

Hello, TL;DR I was sold some fish at Petsmart that I was told were White Cloud Mountain Minnows, but they don’t look like the original minnows I got from the LFS and they’re acting aggressively to the other fish. Are they actually WCMMs or something else? I kept Betta fish for a while over a decade ago and now that I’m settled in again I want to get back into the hobby. I went to my local fish store recently and they suggested I start my 6 gal tank with White Cloud Mountain Minnows. I asked if they could be kept in the same temperature as Bettas and he answered yes. Came home with 3 minnows and some plants and after I did quick reading, come to find out these fish are cool water fish, not tropical. Really annoyed me but whatever. Just didn’t use a heater with them and the water temp is holding at 72. Within 2 days the largest one died. So I had 2 left, brought the dead one back to the LFS with some of the aquarium water because I wanted a new fish. They tested the water and everything was fine except for 0.25 ppm Ammonia. They wouldn’t give me a new fish because they claimed that’s what killed it (even though the others were fine). I didn’t want my other fish to get stressed out so I went to Petsmart and bought 2 more. I took them home and I’m realizing they don’t even look the same. They’ve been swimming aggressively at the other fish in the tank and now the 2 original WCMM are getting stressed out and floating at the top of the water. What’s going on here? Do I actually have 2 incompatible fish species? I’m getting driftwood ready as we speak (been boiling wood for 2 days trying to get the tannins out) so that the tank has more hiding places but I was told these fish are very peaceful. Thanks for any help!