Hey there, my name is Chi. I've been lurking around since Sept. 09. This is a sweet site with lots of info. I'm looking forward to getting and breeding Pygmy Sunfish. I've already submitted a contribution to be a member

Edited by frigginchi, 11 November 2011 - 11:39 PM.

Welcome. Pygmy sunfish are cool What tank do you plan to keep them in? Do you have a picture?

They will be going in this tank. Ignore the other fish. They are gone. It will be a species only tank with red cherry shrimp and snails as a cleaning crew.

Edited by frigginchi, 12 November 2011 - 10:40 AM.

Wow, that's a great tank.
I personally don't put shrimp in my Elassoma tank because I feed my fry microworms. If there are no shrimp in the tank, the microworms stay on the bottom wiggling all day. If there are shrimp, they eat them, so I have to add microworms more frequently. I'm also not sure that shrimp wouldn't eat Elassoma eggs or fry.

But anyway, yes, great tank. How many gallons is it? And what are you planning on feeding the pygmy sunfish?

They will be eating black worms, infusoria and cherry shrimp:)I have my own live food factory in there. When I had my tropical fish in there I think I fed the tank like once a month. Tank is about 24 gallons. 60x10x12

Wow, that's a great tank.
I personally don't put shrimp in my Elassoma tank because I feed my fry microworms. If there are no shrimp in the tank, the microworms stay on the bottom wiggling all day. If there are shrimp, they eat them, so I have to add microworms more frequently. I'm also not sure that shrimp wouldn't eat Elassoma eggs or fry.

But anyway, yes, great tank. How many gallons is it? And what are you planning on feeding the pygmy sunfish?

Great looking tank. Looks much bigger than 24 gallons. What kind of substrate are you using? What kind of plants are growing? Do you use CO2 or just lots of light?

Usil

Edited by Usil, 12 November 2011 - 12:33 PM.

I wouldn't have thought blackworms could survive an environment with shrimp. Has your experience been different?

1'm using ADA Amazonia for soil. Plants are dwarf saggitaria, java moss and cabomba.

You are right its 31 gallons in total. But only 24 gallons of water are in it No Co2, t5 HO lights and at one point there were over 45 1.5 inch long neon tetras, bazillion red cherry shrimp, snails and 20+ otocinclus. I started with 5 otos and 12 neons and they bred.

Great looking tank. Looks much bigger than 24 gallons. What kind of substrate are you using? What kind of plants are growing? Do you use CO2 or just lots of light?

Usil

It's neat that your neon tetras bred. I hear they're hard to breed because they'll hunt down their fry. Congrats on the success Elassoma fry would definitely be able to survive in a tank where neon tetras could breed.

I had four cherry shrimp in with my Elassoma gilberti way back in the day when they were living in the 10 gallon tank, and the Elassoma didn't eat a single shrimp. The cherry shrimp came in as juveniles, before the female was large enough to color up red, and already they were too large to be eaten. Actually, even an adult brine shrimp is a little too large for an Elassoma to eat. I added brine shrimp a few times but never saw one of my pygmy sunfish eat one, not once. So anyway, my point is, the Elassoma might eat the super tiny baby shrimp, but the adult cherry shrimp won't get eaten and might eat the Elassoma fry and the fry's food.

It's a good idea to keep an eye on the blackworm population. It's easy for the Elassoma to breed up to such a large number that they eat all of them. They love blackworms, and they don't really understand the concept of farming, so they'll eat and eat and eat until they're all gone.

It took me a super long time, but I finally settled on live grindal worms and frozen bloodworms as the foods for my pygmy sunfish. The grindal worms are fairly easy to culture but still new, so I give the population a rest every other day and feed with cubes of frozen bloodworms instead. I cut the bloodworms as they thaw off of the cube, so that they're half length and easier for the Elassoma to swallow.

Edited by EricaWieser, 12 November 2011 - 03:46 PM.