How many pygmy cories in a 40 g?

[svelez]

Hi everyone!

When I acquired a group of 19 pygmy cories last year for my new 40 gallon tank, I figured they would never breed because my water is so darn hard (usually around ph 7.9 - 8.2, GH 8-10, KH 10). Well, with all the wood and leaves I have in their tank, the GH did drop a little, but maybe they just don't care either way because they are now breeding like rabbits. I have at least 7 additional juveniles now and am still seeing newly hatched fry every week. The only other residents in this tank are some snails. How many pygmy cories do you think can comfortably be in there?! I don't want them to end up crowded, but I must admit am enjoying the whole nursery vibe this tank has going on right now ☺️.

Also was considering eventually adding some sort of micro rasbora (chilis, etc.) to fill in the upper water column, but not sure how that will work anymore. Let me know your thoughts!

Edited July 2 by svelez

[lefty o]

i would suggest 15-20  for a 40 as a baseline, but they are tiny, so even 40 is do-able.

[Tony s]

If they’re breeding like rabbits that’s great. Panda will do well in large groups. So upwards of 40 would be good. If you think you have too many, you could always sell some of them. Pandas are always in demand. 
 

 

[Maximus]

Is it a 40 breeder/long?

[mynameisnobody]

A ton

[svelez]

It is a 40 breeder. They by no means seem cramped at the moment, and they do seem very happy in their group. It's quite a joy to watch the juveniles schooling with the adults. So cute!

 

[EricksonAquatics]

On 7/2/2024 at 3:37 PM, svelez said:

considering eventually adding some sort of micro rasbora (chilis, etc.)

Chili’s are awesome. You could easily add 20-30 of those bad boys. Their bioload is pretty much nothing!

The hardest part of those is honestly getting your hands on them, but if you have a LFS that carries them then that’s perfect!

[Guppysnail]

My Pygmy breed in my 40B along with a heard of melini cory, breeding bristlenose pleco pair and a gaggle of CPD.  I started with 15 and now have 25-30. I cannot always catch them to sell the juveniles. With moving the tank I decided to cut back on the overstock of melini and increase my Pygmy to 40-50. The more Pygmy  I have the more active they are, the more they breed and the more fun to watch.  
 

Microrasbora will do great. Depending on how many/ what type of snails keep the Pygmy number under 60 and you will be fine. If you have “pest” snails that overpopulate you will want to do less.  

[svelez]

I definitely have pest snails, ramshorn, and they're driving me crazy. I can't quite figure out how to get their population down without it being detrimental to the cories. The cories love having a bunch of leaves in the tank (catappa, guava, etc.) to hide in, and I notice the fry definitely gravitate to those leaves. BUT the snails eat the leaves, and then multiply like crazy. I know cutting back on feeding the cories might help, but with the leaves and other botanicals in the tank, the snails still have a constant food source. I would definitely like to get rid of them, though, to reduce bioload.

[Guppysnail]

On 7/3/2024 at 7:59 AM, svelez said:

I definitely have pest snails, ramshorn, and they're driving me crazy. I can't quite figure out how to get their population down without it being detrimental to the cories. The cories love having a bunch of leaves in the tank (catappa, guava, etc.) to hide in, and I notice the fry definitely gravitate to those leaves. BUT the snails eat the leaves, and then multiply like crazy. I know cutting back on feeding the cories might help, but with the leaves and other botanicals in the tank, the snails still have a constant food source. I would definitely like to get rid of them, though, to reduce bioload.

I had bladder snails in with mine. From feeding tiny foods to babies they got crazy. I bought a dozen assasin snails and put out veggies cucumber green bean blanched and removed the veggie with snails several times a day. 
@TeeJayalso got rid of ramshorn mass world domination 🤣 (couldn’t resist friend 🤗)population the same way. 

[TeeJay]

Oh yes it's definitely a balancing act when you have them in your tank. My 29 was where ramshorn domination was taking over. At its worse it was like I had a substrate of snails not gravel. In a 4 hour time period in one night I used sliced zucchini and green beans and took out over 400 snails. So I amassed a platoon of assassin's snails to help dispatch them. It took a little while but over a couple of months between the veggies and the ninja snails eradicated the situation 

[svelez]

I have considered the assassin snails, but would need to rehome the rabbit and mystery snail in there. Which is definitely a possibility. But yeah, I have at least temporarily knocked down the population by throwing in a wafer and then scooping out a mass of snails with a net. Good to know this is what some of you have also resorted to! I might just have to do that a little more religiously. When I try to starve the snails they tend to go for my crypts, and they seem to have a fondness for red dwarf lily (aka they killed it). They need to go! 

Edited July 3 by svelez

[Guppysnail]

My assassin snails did not bother my mystery snails nerite snails piano snails or white wizard snails. They have trap doors the assassin cannot penetrate. Much easier prey like the ramshorns to even bother ornamental snails. My nerites decorate my assassin snails by bedazzling them with eggs 🤣

[johnnyxxl]

On 7/3/2024 at 7:59 AM, svelez said:

I definitely have pest snails, ramshorn, and they're driving me crazy. I can't quite figure out how to get their population down without it being detrimental to the cories. The cories love having a bunch of leaves in the tank (catappa, guava, etc.) to hide in, and I notice the fry definitely gravitate to those leaves. BUT the snails eat the leaves, and then multiply like crazy. I know cutting back on feeding the cories might help, but with the leaves and other botanicals in the tank, the snails still have a constant food source. I would definitely like to get rid of them, though, to reduce bioload.

My tiger barbs and kulhi loaches eat snails the smaller ones at least.  It's fun watching the barbs throwing the snails while going after the tasty bits.