Pygmy cory cats in a 5 gal?

[Micho]

First of, I would say no!

I have pygmy cories, and I have to say I'm taking bad care of them right now, simply due to the fact that I only have two right now and I prefer to be in a minimum shoal of six recommended ten and above. I'm a bad fish daddy I know. D:

They're fast swimmers, faster than any fish I've owned before they dart around like little monkeys to be honest, they're cute fish. I wouldn't trust Wikipedia since, well it's Wikipedia! Now seriouslyfish recommends a minimum of 42.5 litres which is roughly around 11 gallons.

So once again, no I would not recommend pygmy cories in such a small tank, 10 gallons is the minimum for them. :D

[elijahfeathers]

Yeah, still looking for more feedback. I'm thinking at this point that I might try to get them, and if it proves to be cramped I'll move them to my 10 gallon. It's divided... but one betta can have 2/3rds of the tank with little cories if it doesn't work out.

[Micho]

In your ten gallon community they'll do fine, pygmy cories are fast swimmers so they'll most definitely outswim your Betta. I rather put them in the ten gallon first, to be honest five gallon is a bit cramped you'll know this if they just stay in the bottom all of the time.

Pygmy cories need to breathe through their labyrinth organ too, they'll swim middle-lowish level of the tank.

[elijahfeathers]

Well, several sites are saying 5 gals is the min for a small school. My thing is my 5 gallon is pretty decently planted. It's also only a little smaller as far as the footprint goes (not a hex, lol), and I understand that cories like to stick to the bottom of the tank?

10g dimensions; 20L x 11W x 13H
5g dimensions; 17L x 9W x 11H

[elijahfeathers]

lol. Well I guess reading up online I've sort of made up my mind. I have space as a backup, but I think I'm going to do 3-4 of those guys in my 5 gal with the betta. I personally feel it's planted enough and that it should be alright... and if it isn't, I'll simply move them to the 10 gallon their own partition, and when I start to work on that more I'll expand their school into a bigger number.

[Micho]

Why would you only do 3 or 4 of them? The minimum of a shoal for them is 6. These guys are tiny, I can't even find mine in my tank at times, grab 6 if you want Cories they do way better in shoals.

[GreenTea]

The footprint isn't the issue...It's the space they have to swim and shoal. They only have bout 8 inches front to back by 12 inches length wise to swim in a shoal and that is not much. If you have the space somewhere else like you've mentioned, I'd say put them there to begin with!

[elijahfeathers]

Huh. I read a couple places that 3-4 is the min but that 6-12 is ideal.

If I got cories in my 10 gal I'd want to go for a larger species. The pygmies are cute but... not very eye catching in a 10 gallon.

[GreenTea]

Yeah, 4 is sort of the bare minimum, 6 is the ideal starting number. You're going to do what you're going to do but that's my two cents.

[elijahfeathers]

Well researching says that they should be doable but meh. I'm looking more into that 4 min thing and seeing that it's not looking so hot.

I guess I'll amass an army of ghost shrimp (at least 10 lol) and an apple snail to entertain Aden.

And yeah to me it was looking mostly like a water quality issue at 3-4 min. But at 6 as a true min... not enough room in the 5 gallon.