Pygmy Corydoras and ACO QT Trio Meds

[Sandra the fish rookie]

Hi ~

It happened again.. 🙂 Went to the LFS to ORDER fish .... and unexpectedly came home with 10 pygmy corydoras that have been sitting there for a while. I ordered 5 more panda corydora to compete my Cory gang, and 10 more pygmys as well.. 

They are so cute and small. they are in a 10 QT tank does anyone know if these guys take the QT tri meds well? I follow the Cory's Protocol, and have had no issue up to now. But wanted to ask the more experienced first. 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@Nooby okay thanks!

Also, what about food? I just put in some mini wafers and they seem to like it. Anything else they like?

[PedroPete]

Congrats! I am doing research for getting Pygmy corys for the first time. So (1) watching this thread 🙂 and (2) I’ve read they liked sliced up blood worms and baby brine as well as micro hikari(?). I want to culture microworms, as I’m sure my guppies will enjoy but maybe the corys will too?

[T. Payne]

In my experience, yes, the trio works well for them and is safe. 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/24/2021 at 7:51 AM, PedroPete said:

Congrats! I am doing research for getting Pygmy corys for the first time. So (1) watching this thread 🙂 and (2) I’ve read they liked sliced up blood worms and baby brine as well as micro hikari(?). I want to culture microworms, as I’m sure my guppies will enjoy but maybe the corys will too?

Microworms might be enjoyed or might be too small depending on size of your cories.  My tiny nano fish (chili rasboras, ember tetras, and Kubotai rasboras) all seem to enjoy microworms but the worms are so small they become virtually invisible to me once they disperse in the tank water.  I can see a tiny “cloud” of worms when I first swish them in, but I can’t really make them out after that because they are so tiny.  But these 3 species show feeding behavior and their tummies fill up with something so I have to assume they are feeding on the microworms.  So, pigmy cories may feed on them, but may also ignore them if they’re too small to bother with.

Grindal worms, whiteworms, and black worms would likely be taken eagerly.  Even my tiny chilis will pick out one of the smaller whiteworms and eat it.  My Grindal worm cultures are still in the growing stage so I’m only feeding them to my baby pea puffers right now, but I’m certain they will be accepted well by others.  I need to find a better way to harvest so I’m going to be trying some pieces of solid plastic since the plastic mesh didn’t work for them like it does for the whiteworms.

Here’s a list with some notes I made when I was doing my reading on the sizes of various small live foods.

 

Live Fish Food Sizes

 

Worms:

Vinegar eels - 1-2 mm x 0.005 mm (Turbatrix aceti)

Banana worms - 1.5 mm x 0.004 mm (Panagrellus nepenthicola)

Walter worms - 1-3 mm x 0.005-0.01 mm (Panagrellus silusioides)

Microworms - 2-3 mm x 0.005-0.007 mm (2 sp. - Panagrellus redivivus and Anguillula silusiae)

Grindal worms - 10 mm x 0.5 mm (Enchytraeus buchholzi)

Whiteworms - 2-4 cm x 1 mm (Enchytraeus albidus)

Blackworms - 2.5-4 cm (up to 10 cm) x 1.5 mm (Lumbriculus variegatus)

 

Other Live Foods:

Infusoria - 0.005-0.5 mm (multiple different organisms)

Baby brine shrimp - 0.4-0.5 mm x 0.15 mm (Artemis sp. - in US is A. franciscana)

Adult brine shrimp - 8-20 mm x 4 mm (Artemis sp)

Fairy shrimp - 6-25 mm (multiple species - like a freshwater brine shrimp)

Daphnia - 0.2-5 mm (multiple species)

Moina - 0.7-1.4 mm (multiple species)

Scuds/amphipods - 1-8 mm (multiple species, some up to 3 cm - yes, over an inch!).

Fruit flies - 1.5-3 mm (multiple species and strains)

Mosquito larvae - 3-12 mm (multiple species)

Edited October 25, 2021 by Odd Duck
Typo, then edit again to add info on scuds.

[eatyourpeas]

@Odd Duck That is a very helpful list, thank you! I have been feeding my Pygmy corys BBS, Hikari First Bites, and Repashy. They will go for ground up sinking wafers and cichlid pellets as well.

[PedroPete]

Such helpful replies!! Thank you! I time to find these locally available here in Spain 😅 

[Griznatch]

Thanks for the list @Odd Duck! Grats on the pygmies @Sandra the fish rookie!