Pygmy Corydora Fry Feeding

[Neha]

I have about half a day old fry and I have live bbs, but I have read a few places that pygmy fry are too tiny to eat bbs. Are there any other recommendations, not live, since I can't do any other live food. Or do you think I'd better stick with live bbs?

[TOtrees]

Hikari First Fites is pretty widely available. Others like Sera micron, they seem to be targeting North American retail more lately  

I’m a huge fan of this, if you can get it. https://aquariumdirect.ca/en/aaa/986-premium-larval-diet-.html. In fact I love all the AAA foods that I’ve tried. 

I find that a very very little goes a long way. Cory fry will get by on little to no extra food, unless they’re in a very sterile tank. They’ll reach a size where they can eat first frozen bbs, then live pretty quick (the frozen seems slightly smaller than live, to me), under almost any conditions, unless they are depredated. Also, obviously bad or unclean water is a no-go. In my set up, I see the greatest larval/fry deaths when organic debris accumulates in my hang on fry box. So I clean often, and feed often. 

[Neha]

On 10/9/2023 at 10:46 AM, TOtrees said:

Hikari First Fites is pretty widely available. Others like Sera micron, they seem to be targeting North American retail more lately  

I’m a huge fan of this, if you can get it. https://aquariumdirect.ca/en/aaa/986-premium-larval-diet-.html. In fact I love all the AAA foods that I’ve tried. 

I find that a very very little goes a long way. Cory fry will get by on little to no extra food, unless they’re in a very sterile tank. They’ll reach a size where they can eat first frozen bbs, then live pretty quick (the frozen seems slightly smaller than live, to me), under almost any conditions, unless they are depredated. Also, obviously bad or unclean water is a no-go. In my set up, I see the greatest larval/fry deaths when organic debris accumulates in my hang on fry box. So I clean often, and feed often. 

Thanks much for your response! I actually have them in a Tupperware currently because all my breeding boxes seemed too large for them. I'm planning on moving them to my 1 gallon breeder box once all the eggs hatch (I have 8 rn). So there's no extra food for the fry. I actually did not have a lot of success with them in my main tank because I have a large shrimp population. Only one fry from the last spawn survived. 

I think I'll find hikari first bites and sera micron in my local fish store. In the meantime I'll keep their container clean. I can still see the egg from which they hatched, I assume they will eat that?

[JE47]

On 10/9/2023 at 8:56 AM, Neha said:

I can still see the egg from which they hatched, I assume they will eat that?

Yup they will continue to eat the egg sac until it is gone I wouldn't worry about feeding them until that happens

[Zeaqua]

Around June I had one of my first successful Pygmy spawns. I was panicking on what to feed them, as I had never raised fry before, but had been attempting to breed these lil guys for months. It turns out that they’ll just eat what their parents eat, just smaller. I found that the best food for them in the early stages are all the microfauna in the sand. I did read that you have a large shrimp colony with your pygmies, so that may not work out, but the second best foods for them are any finely crushed up flake or pellet. I’ve used xtreme nano pellets, as they have a ton of protein and can very easily be crushed up between your fingers. After a couple weeks, try to get some on BBS. Mine are already showing adult colors, so I know you can do it! Good luck with your endeavors!

[Neha]

On 10/10/2023 at 7:51 PM, Zeaqua said:

Around June I had one of my first successful Pygmy spawns. I was panicking on what to feed them, as I had never raised fry before, but had been attempting to breed these lil guys for months. It turns out that they’ll just eat what their parents eat, just smaller. I found that the best food for them in the early stages are all the microfauna in the sand. I did read that you have a large shrimp colony with your pygmies, so that may not work out, but the second best foods for them are any finely crushed up flake or pellet. I’ve used xtreme nano pellets, as they have a ton of protein and can very easily be crushed up between your fingers. After a couple weeks, try to get some on BBS. Mine are already showing adult colors, so I know you can do it! Good luck with your endeavors!

Thanks so much! I do have Xtreme shrimpee pellets, I'll try those for the ones in my main tank. I've started feeding the tank twice a day, maybe some in the main tank will survive. The ones in my breeding box are now about 1-2 days old. I think the oldest one just had its first meal, I put in some hikari first bites. Before this no one had wanted to eat, maybe others will eat through the night too!

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your pygmys to spawn? Mine spawned about the same time last year, maybe it's the rainy season that does it for mine. I would love to get them to spawn more! Thanks again!

[Zeaqua]

For the most part, mine just spawn on their own. I think that cool water changes before a storm may help a bit, but I don’t think they are too important for pygmies. What I do think is pretty important is keeping them well fed. Foods that are higher in protein help females to produce more eggs, and they help fry to grow more quickly. I usually like to feed the Nano pellets I mentioned earlier, as well as frozen or live Daphnia or BBS. Mine have spawned about once every 3-5 weeks, with the biggest spawn having about 100 eggs. Also, you can try the shrimpee pellets with your cories, but mine won’t touch them. If yours don’t either, another pretty good fry food that may be able to substitute powders like first bites is any decent flake food. As long as you take time to crumble it up for them, they’ll probably eat it. Lastly, the most important thing about artificially raising cories is to do plenty of little water changes. Water quality is super important to fry, so try to keep it as good as you can! Sorry about the essay, but hope this helps!

[Neha]

On 10/11/2023 at 12:12 AM, Zeaqua said:

For the most part, mine just spawn on their own. I think that cool water changes before a storm may help a bit, but I don’t think they are too important for pygmies. What I do think is pretty important is keeping them well fed. Foods that are higher in protein help females to produce more eggs, and they help fry to grow more quickly. I usually like to feed the Nano pellets I mentioned earlier, as well as frozen or live Daphnia or BBS. Mine have spawned about once every 3-5 weeks, with the biggest spawn having about 100 eggs. Also, you can try the shrimpee pellets with your cories, but mine won’t touch them. If yours don’t either, another pretty good fry food that may be able to substitute powders like first bites is any decent flake food. As long as you take time to crumble it up for them, they’ll probably eat it. Lastly, the most important thing about artificially raising cories is to do plenty of little water changes. Water quality is super important to fry, so try to keep it as good as you can! Sorry about the essay, but hope this helps!

This is great info! Thanks so much! Let's see if I can raise my first set of fry successfully!

[Zeaqua]

Even if you aren't able to raise them successfully on the first try, don't give up! I lost my first 2 batches of fry and was super disappointed in myself and almost stopped trying to breed them, but now I have a huge colony!

[Neha]

On 10/11/2023 at 12:49 PM, Zeaqua said:

Even if you aren't able to raise them successfully on the first try, don't give up! I lost my first 2 batches of fry and was super disappointed in myself and almost stopped trying to breed them, but now I have a huge colony!

Oh wow! I feel like this is my only chance to raise them for at least some foreseeable future (I'll be moving), I do hope they survive! I have 8 in a 1 gallon fluval breeding box and I'm changing water twice a day and cleaning the bottom once a day. What did you do different from your first two tries?

[Zeaqua]

At first, I tried to keep them in a Specimen Container with an airstone as I saw in GirlTalksFish's video, and the fry did well for a bit, but after some time the water quality degraded and they didn't make it. I tried that method again, but I made sure to keep up with water changes. I did them hourly (I was able to do them so often as I'm in high school and it was summer at the time) and did them right before feedings to remove any leftover food. This went well until I decided to upgrade them to a fluval breeder box when they escaped, presumably into the outflow to the rest of the tank. For my most recent few, I've just left the eggs in their tank with their parents. Once they hatched, I would start feeding the tank with fry foods, and they just took off from there. In your case, the breeding box should work well, just as long as you cover the outflow with a bit of sponge so they can't escape. 

[Neha]

On 10/11/2023 at 2:43 PM, Zeaqua said:

At first, I tried to keep them in a Specimen Container with an airstone as I saw in GirlTalksFish's video, and the fry did well for a bit, but after some time the water quality degraded and they didn't make it. I tried that method again, but I made sure to keep up with water changes. I did them hourly (I was able to do them so often as I'm in high school and it was summer at the time) and did them right before feedings to remove any leftover food. This went well until I decided to upgrade them to a fluval breeder box when they escaped, presumably into the outflow to the rest of the tank. For my most recent few, I've just left the eggs in their tank with their parents. Once they hatched, I would start feeding the tank with fry foods, and they just took off from there. In your case, the breeding box should work well, just as long as you cover the outflow with a bit of sponge so they can't escape. 

I had first thought of doing a specimen container but decided to go with the fluval breeder box. I've covered the outflow with sponge but I'll put some polyfilter as well since they are sooo tiny! Thanks a lot for all the information! I really appreciate it!