Corydoras Pygmaeus, Assassin Snail, Cryptocoryne Spiralis, WonderGro Pro Root+

[faithful]

Hi all!

I've been wanting to stock my tank with Corydoras Pygmaeus for ages -- in fact, I've kept my tank empty except for a few Otocinclus (first attempt at keeping them) for about half a year now. I once saw some at SeaView, but my tank wasn't ready back then. Subsequent visits came to no avail. As such, I would like to ask is there any LFS/fish farms that consistently stock Corydoras Pygmaeus? Other dwarf cories (Corydoras Hastatus/Habrosus) are welcome too!

The above-mentioned tank has unfortunately gotten overrun by Pond Snails which I heard relish eggs, if any. I hope to breed one of the dwarf cories, and would like to maximise the survival of any eggs/fry. Since assassin snails are low in bioload and require a mate to reproduce, I am interested in getting one -- or maybe a few which I will then be sure to monitor to prevent breeding -- to at least reduce the number of Pond Snails.

In addition, the Vallisneria species I bought isn't growing as well as expected and is barely covering the back of my tank. It could be due to the lack of nutrients since I have virtually no bioload (just one Otocinclus, few sakura shrimps and lots of snails). However, I would just like to have a backup plant (Cryptocoryne Spiralis) if it still fails to achieve the intended look even with more nutrients available to it.

Lastly, I've tried a few root tabs but none seemed to have given my plants a growth spurt, let alone sustained growth. I am only doing this due to the lack of nutrients in my tank. I've heard WonderGro Pro Root+ is good, and would like to try it out. I do know that MizuWorld sells it but the $7 (delivery fee) + $3 (handling fee) deters me quite a bit. Even if I do self-collect, the distance is another consideration.

Sorry for the long post, but I hope this provides a sufficient backdrop for my request for the items/livestock mentioned above.

Thank you!

[zacks]

cory pygmy is a nice fish i love them....especially they can schooling if you keep 10-12 fish........ too bad now i must move them into another tank....because sometime they make my shrimp stress......

anyway wonder grow root + is awesome........

and it's original product from indo......

[saltynay]

Assassin snails are a measure that keeps the snail population at a steady level and stops it increasing rapidly they only eat 1-2 snails a day or 1 large snail every 3 days. They breed readily provided a flat surface but the young take 4-6 months to mature and be visibly crawling around so they are slow breeders. Normally to many snails is down to too much or too much left over food.

[faithful]

cory pygmy is a nice fish i love them....especially they can schooling if you keep 10-12 fish........ too bad now i must move them into another tank....because sometime they make my shrimp stress......

That is nice to hear. I have no prior experience with the dwarf cories, but have done plenty of research on them and through the research, I have findings similar to what you have commented on their behaviour. However, quite a number said that Corydoras Pygmaeus are rather reclusive. Hope that they don't end up behaving too shy for my liking...

Oh, where did you get them from?

anyway wonder grow root + is awesome........

and it's original product from indo......

Thanks for the reassurance! I really want to get my hands on it especially when so many people have such good reviews about it. How did you get it? I would really appreciate it if you could share with me the place you bought it from.

Assassin snails are a measure that keeps the snail population at a steady level and stops it increasing rapidly they only eat 1-2 snails a day or 1 large snail every 3 days. They breed readily provided a flat surface but the young take 4-6 months to mature and be visibly crawling around so they are slow breeders. Normally to many snails is down to too much or too much left over food.

I do know that Assassin Snails would not be able to eliminate all the Pond Snails in my tank, but a dent in the population is better than nothing! I also have loads of Malaysian Trumpet Snails that pretty much stay on the substrate (probably due to the shallow depth of the substrate) and that's not a pretty sight to see.

I didn't know that Assassin Snails' young would take that long -- relative to the other snails -- to mature! Thanks for sharing that information!

I do not deny that I have been feeding cucumber and zucchini slices in excess as I was really afraid of starving the Otocinclus to death. And it is just plain unlucky that Pond Snails like the same thing too! I would definitely feed less if not for the Otocinclus in there. As such, I decided on employing some Assassin Snails to reduce the Pond Snail population.

By the way, do you have any idea which LFS sells Assassin Snails?

Thank you in advance!

[griffinkid]

I think i saw some pygmy cories at Midori.

[saltynay]

Assassins will very rarely attack MTS pick out an mts and look at its foot and you will see it has an armoured plate on the bottom to close its shell when it is attacked.

[faithful]

griffinkid, thanks for the info!

saltynay, thank you for the insight!

[equidorz]

Hi,

In case you still have not got hold of Pygmy corydoras, i saw quite a decent of pieces at Gc and C328 as well. You might want to try your luck there. I got 4 my self.

Cheers!

[teowxu]

hi,

Y618 do stock dwarf cories too. And assasin snails as well. You can check it out too.

[RonWill]

There are at least 3 common species of dwarf/pygmy cories, namely; Corydoras hastatus, habrosus and pygmaeus, and I believe the thread starter was looking specifically for C. pygmaeus. Which one is Y618 stocking?

For now, I think many have given up hopes of finding C. hastatus and I know of 2 breeding groups locally but doubt if these will ever be released to LFSs.

[redsuns]

cory pygmy is a nice fish i love them....especially they can schooling if you keep 10-12 fish........ too bad now i must move them into another tank....because sometime they make my shrimp stress......

anyway wonder grow root + is awesome........

and it's original product from indo......

Have you seen cory pygmy attack the shrimps or shrimplets? They look cute but I am worried they will cause harm to my shrimps! haha

[faithful]

In case you still have not got hold of Pygmy corydoras, i saw quite a decent of pieces at Gc and C328 as well. You might want to try your luck there. I got 4 my self.

Thank you for the heads-up! I'll try my luck next weekend.

There are at least 3 common species of dwarf/pygmy cories, namely; Corydoras hastatus, habrosus and pygmaeus, and I believe the thread starter was looking specifically for C. pygmaeus. Which one is Y618 stocking?

Thank you for taking the initiative to clarify on my behalf! I started out the thread with the scientific name, hoping to avoid any confusion. If the dwarf species Y618 stocks is C. pygmaeus, that's another place to add to my list.

Have you seen cory pygmy attack the shrimps or shrimplets? They look cute but I am worried they will cause harm to my shrimps! haha

I'm not particularly sure about C. pgymaeus and shrimplets, but I'd say some predation is inevitable though minimal. Given that shrimps react rather spontaneously, I doubt that they'd allow a curious mouth to cruise too near them.

I've also kept bigger Corydoras like C. panda and C. trillineatus, and have had a growing shrimp population. With the smaller C. pygmaeus, I guess predation is less of an issue.

Still, hopefully, those with experience keeping C. pygmaeus with shrimp can chime in on this.

- faithful

[RonWill]

Still, hopefully, those with experience keeping C. pygmaeus with shrimp can chime in on this

IMHE, if there's adequate refuge amongst plants or crevices of rock scape, shrimplets will hide until they're larger before foraging in the open and since they'll scoot at the slightest hint of threat, it is doubtful the pygmaeus will get to it. Exception is that the shrimplet isn't doing well and/or dying for some reason, then the cory is doing the bio-system a favor by 'removing' it.

IMHO as well, the more we use scientific names instead of general trade names, the less confusion there will be, not that we aspire to be rocket scientists anyway. As a matter of interest, I understand from the GC shopkeeper that the pygmaeus in stock are wild-caughts and from Peru.

And of course, like everybody else I know, the C. hastatus is very high on my wish-list and well worth the wait if these ever comes around.