I have about ten and they are one of my favorite fish I ever owned. Seeing them perched on top of a leaf is just adorable, and they often school together throughout the tank (though not always). They readily eat sinking wafers, and they searched the gravel for any live brine shrimp that I put in the tank. I even found some eggs, and I am by no means an experienced fish keeper. I highly recommend this species.
These were my first cories and now I want them in every tank. Mine are a little skittish but I love watching them perch on plant leaves or disappear into my hairgrass carpet. I "only" have 8 in my planted 20. Maybe a few more might help them stay out in the open more...
One of my favorite corys. I had 18 of them in my 15g fluval flex along with a peacock gudgeon, panda garra, bamboo shrimp and several nerite snails...oh and a few white clouds. There were times that you couldn't see a single pygmy cory, but theyre adorable when schooling around together
Just stumbled across your videos and they're so well made, I've currently got 10 species of Cory's that I'm attempting to breed with tanks scattered throughout the house!
ill be honest no fish probably surprised me as much as these lil guys. i got them primarily for their size (i had a 10 gal) -- but of all the fish ive had so far, these are the ones i wish i could keep in every tank! its almost impossible to describe how cute they are -- not just physically , but their behavior is mind bogglingly charming
Great video, once again. You explain everything so thoroughly, it's such a big help when trying to decide whether or not to get a certain fish or critter for my tanks. Thank you. 😃🌸
word for word explained, said like a real pro! proper little pigs... ha ha gotta love it, that's funny! that also is very much how my dwarf Indian mudskippers are.. proper pigs!! love your channel.. always well done!! bye bye..
Thanks so much for the info! Just what I was looking to learn about them. I'm trying to figure out what I can keep in my small 5 gallon tank. It's well planted, and has some small driftwood and rocks. I've added soil covered with Black Diamond blasting sand to cap the soil with. The only live animals in it right now are a few Ramshorn snails, happily motoring around. I set the tank up around 4 weeks ago.
Loved this pleasant and informative video! Gave me the exact info I was looking for regarding how much they dwell at the bottom compared to other Corys. I constantly see video of them swimming mid-water, but I’m glad to hear that they’ll happily scrounge around the bottom. Looking to add some to a 10 gallon soon!
I had such a difficult time keeping these adorable little guys alive. I had a cycled, densely planted 75 liter tank and I added 12 cories to it as the first fish. Almost every month, especially at the beginning I had one or two succumb to something that was causing itching and ulcers. I tried all available medication, even brought gravel, water and one of the cories for testing, but we couldn't figure out what was wrong. I even tore down and sterilised the whole setup at one point and dipped all fish in formalin in hopes to get rid of the disease. But you won't believe what saved the few remaining cories at the end - dither fish. I had a few lambchops sitting in quarantine for months and waiting for cories to get better. When I (wrongfully) thought for the moment that the disease was gone, I added lambchops. After this addition my fish still occasionally itched in more stressful moments, but I stopped loosing fish. The remaining cories also all of a sudden became very brave and instead of hiding in plants started chilling in front of the tank out in the open. So my big pygmy cory advice - keep them with brave dither fish! Also make sure there isn't a big difference between your tanks pH and stores/breeders tank's pH. I think that was part of my trouble and this is also what happened with Irene from Girl Talks Fish. She lost a whole pygmy cory colony, because the seller was keeping them in a heavily buffered thank with a very different pH from her's.
Cute proper nano fish! I have 8 of them in my heavily planted 60P.. somewhere. I only see more than two at a time when I do water changes, they tend to group together when they are stressed.
Dear Lauren: I’d love to keep a school of these, adorable corydoras. But, I fear they wouldn’t do well. I thought otocinclus would make a fine, mini-school in a 10-gallon tank. Yet, they seemed unhappy, as they would dart about uncontrollably when they saw me. Even in a 29-gallon tank they remained hidden. I only have two left and I’ve put them in my, 120-gallon tank, where they stay concealed among the driftwood. These days I try to stick with very hardy species like white clouds mountain minnows rather than take a chance on delicate species like the pygmy corydoras. Thank you for sharing this, interesting and informative video on an awesome, little fish. All my best, Sincerely, E. J. Brinegar
Dear Naturally Scaped: My water is hard and alkaline. Would Corydoras pygmaeus do well in it? Please advise. Thank you for your assistance. Sincerely, Brinegar
@@ejbrinegar If you drop in a few botanicals they should be ok. Catappa leaves will soften the water. They adapt quite well. You can also mix in RO or rain water with your tap water. 25-50% would work very well. Mine tap water is 7.5ph and a tds of 420 and mine don't mind. They seem to prefer a rain water mix though.
Dear Naturally Scaped: Well, I’ve heard that adjusting pH and hardness tend to do more harm than just letting fish adapt to stable parameters (even if they aren’t ideal). Fluctuations in these criteria are very stressful to fish (and particularly to shrimp). However, I’ve seen pecktec keep pygmy corydoras and he lives in the next state. His water is likely very similar to mine: ua-cam.com/users/pecktec I may give this species a try, at some point. Thank you for your assistance. Sincerely, Brinegar
@@ejbrinegar Yes, constabtly shifting parameters isn't good but if you mix half RO and tap every time the params will be constant. If that makes sense. Pygmaeus are hardy, once settled. You will be fine! They are great, interesting fish. You will love them. They are one of my favourites!
They're great but very fragile. My LFS has some at the moment but they're not doing to well after being delivered. Could be the heat. Something to keep in mind if you keep them. You'll have to add ice to the water to keep temps down.
Great video thanks. I have a question you might be able to answer. How would you go about removing pygmy Cory's from a 10 gallon heavy planted tank? Is there a D I Y trap I might be able to use? TIA
HeyHey! I was wondering something: My cory's are getting older these days and It seems their skin becomes "spotty" over the long term. I remember when they were completely black on top but now have some spots and marks. It appears yours have the exact same coloring like mine, and I was wondering if you ever had problems with this skin-coloring thing going on ? Greets Bjorn
Hi Lauren! Do you have any advice to help pygmies be less shy? I have a group of 10 in a 20g high. It’s densely planted and has sand substrate. My sparkling gourami love the layout and are not shy at all. Even in open areas, they come to the surface to eat and greet me at the glass. I have space for another group of 8-10 1” fish. Would you add some dwarf pencil fish (look very similar to pygmies but swim in mid-top level), add some more Cory’s of a different species that aren’t shy (I have habrosus Cory’s that are the same as any other regular Cory’s but are only 1”), or simply add 10 more pygmies? Or perhaps you have a totally different suggestion? I’d love to see them more. I only ever see 2-4 at sparse times of the day. Thanks!
Hey Jayme, to be honest it sounds like you have a great set up for pygmies. If you are seeing the odd one or two and they don’t dart for cover as soon as they spot you then that’s perfectly normal behaviour for them. I often have to look carefully for mine and they will be resting somewhere out of sight or just odd individuals will be out and about. I just appreciate them when I do get a good look at them 😀. Pencil fish are lovely and well worth getting, but while they will draw the pygmies out to investigate the new fish it won’t last and they will soon go back to their normal half visible behaviour. So I suppose if there is any advice hidden in my ramble it’s to get whatever fishies take your fancy and don’t worry about the pygmies - they are just being pygmies 😊
I decided to order a few more Pygmy’s. During quarantine I have the new ones with a big group of adorable rosy loaches. I purchased the rosy loaches for a different tank but have decided to keep them with my Pygmy’s. The loaches are very similar in size and colouration. They are extremely outgoing and playful. The Pygmy’s that are with them are displaying the same behaviour! Even coming up to the glass to be fed! It’s remarkably different than what I have seen in the display tank. I’m really excited to see what happens when they all become one community!
Sorry but no. Apart for pea puffers I haven’t come across any fish that reliably eat snails, and pea puffer are tiny terrors that quickly become fin-nippers. Some people swear by loaches like yo-yos but I’ve never found them to be reliable. For me the best way of Getting rid of pest snail mostly takes time and patience. Dramatically cut back on how much you feed the fish to just what they eat so nothing reaches the tank substrate. The fish will be fine and with no extra food the snails will starve. But it will take 2-3 months as snails are very resistant to starvation. In the mean time every day when you turn the lights on pick out all the snails you can see and get too easily so they are less annoying to look at. This does work, just depends on how patient your feeling 😅
@@tinymenagerie thank you so much for your reply☺ appreciate your input and time. Can you recommend any good snail traps to help me through this tedious process?
Just an FYI, they hate Kubotai Rasboras. Mine were super stressed by them, horrible bullies! Anyway they are doing amazingly now, get some emerald dwarf danios as tank mates 👍
Hi Lauren, I currently have a community tank with 6 male guppies, 1 female Betta and 6 cherry shrimp with shrimplets. Will these pygmy corys fit in well? My tank is 70Ltr and has been running for nearly 6 weeks. Ps love your videos x
Hi Marie, yes they would fit in just fine as they spend the vast majority of their time on the substrate so they wont be competing with your guppies or betta, and they don't eat shrimplets so should get along great with the cherries too. And as they stay nice and small they wont outgrow the tank like regular cories would. Best of luck!
that is too little, you could put atleast 20 more in there and they'd be very happy, i'm planning on keeping 10 in a 13 gallon, so you could probably keep much more than that in a 60 gallon!
I have about ten and they are one of my favorite fish I ever owned. Seeing them perched on top of a leaf is just adorable, and they often school together throughout the tank (though not always). They readily eat sinking wafers, and they searched the gravel for any live brine shrimp that I put in the tank. I even found some eggs, and I am by no means an experienced fish keeper. I highly recommend this species.
Nice! How big is your tank?
@@LaughterChief75G
You should keep doing these species focused videos. Your delivery of the information is a pleasure to listen to. Thanks again 👍
These were my first cories and now I want them in every tank. Mine are a little skittish but I love watching them perch on plant leaves or disappear into my hairgrass carpet. I "only" have 8 in my planted 20. Maybe a few more might help them stay out in the open more...
They're such a cute, friendly little fish and with any similarly sized critter they quickly get super comfortable around each other.
One of my favorite corys. I had 18 of them in my 15g fluval flex along with a peacock gudgeon, panda garra, bamboo shrimp and several nerite snails...oh and a few white clouds. There were times that you couldn't see a single pygmy cory, but theyre adorable when schooling around together
Just stumbled across your videos and they're so well made, I've currently got 10 species of Cory's that I'm attempting to breed with tanks scattered throughout the house!
Henry....what's your favorite species?
ill be honest no fish probably surprised me as much as these lil guys. i got them primarily for their size (i had a 10 gal) -- but of all the fish ive had so far, these are the ones i wish i could keep in every tank! its almost impossible to describe how cute they are -- not just physically , but their behavior is mind bogglingly charming
Ha I know exactly what you mean, I’m hoping mine will breed so I can spread them throughout my tanks. The perfect combo of adorable and very useful.
How many did you put in the 10g? And what else did you stock in there
Great video, once again. You explain everything so thoroughly, it's such a big help when trying to decide whether or not to get a certain fish or critter for my tanks. Thank you. 😃🌸
word for word explained, said like a real pro! proper little pigs... ha ha gotta love it, that's funny! that also is very much how my dwarf Indian mudskippers are.. proper pigs!! love your channel.. always well done!! bye bye..
Thanks so much for the info! Just what I was looking to learn about them. I'm trying to figure out what I can keep in my small 5 gallon tank. It's well planted, and has some small driftwood and rocks. I've added soil covered with Black Diamond blasting sand to cap the soil with. The only live animals in it right now are a few Ramshorn snails, happily motoring around. I set the tank up around 4 weeks ago.
Loved this pleasant and informative video! Gave me the exact info I was looking for regarding how much they dwell at the bottom compared to other Corys. I constantly see video of them swimming mid-water, but I’m glad to hear that they’ll happily scrounge around the bottom. Looking to add some to a 10 gallon soon!
Another enjoyable and informative video. Thank you, Lauren. Oh, and those Cherry Barbs are absolutely stunning!!
Very well explained and great videos ,thanks.
Another great video Lauren. Thank you for sharing this with us. As always your photography is fantastic. I love these cute little guys
I had such a difficult time keeping these adorable little guys alive. I had a cycled, densely planted 75 liter tank and I added 12 cories to it as the first fish. Almost every month, especially at the beginning I had one or two succumb to something that was causing itching and ulcers. I tried all available medication, even brought gravel, water and one of the cories for testing, but we couldn't figure out what was wrong. I even tore down and sterilised the whole setup at one point and dipped all fish in formalin in hopes to get rid of the disease. But you won't believe what saved the few remaining cories at the end - dither fish. I had a few lambchops sitting in quarantine for months and waiting for cories to get better. When I (wrongfully) thought for the moment that the disease was gone, I added lambchops. After this addition my fish still occasionally itched in more stressful moments, but I stopped loosing fish. The remaining cories also all of a sudden became very brave and instead of hiding in plants started chilling in front of the tank out in the open. So my big pygmy cory advice - keep them with brave dither fish!
Also make sure there isn't a big difference between your tanks pH and stores/breeders tank's pH. I think that was part of my trouble and this is also what happened with Irene from Girl Talks Fish. She lost a whole pygmy cory colony, because the seller was keeping them in a heavily buffered thank with a very different pH from her's.
Adorable little critters! How big is a 60x30 cm tank in u.s. gallons?
Cute proper nano fish! I have 8 of them in my heavily planted 60P.. somewhere. I only see more than two at a time when I do water changes, they tend to group together when they are stressed.
These videos are excellent! It would be great to have chapter markings for water conditions, breeding etc
Thanks Forrest! Good idea, I will have a look into chapters 😃
@@tinymenagerie it's been a year, where are the chapters
Большое спасибо за великолепную съемку. Сделано очень профессионально. Желаю здоровья и успехов.
These guys are so cute. I went with some ember tetras since they are hardier, and I can have a bigger school in my 11 gallon pond. ❤️
I love your videos! They are so good!🙂👍🏻💯⭐️
Great I formation, new subscriber! 💐👏👏👏🥰
I have three Pygmies and Cherry Shrimp in a six gallon long with no filtration. They're doing great. They don't need moving water to live.
I definitely plan on getting these Pygmy Corydoras, but I really want to know what those red fish are?????
Cherry barbs.
Great Video!
Awesome video and well made. Subscribed
Super cute fish!
Thank you for uploading.
Dear Lauren:
I’d love to keep a school of these, adorable corydoras. But, I fear they wouldn’t do well. I thought otocinclus would make a fine, mini-school in a 10-gallon tank. Yet, they seemed unhappy, as they would dart about uncontrollably when they saw me. Even in a 29-gallon tank they remained hidden. I only have two left and I’ve put them in my, 120-gallon tank, where they stay concealed among the driftwood. These days I try to stick with very hardy species like white clouds mountain minnows rather than take a chance on delicate species like the pygmy corydoras.
Thank you for sharing this, interesting and informative video on an awesome, little fish.
All my best,
Sincerely,
E. J. Brinegar
Ottos are difficult due to their diet. Pygmaeus are a breeze?!
Dear Naturally Scaped:
My water is hard and alkaline. Would Corydoras pygmaeus do well in it? Please advise.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Brinegar
@@ejbrinegar If you drop in a few botanicals they should be ok. Catappa leaves will soften the water. They adapt quite well. You can also mix in RO or rain water with your tap water. 25-50% would work very well. Mine tap water is 7.5ph and a tds of 420 and mine don't mind. They seem to prefer a rain water mix though.
Dear Naturally Scaped:
Well, I’ve heard that adjusting pH and hardness tend to do more harm than just letting fish adapt to stable parameters (even if they aren’t ideal). Fluctuations in these criteria are very stressful to fish (and particularly to shrimp). However, I’ve seen pecktec keep pygmy corydoras and he lives in the next state. His water is likely very similar to mine:
ua-cam.com/users/pecktec
I may give this species a try, at some point.
Thank you for your assistance.
Sincerely,
Brinegar
@@ejbrinegar Yes, constabtly shifting parameters isn't good but if you mix half RO and tap every time the params will be constant. If that makes sense. Pygmaeus are hardy, once settled. You will be fine! They are great, interesting fish. You will love them. They are one of my favourites!
They're great but very fragile. My LFS has some at the moment but they're not doing to well after being delivered. Could be the heat. Something to keep in mind if you keep them. You'll have to add ice to the water to keep temps down.
i actually read that they're very easy to keep, so you're probably getting scammed.
Great video thanks. I have a question you might be able to answer. How would you go about removing pygmy Cory's from a 10 gallon heavy planted tank? Is there a D I Y trap I might be able to use? TIA
Hello
Can we keep Pygmy with rams?
HeyHey!
I was wondering something:
My cory's are getting older these days and It seems their skin becomes "spotty" over the long term.
I remember when they were completely black on top but now have some spots and marks.
It appears yours have the exact same coloring like mine, and I was wondering if you ever had problems with this skin-coloring thing going on ?
Greets
Bjorn
Hi Lauren! Do you have any advice to help pygmies be less shy? I have a group of 10 in a 20g high. It’s densely planted and has sand substrate. My sparkling gourami love the layout and are not shy at all. Even in open areas, they come to the surface to eat and greet me at the glass.
I have space for another group of 8-10 1” fish. Would you add some dwarf pencil fish (look very similar to pygmies but swim in mid-top level), add some more Cory’s of a different species that aren’t shy (I have habrosus Cory’s that are the same as any other regular Cory’s but are only 1”), or simply add 10 more pygmies? Or perhaps you have a totally different suggestion? I’d love to see them more. I only ever see 2-4 at sparse times of the day. Thanks!
Hey Jayme, to be honest it sounds like you have a great set up for pygmies. If you are seeing the odd one or two and they don’t dart for cover as soon as they spot you then that’s perfectly normal behaviour for them. I often have to look carefully for mine and they will be resting somewhere out of sight or just odd individuals will be out and about. I just appreciate them when I do get a good look at them 😀. Pencil fish are lovely and well worth getting, but while they will draw the pygmies out to investigate the new fish it won’t last and they will soon go back to their normal half visible behaviour. So I suppose if there is any advice hidden in my ramble it’s to get whatever fishies take your fancy and don’t worry about the pygmies - they are just being pygmies 😊
I decided to order a few more Pygmy’s. During quarantine I have the new ones with a big group of adorable rosy loaches. I purchased the rosy loaches for a different tank but have decided to keep them with my Pygmy’s. The loaches are very similar in size and colouration. They are extremely outgoing and playful. The Pygmy’s that are with them are displaying the same behaviour! Even coming up to the glass to be fed! It’s remarkably different than what I have seen in the display tank. I’m really excited to see what happens when they all become one community!
I have a 20 gallon fully planted with 5 female bettas. I have pest snails as well, would these little guys eat the tiny pest snails?
Sorry but no. Apart for pea puffers I haven’t come across any fish that reliably eat snails, and pea puffer are tiny terrors that quickly become fin-nippers. Some people swear by loaches like yo-yos but I’ve never found them to be reliable. For me the best way of Getting rid of pest snail mostly takes time and patience. Dramatically cut back on how much you feed the fish to just what they eat so nothing reaches the tank substrate. The fish will be fine and with no extra food the snails will starve. But it will take 2-3 months as snails are very resistant to starvation. In the mean time every day when you turn the lights on pick out all the snails you can see and get too easily so they are less annoying to look at. This does work, just depends on how patient your feeling 😅
@@tinymenagerie thank you so much for your reply☺ appreciate your input and time. Can you recommend any good snail traps to help me through this tedious process?
Just an FYI, they hate Kubotai Rasboras. Mine were super stressed by them, horrible bullies! Anyway they are doing amazingly now, get some emerald dwarf danios as tank mates 👍
Hi Lauren, I currently have a community tank with 6 male guppies, 1 female Betta and 6 cherry shrimp with shrimplets. Will these pygmy corys fit in well? My tank is 70Ltr and has been running for nearly 6 weeks. Ps love your videos x
Hi Marie, yes they would fit in just fine as they spend the vast majority of their time on the substrate so they wont be competing with your guppies or betta, and they don't eat shrimplets so should get along great with the cherries too. And as they stay nice and small they wont outgrow the tank like regular cories would. Best of luck!
They are the cutest (so are habrosus). I love having these little guys. But I get scared they'll get sucked up the vaccium while cleaning!
Do pygmy produce a lot of waste?
The albino version are great too
I have 10 in a 60 gallon, is that too little?
that is too little, you could put atleast 20 more in there and they'd be very happy, i'm planning on keeping 10 in a 13 gallon, so you could probably keep much more than that in a 60 gallon!
You've made up my mind. Too damn cute not to go in my 25g planted
What kind of substrate is that?
I wish you could hug fish.
I love my pygmies !!!!
They eat other fish eggs!!?
I have had about 30 and they always die
these costs 0.3 cents of dolar where I live
🙏🌎✝️🌹🗝️
Also there are over 180 species currently discovered now so abit outdated
Those cherry barbs are beautiful.