40g Pygmy Cory tank

[Zeaqua]

Hi all! This is my first post on here, so apologies if I’m doing something g wrong. Last year when I first got into the hobby, the first fish I bought were a group of 6 Pygmy Cories, and since then I’ve fallen in love. I bought another 7, and over the past few months I’ve finally been able to breed them. Their adorable fry have finally started to show their adult colors, and I want to make a tank just for them. I want to set up a 40 breeder “species only” breeding tank for them. Ideally, I want it to be heavily planted, as they love to have a ton of plants to both hide in and rest on top of, and I want a school of as least 30, preferably more, as well as some shrimp and otos that won’t eat the eggs. I’m looking for any suggestions on how to stock it, plant it, or just general ideas that anyone may have. Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

[Guppysnail]

A 40 B is perfect for Pygmy. I started my breeding colony in a 10. When I put them in a 20 long they became much more active. When I moved them to a 40B they went crazy with joy. Became bold and never hide. 
One thing mine love are places to have town hall meetings. Flat slate and wide flat river rocks are perfect for that. They love large wood they can congregate on as well. 
A large open feeding beach in the front keeps them from hiding as well. I think if they can’t see what’s around them they get nervous. They also like to sit on large flat leaves. 
I set up a nursery in my 40. The entire side about 4 inches wide front to back is solid moss. They lay all their eggs there and the fry hatch and eventually come out. I squirt some fry food and sera micron in the moss twice a week. 
I’m so excited to follow along with you build.  I’m hoping to get ideas from you as well. 
 

One thing it took me a bit to figure out was keeping it oxygenated enough. They love some flow and I dropped airstones in the center.  That brought them out. 

This shows my nursery. My slate is missing because I needed it for another project. I’m ordering more to replace it. My Melini and COD were breeding when I took this.  The Pygmy were in the moss on the other side  

 

[HelplessNewbie]

So envious of your big tank size! I really like pygmy cory, too.

[Zeaqua]

On 9/16/2023 at 6:58 PM, Guppysnail said:

A 40 B is perfect for Pygmy. I started my breeding colony in a 10. When I put them in a 20 long they became much more active. When I moved them to a 40B they went crazy with joy. Became bold and never hide. 
One thing mine love are places to have town hall meetings. Flat slate and wide flat river rocks are perfect for that. They love large wood they can congregate on as well. 
A large open feeding beach in the front keeps them from hiding as well. I think if they can’t see what’s around them they get nervous. They also like to sit on large flat leaves. 
I set up a nursery in my 40. The entire side about 4 inches wide front to back is solid moss. They lay all their eggs there and the fry hatch and eventually come out. I squirt some fry food and sera micron in the moss twice a week. 
I’m so excited to follow along with you build.  I’m hoping to get ideas from you as well. 
 

One thing it took me a bit to figure out was keeping it oxygenated enough. They love some flow and I dropped airstones in the center.  That brought them out. 

This shows my nursery. My slate is missing because I needed it for another project. I’m ordering more to replace it. My Melini and COD were breeding when I took this.  The Pygmy were in the moss on the other side  

 

Love the ideas! So far for setup I was planning to have a few inches of sand, followed by a jungle of plants. I’m still unsure if I want to go with all background plants for a more jungle look, or short->tall plants for a more typical planted tank. I definitely want to use tiger lotuses and water lilies, as mine love to rest on those, but I haven’t even considered the river rocks as potential meeting grounds, I’ll definitely incorporate some of those! I also really like the idea of oxygenating the water more, as mine were more active with a powerhead. I do plan to film the creation of this tank, so I will keep this updated. The nursery idea is super unique too, so I might add something like that!