Compatibility with pygmy catfish

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dragon14

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Joined
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Eastern USA
We currently have 4 pygmy catfish (c. pygmaeus). We had 7, long story short which some of you know, our female betta was snacking on them :( She is going to have to live by herself.

We are planning on getting some more pygmy catfish so they will be happier and such. We were debating two options for finishing stocking our 10g cycled tank...


  • Get about 6 more pygmy catfish and our tank is complete.


  • Or, get about 3-4 more pygmy catfish, and get either 1-3 other fish that grow no more than an inch in size, OR we were hoping to get some other small schooling fish (some kind of tetra fish maybe).

Thoughts? Ideas? We don't want anyone snacking on anyone, and we want to make sure that any fish mixing with the pygmy catfish are compatible with the pygmy catfish.
 
You could get more pygmies.. or you might get some tiny rasboras, perhaps. Strawberry rasbora is one I like. Very small, less than an inch. I am not sure they are classed as schooling fish, but they do hang together most of the time, and often move together too. Don't often see one off by itself, certainly not for long. Unlike CPDs, males don't spar with each other.. very peaceful.
 
Thank you for the idea Fishfur! We want to see fish swimming around and being fish... these guys we like them a lot but they are on the sand more than swimming around sometimes it seems, but now that she is not in with them, hopefully they'll mellow out and swim around more! :)

According to seriouslyfish.com, those guys (strawberry rasboras) like to shoal and should be in groups of 8-10. If we went with them, maybe we could get two more catfish, and 6 of those guys. I don't want to overstock -- but our tank has a strong bio filter and they are tiny fish, so it should work I think.
 
I was thinking maybe a platy or two! I think two, so they can keep each other company. Are they nippy fish at all? Or do they generally leave well enough alone?

Guppies are pretty! They actually have guppies in with the pygmy catfish at our lfs where we got the catfish!

How do you tell if a guppy is male?
 
I think we may lean towards guppies. They're not aggressive at all? And 8 catfish and 3 guppies wouldn't be too much for a 10g? Our catfish hate water changes so we stretch it out a bit usually... 10-14 days lately.

Our cycle is strong, we did it with 4ppm of ammonia testing out within 24 hours, twice :)
 
Platies aren't nippy IME. And no, the guppies aren't aggressive.


Fishobsessed7
 
Male guppies have the long coloured tails, and are smaller than females, who may have colour but won't have as much on the body as males usually do. They are sometimes sold with sexes separate, as males tend to be more popular, thanks to their colours. Also have a pointed anal fin.. the gonopodium, which females don't have.

Guppies can be fin nippers, just so you're aware.
 
Thanks Fishfur.

They have guppies in with the pygmy catfish at the lfs. I wonder if any nipping goes on there. We don't want any more nipping... well,

In general, when fish nip at each other, does it usually take off tails/fins? These poor catfish are already riled up from Miss Betta, they stress quite a bit after a water change usually, and I don't want them to be stressed anymore if we can help it.

Maybe platies then... our lfs has guppies and platies... I am not sure about the rasboras but I will check when we go to get more catfish. Our lfs actually has a second location, just a bit further away, and they have more fish than the closer location to us. So we could always check there too :)
 
Guppies are most likely to nip fins of other guppies or other long finned fish.. they're not as bad as Bettas often can be. It can be part of the male's mating behaviour.
 
Oh ok. That doesn't sound ::too:: bad. These guys have short, tiny fins/tails, so, they may be safe then from guppy nipping.
 
Oh dang I think I lost my reply.

They have them together in tank at our lfs, so they can't be too horrible together.

I like the rasboras you told me about!

We're basically limited to our two lfs's, which do have a decent selection of fish, and we don't want to order fish online. There are two chain stores we could go to, one nearly an hour away, but we don't really want to get fish from either of those places. Although, the fish section at PetCo seems pretty healthy :) I've not inspected it much though. Plus, our lfs's have more fish anyway. :)
 
I don't think you'll have any issues with nipping. The guppies might annoy your cories sometimes but I think they'll work good together


Fishobsessed7
 
I don't think you'll have any issues with nipping. The guppies might annoy your cories sometimes but I think they'll work good together


Fishobsessed7

Thanks :)

Decisions decisions... I think we will get about 4 more catfish, give them a week or two to settle in and get comfy, and then get the guppies or platies, but I think we're leaning towards guppies. :)
 
Sounds good (y)

I really enjoy my guppies! I think you will to if decide on them. IME the platies are mor sensitive too.


Fishobsessed7
 
Sounds good (y)

I really enjoy my guppies! I think you will to if decide on them. IME the platies are mor sensitive too.


Fishobsessed7

:) Thanks! Oh, these are fancy guppies they have, I don't know if that makes a difference. The tails aren't too big though.

I also heard platies make a decent amount of waste. Miss Betta poops all over the place though, so it's not like we aren't used to it LOL.
 
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