-----Original Message-----
From: Dustin Smith
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 12:38 PM
To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
Subject: RE: NANFA-- keeping pygmy sunnies alive?
I believe that Elassoma in the wild may well be somewhat of an annual fish.
We collect adults during the late summer to late winter, but during spring
we almost never see an adult. We see either juveniles or none at all. I
would assume that during the time when we don't see any, that the juveniles
are so small that they are just slipping through our nets. I have some in
my tanks at home, however, that are over 1 and a half years old and are
showing no signs of slowing. I guess when you remove the environmental
stresses of predation, pollution and water level fuctuation, among others,
they seem to be much longer lived.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Hoover, Jan J ERDC-EL-MS" <HOOVERJ_at_wes.army.mil>
Reply-To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
To: "'nanfa_at_aquaria.net'" <nanfa at aquaria.net>
Subject: RE: NANFA-- keeping pygmy sunnies alive?
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 12:30:20 -0600
Dustin wrote -
>>>I keep all of my pygmies in 2-5 gal tanks with no filtration. I have
them all heavily planted with either java moss or hornwort....I have had
luck feeding frozen bloodworms, but only if the fish can see the food as it
is released into the water....used to use sponge filters for filtration....I
keep them by themselves, mostly because I am interested in getting them to
breed....Another good idea to keep in the pygmy tanks are snails. The adults
and the fry pick at the baby snails and eggs.<<<
Jan writes -
My setup for E. zonatum is almost identical - 5 gal tank, moss, sponge
filter, frozen brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms, lots of snails. After my
fish were habituated, they would pick up non-moving food from bottom. In
this part of the country, pygmies are believe to be annuals, but a pair of
adults I collected from the Little Tallahatchie lived longer. They were
collected 16 Dec 98; one died 07 Jan 01,the other 03 Mar 01. They never
spawned but their lives were long and satisfying.
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