From Aqua Guide, the free encyclopedia
Pygmy Corydoras
Gastrodermus pygmaeus
- Temperature
- 22–26 °C
- pH
- 6.4 – 7.4
- Min. tank size
- 45 L
- Lifespan
- 3 years
- Diet
- omnivore
- Care level
- moderate
| Scientific classification | |
|---|---|
| Scientific Name: | Gastrodermus pygmaeus |
| Family: | Callichthyidae |
| Origin: | South America (Madeira river basin, Brazil) |
| Care Characteristics | |
| Care Level: | moderate |
| Diet: | omnivore |
| Max Size: | 3.00 cm |
| Water Type: | freshwater |
| Temp Group: | tropical |
| Temperament: | peaceful |
| Min Group: | 8+ together |
| Varieties: | No cultivated strains — this is a wild-type fish and there is no albino, long-finned or colour-selected form in circulation. Almost all trade fish are wild-caught or farmed from wild stock, and they are cheap and widely available. The genuine confusion is with the other dwarf corydoras, which are traded interchangeably and are separate species with slightly different habits. Corydoras hastatus, the dwarf or tail-spot cory, is the one most often mixed up with it: it carries a diamond-shaped spot at the base of the tail with no other body markings, and swims in midwater even more than the pygmy does. Corydoras habrosus, the salt and pepper cory, is patterned with irregular dark blotches along the flank and is a bottom-dweller rather than a midwater fish. All three are sold as "pygmy corydoras" in some shops, and a mixed tank is common. They coexist happily, but each shoals with its own kind, so a group of twenty split three ways is three small groups rather than one shoal. Check the stripe: full-length line means pygmaeus. |
| Lifespan: | 3 years |
Quick Tips
- Bioload:Very low
- Min Tank:45 L
- Substrate:Soft sand (protects barbels)
- Plant Safe:Plant-safe
- Filtration:Low to moderate (gentle flow)
Pygmy Corydoras (Gastrodermus pygmaeus) is a species of fish in the family Callichthyidae. It is native to South America (Madeira river basin, Brazil). The pygmy cory is a corydoras that does not stay on the bottom, which is the whole reason to keep it. Unlike almost every other member of the genus it has a charming habit of swimming in midwater — a shoal of thirty hovering in open water, drifting down to sift the sand and rising again, is a display no other cory gives you. It comes from the Madeira basin in Brazil and reaches 30 mm standard length. The body is silver-grey with a single dark stripe running the entire length of the lateral line, and that stripe is the identification feature. It is peaceful to the point of timidity, easily intimidated by larger fish, and one of the few corydoras genuinely suited to a nano tank. The requirements are ordinary cory requirements shrunk to size: sand, clean water, small food and a proper group. The group is the part most people get wrong.
Compatibility
- Temperament
- peaceful
- Keep in
- Groups of 8+
- Swims
- bottom
- Fin nipper
- No
- Delicate fins
- No
Species similar to Pygmy Corydoras
Matched on family, then category, then water type