Compatibility with pygmy catfish

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Cool cool. I think we may want to have a couple shrimp at some point too. I'll have to do a little research on that.
 
Fancy guppies - often just what stores call the various coloured guppy strains. Many of the strains have names, but there are also lots of culls, who are pretty enough but may not have matched the breeder's criteria for whatever he's trying to achieve.

They are usually sold while they're still young, so their tails often will grow quite a bit. Many fancy guppy males may have difficulty breeding once their tails grow in, as the long tail fin interferes with their ability to manoeuvre into position to serve the females.
 
Oh ok!

Gotcha!! Do females have much of a tail?

Last time we went and got the last two catfish of our 7, there was fry in the tank. So tiny and cute... :)
 
Thanks :). We now have 4 more catfish.

We were looking at Amano shrimp. Thinking about getting a few of those. How is the bio load on shrimp, does anyone know?
 
yay! :)

What do you guys think about us getting 4 more pygmy catfish (we'd have 12 total then) and 2 shrimp? Would that be too much for the tank to handle? We would be done stocking after that.

They were hanging out and having a ball mid-level near the side of the tank not too long after putting the new guys in the tank with the guys we already have.... we want them to be happy and see that behavior... and hubby is REALLY interested in shrimp now that we looked at them :)

Edit, when I plugged things into Aquaadvisor.com, with 12 pygmys and 2 shrimp, it said we were at 86% capacity, but I wanted to see what you guys thought :) Having 14 even would be even better, but I have a feeling that may be pushing it.
 
:) We may just do that then! I think with Miss Betta out of the tank, they are feeling more comfortable, and what a difference in activity when there are 8 pygmys vs just 4!
 
Fwiw, you could have several more shrimp too. Compared to any size fish, they have very little by way of bioload, because they don't constantly produce urine like fish do.

It used to be that female guppies were plain janes.. no colour at all. But guppies have been bred for colour and pattern for many decades now, which has resulted in females that are larger, with varying amounts of colour, along with males who are also larger than the wild ones were, and a LOT more colours and patterns. The tails actually come in a few forms.. Lyretails are one I like, very handsome.. if you look up guppy tail forms, you'll see pics of the various types.

Edit.. for example, this page shows outlines of the various tail types. http://small-pets.lovetoknow.com/guppy-types
 
Thank you Fishfur! I am not sure how many of this kind of shrimp they had, but, we would love to have maybe 4-5 shrimps along with the catfish! What a nice little aquatic community we would have!!! :D This is so exciting!

Thank you for the information on guppies! Nothing is set in stone yet other than the 4 little guys we added today, but, I think this will be just pygmy catfish and shrimp in our 10g tank. We both really like platys though, so if we go that route, we'd probably get two of them. Or 3 guppies.

But, we really like seeing the pygmy catfish play and be happy, so we probably will just get 4-6 more of them then, and 2-5 shrimps :D :D :D
 
Just so you know, if you only get a pair of platies, probably best to make them the same sex.

If you get a male/female pair, the male may harass the female rather constantly, which is pretty common behaviour for all live bearers, guppies included.

If you have only two females, they won't harass each other and if there are no females, a pair of males haven't anything to argue over either.

If you get female platies, even without males, you may well get babies, as if they have been with males, they will have mated, most likely. One matting can result in several broods of fry, as they can retain the male's genetic material for some time afterward.. months, in some cases. This is also true of guppies.. females can have broods long after having mated, leading some to think they're 'virgin' births. They aren't :).
 
Fishfur said:
Just so you know, if you only get a pair of plates, probably best to make them the same sex. If you get a pair, male/female, the male may harass the female rather constantly, which is pretty common behaviour for all live bearers, guppies included. If you have only two, two females won't harass each other and if there are no females, a pair of males haven't anything to argue over either.
If you get female platies, even without males, you may well get babies, as if they have been with males, they will have mated, most likely. One matting can result in several broods of fry, as they can retain the male's genetic material for some time afterward.. months, in some cases.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that information! The only separate sexes they have of a fish species that I could tell were guppies at the lfs today. Platies... I'll have to do some reading to see how to tell them apart, but, do you know off the top of your head how to tell the sexes apart? I think we'd want males, then. Nothing against fry, but, we don't want any really.
 
On all livebearers, the female has a fan shaped anal fin and the male has a rod type anal fin.


Fishobsessed7
 
Spend a bit of time watching a platy tank, you'll soon see the differences. Full grown, females are larger than males too, and tend to have a much rounder underline than males do. This becomes very obvious when they're full of eggs, but it's there all the time. This characteristics, along with the difference in the anal fins, are usually not too hard to see.
 
Fishfur said:
Spend a bit of time watching a platy tank, you'll soon see the differences. Full grown, females are larger than males too, and tend to have a much rounder underline than males do. This becomes very obvious when they're full of eggs, but it's there all the time. This characteristics, along with the difference in the anal fins, are usually not too hard to see.
Click to expand...

Thank you :)
 
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