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Pygmy Sunfish Setup

6K views 52 replies 9 participants last post by  Wy Renegade 
#1 ·
I have a 10 gallon tank that I am setting up for Elassoma Gilberti most likely. Will a Eheim 2213 be too much flow for these fish? I have heard they like low flow. I already have the 2213, but I could sell it and throw a hob on there also.

The plans include:

collected substrate from a local river
collected fanwort and any other plants I can find from a local pond
no heater.
Glass lid with Beamswork 18-21 inch LED 300 Lumen light.
Eheim 2213?
Rotifers, Detritus worms, frozen blood worms and brine shrimp, live bloodworms and brine shrimp and bugs that I can find around local ponds. I have some tiny worms I found that live under a moss growing by my house. I hope they will eat them because I have a huge source of them by my house.
I plan on planting it very heavy and hoping for fry
Paint the background black or not?
 
#31 ·
The eggs are very hard to see they are clear and have a jelly like outer layer. The parents tend to lay them, or lodge them between plants. In general, I'd say it isn't possible to find the eggs and remove them.

I did manage to find an Elassoma giberti egg and put it under the microscope to watch it develop. You can see the pictures here: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...52-microscopic-aquarium-creatures-videos.html
 
#33 ·
http://www.lfscultures.com/p11.html
The Scuds I got from these people have colonized the tank...a permanent food supply.
I did provide them/w a pile of small rocks in a corner for a hide place should the rest of the tank lack enough of it. Have had the Banded type of pigmies for about 5 years but
didn't have much luck/w them till I got this for food for them.
Did get a couple of them to accept frozen bloodworms but some would not eat but just a bare minimum amount of it or none at all.
Interesting question...in a heavily planted tank, without destroying the tank, how do you catch the fry ?

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/picture.php?albumid=14281&pictureid=56314
 
#38 ·
Well my whole idea was having a mesh net above 1-1/2" off the floor tank no insert and the mop in the top of the mesh net so if any eggs where played they will fall right throw to the bottom of the tank and can be harvest without any lost of eggs, once the eggs hatch I'll wait about 2-3 days till they are free swimming and by that time I will be feeding them with micro worms if they are small enough for the Frys and if not I can mix tank water with some spiraling powder and feed the Frye that way to.

Does this idea work? They seem to be like CPDs in a way in terms of breeding but CPDs will eat their own eggs and Frys.
 
#37 ·
Thanks. I think one of my tanks has a bit too much current for them. It will however have less when filled in a bit/w more plants. I tend to want my tanks not to have arias
which I can't see through. Not entirely possible but still the plants are few at present because of a couple of reason. I'm also tryin to do red in there so light must be kept
up at a higher level. And BTW I'm hoping that any info from my questions/statements
can be used by Couesfanatic for his tank.
 
#41 ·
Pygmies are not picky about water conditions...okefenokee pygmies can be found in areas of PH as low as 3 in the wild, but will happily breed at a PH of 8 in captivity. They will also do fine at room temperature as long as it does not go below the 60's on a regular basis (zonatum and evergladei can take it lower).
 
#42 ·
I agree with Grah on the water conditions.

Also, I'm not sure the fish can eat micro worms when they hatch. They are truly tiny when first born. Here is a picture of a baby pymgy next to some micro worms (that someone else took). As you know fish tend to only eat things that they can swallow in one bite, they don't tend to suck up prey like spaghetti so I don't think they will eat micro worms when they first hatch. They really need things like paramecia and other 1 celled organisms, perhaps some of the smaller multicellular ones as well.

 
#43 ·
I had three of the Banded Pigmy sunfish in a 10g but after I caught two of them fighting
a couple of times I moved one of them to another tank. If they were going to insist on fighting even when they had the whole tank for three of them I thought it best.
So how do you determine how many should go in a 10g ? I was thinking that it should only be a pair. But will this cause less breeding ? Don't misunderstand me...I don't want
a "school" of them. 2 would be fine for me.
 
#45 ·
I've never kept the banded pygmies, only giberties and evergladies which don't fight like you describe. I kept 6-8 adults in a 2.5g tank and when they had babies I had about 120 in the same tank. When the babies got to about 1/4" I removed them because they were eating the new babies.

They can be kept fairly densely packed from what I have seen.
 
#51 ·
Nope on the worms, but I did culture some parameciums and the babies seemed to eat them. When they are big enough they eat baby brine shrimp and seem to be able to grow and thrive on them alone without developing nutrient deficiencies.

Also watch out for hydra, they tend to proliferate in tanks where baby brine is fed often.
 
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