Pygmy Sunfish from Dec08 collecting trip.

[Sundance]

Not my collecting trip. Kevin and Michaels. I got six at our last club meeting's auction. I'm embarrassed I got them so cheap.

They are quite a neat little fish. I'd almost call them friendly. They hover around and "perch" in the tank.

The pic doesn't do them justice. They have iridescent specs of blue/green near their gills and get lighter and darker with activity.

Per Kevin's suggestion, they're in a 10 gallon with Java Moss and Cabomba.

[etheonut]

Sundance,

You sure did take a nice picture!

I searched the net for a better picture of a banded pygmy sunfish and couldn't find one!

Kevin

[Sundance]

Why thank you, Kevin.

The secret is that I use all-natural sun light, not that synthetic stuff!

Seriously, I learned that angle in the tank caught the afternoon sun which will probably lead to an algae problem, but made great light for the shot!

If the male gets darker and develops an eye spot when it's posturing, I may have three males. The alleged females stay lighter and don't, well, color up.

I've got most of them taking frozen blood worms. If it wasn't winter I wouldn't have a problem finding some live food, but alas...

[Herpchat]

Could always keep cherry shrimp with them.

[Sundance]

If the Pyg's spawned, would the shrimp eat the eggs/fry?

And/or will the Pyg's eat the Shrimp "berries" and/or adults?

[Sundance]

This is probably a much better setup than the ones I got. Mine are in a bare 10 gallon with artificial plants and spawning mops. They are still alive, but not very visible. I might have to see what kind of condition they're in one of these days. I do know they're still alive. I should check to see that they are eating what I'm feeding them. Denny

[Herpchat]

Killie people are now beginning to keep shrimp with their killies as they seem to clean the eggs but not eat them. (seems too good to be true) However they did help my cory spawn so I am trusting the little guys and I really like them. I am almost to the point where about half of my tanks have cherry shrimp in them.