sairving Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 Last week, I bought some pygmy cories for my 10 gallon Betta tank. Today I found one dead. It hadn't been attacked and didn't seem sick. There is another one that I'm starting to think it may not make it either. He's not very active. Pygmy number 3 is zooming around the tank. My water parameters are good. No ammonia, no nitrite, and nitrates are at 5 ppm. I did a small water change right away. My understanding is pygmy cories are generally wild caught. It dawned on me that they may not do well in my high pH, hard water. So if pygmy number 3 makes it, do I get more and hope they don't die or try something else? All three were active prior to this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 My water is 7.4-7.6. Very hard as in 15-19 drops api test. I loaded my Pygmy tank with almond leaves. Mine are thriving. They prefer live bbs and are most active when fed that plus high protein food. Hope you have better luck. I ordered three groups from 3 different places to establish my group. The group I lost none the seller had the closest (though not the same) water parameters to me. The group that had the most casualty was from the most different but were also delayed in the mail. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/22/2021 at 7:19 PM, Guppysnail said: My water is 7.4-7.6. Very hard as in 15-19 drops api test. I loaded my Pygmy tank with almond leaves. Mine are thriving. They prefer live bbs and are most active when fed that plus high protein food. Hope you have better luck. I ordered three groups from 3 different places to establish my group. The group I lost none the seller had the closest (though not the same) water parameters to me. The group that had the most casualty was from the most different but were also delayed in the mail. I bought frozen baby brine shrimp for them. It doesn't matter how many blood worms I add, Louie will find them and eat them. I also make sure I crush my betta's food smaller and sink it. I'll see how the last two do and try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 I slice my frozen blood worm cubes thin slices while frozen. They are to large for my Pygmy but sliced the make a mess but my kids devour them. I rinse in a micron Artemis sieve then add the floaty bits to the tank. Cheese grater also works on frozen cubes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 I feed mine on hikari micro pellets (pink dust) and they hoover it off the plant leaves. My water is soft with a ph around 7.2. Fingers crossed for number 3 I generally find them an easy fish to keep initially had them in a small nano set up then after the big fish passed moved them into the community tank. As to restocking I'm conflicted I wouldn't want number 3 to be a lone pygmy they are better to watch in a group so maybe if it makes it try with more but I'd be wary of going through this all again. I'd wait for the batch change at the shop just incase if I did decide to try again. They like to sit in plants so I hope the beta hadn't been getting upity when it wants to lurk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 (edited) On 10/22/2021 at 8:01 PM, Flumpweesel said: I feed mine on hikari micro pellets (pink dust) and they hoover it off the plant leaves. My water is soft with a ph around 7.2. Fingers crossed for number 3 I generally find them an easy fish to keep initially had them in a small nano set up then after the big fish passed moved them into the community tank. As to restocking I'm conflicted I wouldn't want number 3 to be a lone pygmy they are better to watch in a group so maybe if it makes it try with more but I'd be wary of going through this all again. I'd wait for the batch change at the shop just incase if I did decide to try again. They like to sit in plants so I hope the beta hadn't been getting upity when it wants to lurk. My betta only seems to get cranky if they swim too close. He prefers lurking in the frogbit roots and crypts. Its a possibility he got upity at some point when nobody saw it. I am wary of trying it again right now. I bought the last three in stock at last week. My guess it will be a few weeks before they have more available. Since I had them for only a week, I can probably get store credit or replacement fish. I'll wait to see what happens with the other two pygmies. Edited October 23, 2021 by sairving 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 (edited) Update time..... I'm pretty sure pygmy cory number 2 is no longer alive but I can't find it. Pygmy Cory number 3 has decided to try and school with the Betta. That's not going over well. Sigh.... Edit: Pygmy 2 just came out. He's not very active. Edited October 23, 2021 by sairving 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 Can you reduce the lighting at all mine are much more active when the lights are off. Often disappear completely when the lights first come on reappearing later around feeding time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/23/2021 at 9:38 AM, Flumpweesel said: Can you reduce the lighting at all mine are much more active when the lights are off. Often disappear completely when the lights first come on reappearing later around feeding time. I have mostly low light plants in the tank and some Amazon frogbit. For lighting, I use a fluval Aquasky. It ramps up most of the day, spends two hours at 75% power, them ramps back down until it shuts off. Plus, there are usually some tannins in the water. Pygmy 2 is sitting towards the front right now and is super skinny looking. Pygmy number 3 looks healthy and is out sifting through the sand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flumpweesel Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 They do spend plenty of time sitting around hopefully number 2 will find some food and catch up with number 3 They do have different body shapes (assuming males smaller and females bigger rounder) maybe your through the new fish nightmare and fingers crossed all will be well now. Your lighting is more elaborate than mine it's just on or off here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 (edited) On 10/23/2021 at 9:54 AM, Flumpweesel said: They do spend plenty of time sitting around hopefully number 2 will find some food and catch up with number 3 They do have different body shapes (assuming males smaller and females bigger rounder) maybe your through the new fish nightmare and fingers crossed all will be well now. Your lighting is more elaborate than mine it's just on or off here. Sorry it uploaded upside down. This is pygmy 3. From what you said, this must be a female. She's larger and rounder than the other one. She's the active, healthy one. This is pygmy 2. I'm going to feed some more baby brine shrimp. Hopefully he'll get some food. Yay! Now I learned how to identify males and females. Edited October 23, 2021 by sairving Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 Did you deworm? Mine all have fat little bellies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/23/2021 at 9:54 AM, Flumpweesel said: On 10/23/2021 at 10:26 AM, Guppysnail said: Did you deworm? Mine all have fat little bellies. I didn't deworm. The lfs I buy all my fish from quarantines their livestock before they're available for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/23/2021 at 11:34 AM, sairving said: I didn't deworm. The lfs I buy all my fish from quarantines their livestock before they're available for sale. A lot of fish carry parasites but never show symptoms. Their immune system is designed to deal with small numbers. When an infected fish becomes stressed it weakens the immune system opening them to a larger parasitic/bacterial load than they can handle. I don’t medicate in qt or anytime unless I see warnings. Not eating, lethargic and skinny is a big red flag. I have my fingers crossed for you and your little one. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 I would also recommend treating for parasites with paracleanse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/23/2021 at 11:12 AM, Colu said: I would also recommend treating for parasites with paracleanse I'll pick some up today. Would you treat the whole tank or should I set the pygmy up in a hospital tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 I would treat the hole tank if it is parasites it more than likely other fish in the tank will be infected Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 23, 2021 Author Share Posted October 23, 2021 (edited) On 10/23/2021 at 12:17 PM, Colu said: I would treat the hole tank if it is parasites it more than likely other fish in the tank will be infected The store was out of paracleanse so I picked up API general cure instead. I treated the entire tank. Edited October 23, 2021 by sairving Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 It can take 2-3 Course of treatment 2 weeks apart get rid of parasites 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sairving Posted October 25, 2021 Author Share Posted October 25, 2021 Pygmy number 2 was dead on Sunday morning. Pygmy 3 appears to be healthy. This morning was the second dose of API general cure. Wednesday before work, I'll do a water change and then run activated carbon in the filter for 24 hours. My local aquarium society is having a swap meet this weekend. Maybe I'll see if someone is selling pygmies. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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