How to help a terrified fish

[Liddojunior]

I have pygmy cories (9) in a large shallow community tank. But have one pygmy cory that is extremely and I mean extremely skittish and lost on how to help him be comfortable.

This pygmy cory gets so frightened if I'm in view of the tank that it goes into extreme fight or flight, flies in and out of hiding spots making laps around the tank. This causes the majority of pygmys and kuhli loaches into a frenzied panic, prior to his addition all the pygmy corys would chill on top of plant leaves and munch on food with the shrimps. I got this pygmy cory from someone who was local who needed to rehome him. 

Given that husbandry in my opinion has been great, I think would like to get your thoughts on how to handle making this poor little guy feel safe. 

Tank:

• Fine sand substrate
• Epiphyte galore
• Rocks and driftwood cover
• Surface coated in floating plants  

Diet:

• varied diet of live/frozen/dried foods
  • baby brine, frozen brine/bloodworms, hikari crab cuisine, NLS pellet

Water Param:

• Water changes every few weeks. (NO2: 0PPM; NO3 ~10PPM)
• Evap: RO top off 
• TDS ~180

Tankmates: 

• An army of neocardinas
• M/F pair of Scarlet Badis
• 3 Kuhli loaches 
• Horned nerite 
• Mystery snail

Filter:

• Zoomed 501 filter

[Guppysnail]

Hi.  I have Pygmy cory that now breed.  This took quite awhile for me to learn to make them comfy. I had 2 out of 20 that would consistently flip out as you described at me approaching the tank.  Here is what I did.

Kept the room lights BRIGHTER than the tank lights so they could see me clearly and I was not a giant shadow that could be a predator. I approached painfully slow for awhile. I switched feeding to tiny bit every single time I approached the tanks.  
 

I found they prefer ground cover of thin leaves dense they can see around and they disliked broad leaves and decor they could not. They seem to know they are faster than large predators in water with flow so I increased the flow in my tanks and removed large leaves they could not see around as well as decor they could not see around. I figured it made them nervous since they could round a corner and end up in a predators mouth in the wild it might be instinct. 
 

They stopped doing the freak out behavior now just quickly settle still to the bottom until they recognize me.  If the room lights are out and it’s getting dark outside and I approach the tank when the tank lights are on one or two still freak out. 
 

I hope that helps. I love my Pygmys 🥰

[Liddojunior]

My room lights are dimmer than the tank lights. I thought I would be a big scary shadow to them, but down the hallway I can see him spot me and panic.

But I see what you mean about the type of cover, the line of sight from down low is poor and they have to get up higher to get a wider view and when he panics he does go higher in the water column instead of staying low between the hardscape.  

I will do some rearrangements and move the smaller plants more to the front and use more moss for low cover. 

[Tanked]

I would add: that you spend more time in the room at various distances until the little guy identifies you as harmless.  I would also suggest trying a temporary cory cave, something open on all sides for him to hide under and just watch, until he decides to join the group. 

For what it is worth:  My TFBs are quite comfortable with my presence, but will occasionally spook if I do not talk to them before approaching in a darkened room.

[Hannah Parker]

Poor little guy, it's just going to take time for him to learn I would guess. Having an existing school already helps a ton I'm sure! The above suggestions will help the most I think, but if you feel you have the room, even adding just one more pygmy and making the school bigger would help some as well I think. However many you can/would want to comfortably add would be great if you did! 

[Liddojunior]

On 6/8/2022 at 5:33 AM, Guppysnail said:

Hi.  I have Pygmy cory that now breed.  This took quite awhile for me to learn to make them comfy. I had 2 out of 20 that would consistently flip out as you described at me approaching the tank.  Here is what I did.

Kept the room lights BRIGHTER than the tank lights so they could see me clearly and I was not a giant shadow that could be a predator. I approached painfully slow for awhile. I switched feeding to tiny bit every single time I approached the tanks.  
 

I found they prefer ground cover of thin leaves dense they can see around and they disliked broad leaves and decor they could not. They seem to know they are faster than large predators in water with flow so I increased the flow in my tanks and removed large leaves they could not see around as well as decor they could not see around. I figured it made them nervous since they could round a corner and end up in a predators mouth in the wild it might be instinct. 
 

They stopped doing the freak out behavior now just quickly settle still to the bottom until they recognize me.  If the room lights are out and it’s getting dark outside and I approach the tank when the tank lights are on one or two still freak out. 
 

I hope that helps. I love my Pygmys 🥰

I rearranged the tank and they were more confident but decided to just catch them all (turns out I had an extra little one!) and moved them into the 3ft long tank with the school of 17 dwarf rasboras.
 

They’re swimming everywhere, in front of the tank even with me there. they get spooked slightly but like the normal amount of woah someone just walked by.

And the next morning they started spawning. They laid egg on every plant leaf they could. Since I feed live baby brine, I’m hoping I’ll have more Pygmy cories in the future m! 
 

This tank is much less planted but think the schooling fish group is what they needed. 

 

Thank you to everyone! Wanted to make sure I have an update if was successful at making them happy little fish.