pygmy cory and otto cats

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elmj

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Jun 4, 2003
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recently i got three baby pygmy corys. the problem with them is that they are so small and they didn't seem to care for the food(the sinking tablet kind) which i put in the tank for them to eat. so these sinking tablets either get eaten by the ghost shrimp or the albino corys. so i tried putting some blood worms in a pipette and brought it right up to their mouths. sometimes they take a strand, other times they don't. this got me worries because of the small amount they are eating. has anyone have a better solution??

also i've bought three otto cats to begin with. but two died after their stomaches became bloated. does anyone know why?? is there a way to preven my last otto from dying? if i can preven it from dying then i'll buy somemore companions for it because i heard they like to live in groups.

thanks for all your help!
 
Well, I saw no one reply so I will try. My pygmie corries are middle swimmers, not bottom, so sinking pellets and stuff don't really work well for them. They are more likeley to go to the surface to feed then the bottom. get some flake food and grind it between your forefingers before feeding so it's realy small. Also they seemed to like cleaning plants for food. As for otto's, They do have a high death rate but once aclimated seem to do ok. As for the swollen belly, a lot of people seem to think its a type of stomach parisite and I've had otto's live a long time with swollen bellies, It just seems one of those things with otto's, Take time aclimenting otto's and buy more then you need. Unfortunatly, there is always going to be some deaths with them.
 
I have some pygmy cories in my community tank with lots of other cories. I've been feeding tubifex worms lately, by putting them in a little dish (a terracotta plant dish) filled with fine grained sand. My pygmies seem to fight it out just fine with all of my other cories. They also spend a fair amount of time scouring plant leaves for little tidbits.
 
punch and lesley: thank you so much for your reply! i really appreciate it!

punch: thanks for replying though no one saw! aquaria central must be pleased to have members who are so helpful! :) anyway, i have some neon tetras in there with them so i put in neon tetra flakes and micropellets once a day too. but i still haven't seen them eat! they could have eaten without my knowledege but i'll sleep better at night knowing they have at least eaten something! so is it wise to take them out into another smaller tank once every 3-5 days and use the pippete to feed them some worms?

i went on to search for more otto cats and got 2 more and made sure they were the most active in the tank there constantly moving around! and they not only have survive but also have made my other otto cat happy and my 'old' otto cat budge on the tummy seems to have gone! :D guess they really do well in groups!

lesley: my pygmy cories are so small and uninterested in food! they are like you say more interested in scouring the leaves of my plants and occationally disturbing my ottos! :D since they like to scour the leaves, is it then a better idea to put some food on the leaves of the plant in hope that they chance upon it? or is it better for them to learn to fight it out with the bigger cories when they get hungry?

thanks once again!
 
The pygmies are probably actually getting food when they are "sniffing" at the leaves. They will find little microorganisms and other tasty tidbits.

For a while, it seemed that my cories (all of them) were uninterested in food too, so I decided to get them some live worms. I was feeding them worms for about two weeks, and it definitely seemed to kick-start their appetites. Now, when I drop in any kind of food pellets or flake foods, there's practically a feeding frenzy of cories.

It might also help if you get a larger group of pygmies. When I had just a few cories in my tank, they seemed to be much less active. Now I have a whole bunch (probably too many, actually) and they all are much more active than before.
 
The ones I have now (3 C. pygmaeus and 2 C. habrosus) will eat pretty much anything - I feed them broken-up sinking algae wafers or ColorBits, which float for a few seconds and sink. HOWEVER, they are really shy, especially in small numbers, and will not be able to compete with greedier fish like tetras and livebearers. My cories' only other tankmates in this 2.5-gallon tank are a couple of Amano shrimp and two sparkling gouramis. Some years back, when I kept a trio of pygmy cories in a 10-gallon with platies and guppies, they slowly starved to death. The fish would go after the stuff that sank (after they'd finished their flakes) and the cories would just watch sadly from afar. When I noticed that the cories were starting to waste away, I actually netted out the other fish and kept them in a container for a while to let the cories have a chance to eat. But by this time, it was too late and the cories didn't even recognize the food as food, so they eventually died.

It might help to get more, if you have the tank space. They're really best in a group no smaller than about 8, but I've never had tanks that were big enough to house that many so three was always my max. That's fine, if they don't have to compete for food. BTW, I remember that my otos used to "hang out" with my pygmy cories. It's sort of funny how that worked out, but I guess they generally get along pretty well. As long as your oto has the cories for company, I think it'll be okay for the time being.
 
Otto's need a constant supply of food in order to keep the micro-organisms that process algae in their stomachs alive. If those micro-organisms die, they can eat till their stomachs bloat but it does them no good as they cannot process the algae.

You will need to replace the missing Otto's as they will tend to "freeze" if all alone and may not even eat. They only seem to be comfortable in groups of three or more. Look for a healthy "streamlined fat" look to them. If you can find Oto's that have been in the LFS tank for more than two weeks, it is a safe bet that they will survive when you get them home. For more info on Oto's etc., try looking them up on The Skeptical Aquarist.
 
lesley, gnome, Matak: thanks for all your replies!

i did replace the missing otto cats! i have three in my tank now. also the pygmy corys. i have 4 pygmy corys now. however, one is grown but the 3 other are smaller ones. thus the larger one schools with the other breed of corys and the other 3 small ones school by themselves.

they are finally eating :) i basically left the food wedge btw the stem and the leaves of the plant and the pygmy corys will find it after a while! and the ottos are warming up to the algea tablets!

thanks so much for all your help!
 
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