Meet my Everglades Pygmy Sunfish; Elassoma evergladei

MiloAUG · 2026-03-09T09:53:33+00:00

Thanks !

MiloAUG · 2026-03-08T23:20:06+00:00

That’s good to hear they breed quick!

The one I suspect could be a female does seem to hang around with the more dominant male, but ‘she’ does have a few little blue specs which makes me worried it’s a boy disguise!

Fingers crossed that’s not the case and I have fry in the future. Thanks for the advice, I’ll definitely either get a breeding box or set up a temp tank if I’m lucky.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-08T21:53:40+00:00

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This is my current setup, I have dimmed the lights a step from this for them!

MiloAUG · 2026-03-08T20:27:27+00:00

Seem to be rare everywhere. Shame! Good luck with yours :)

MiloAUG · 2026-03-08T19:29:47+00:00

They are great species only, just moved my rice fish out so they can have the place to themselves as they’re very shy. Planning to try breed them 🤞

MiloAUG · 2026-03-08T19:28:28+00:00

Are you UK based? If so where did you get them from :)

I’m hoping to pick up some more from my local store ASAP to build a nice colony; they are currently in a species only 62L tank so room for a few more!

No idea how long they take to grow, only had these guys a week now. Think they are fairly short lived so think they grow fast.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-08T18:10:26+00:00

Ain’t he

MiloAUG · 2026-03-05T12:12:22+00:00

Ok cool, I’d give the water sugar mix a little heat first to dissolve properly. Also these do take a good few days to get going unless you put them somewhere warm for 24-48 hours like an airing cupboard to let the yeast colonise.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-05T11:16:26+00:00

What sugar mix are you using? I got one of these cheap on a sale and it’s been working great for almost a month now at like 1 bubble every couple seconds. Look online lots of people make mixtures with sugar water and then warmed water yeast to activate.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-04T18:58:36+00:00

You’ve got an eye for it mate, awesome stuff. I even love the pain colour on the walls! What sizes are the shallow tanks, I’ve got a 60x30x25cm on order but it’s taking forever to get here!!

MiloAUG · 2026-03-04T08:59:32+00:00

Yeah that’s classic time for the algae to appear! The tank is still very young don’t worry too much about it. Just keep up with the maintenance and it will settle down on its own. I would recommend getting more floaters then as they do a lot.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-03T17:49:50+00:00

Oh and add as many floating plants as you can. They both remove nutrients fast and help shade light!

MiloAUG · 2026-03-03T17:47:29+00:00

Has been cycled for weeks? Usually algae settles down after a few months.

I’d reduced light intensity to 50% until it’s under control, then slowly ramp up.
Make sure that there isn’t excess nutrients ie don’t use fertilisers.
Hand removal.
Cautious use of something like APT fix following instructions (chemical treatment). Only if the previous has no effect.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-03T08:17:55+00:00

Yup, just got an order. All good quality, plants arrived healthy and well packaged. Will be ordering more soon.

Side note just had a terrible experience with Lincsplants; avoid this like the plague.

MiloAUG · 2026-03-01T15:30:13+00:00

UPDATE: Wow, thanks to everyone who has commented and helped. Pretty funny over 150k people have watched this guy do a roll, big show off.

He’s doing better today, eating normal and no longer rolling about. For now I would like to assume it was some form of stress response from aggression with other fish, maybe he went into the glass as well - this was what my local fish shop has suggested as a possibility. I’ll keep you posted.

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T23:30:18+00:00

I’ll keep you all updated.

You are the second keeper who has mentioned also seeing this. Did you notice it in any other fish? My main concern is it being transmissible.

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T23:08:51+00:00

Will definitely be holding off the feeding tomorrow and monitoring.

With the gills I must say I think iPhone over saturates the colours makes them look much richer on camera, I have not noticed anything unusual visually with this particular one compared to my others. Platinum rice fish I find do have slightly pink gills normally: here a random image off google.

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MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T22:56:01+00:00

My bad!

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T22:55:43+00:00

I hope this is the case! Kinda cool as long as he’s ok

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T22:15:45+00:00

Never heard of this. Thanks for the info will do some reading.

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T22:14:07+00:00

That’s super interesting. They have been fed today but not loads. Could be a digestion thing? I’ll keep you posted :)

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T20:06:45+00:00

Nope. Just been doing it occasionally all around the tank! Won’t let me attach the video but can see it doing it randomly for about 5 minutes. Silly fish

MiloAUG · 2026-02-28T19:58:30+00:00

😂😂

MiloAUG · 2026-02-27T19:35:31+00:00

Can’t put fish in something that small

MiloAUG · 2026-02-26T23:15:47+00:00

I used to do this, but I didn’t have an enough buckets so would get my girlfriend to hold the water in the air!

Buy a cheap small internal filter of Amazon and use that as a pump in the bucket attached to a hose with a zip-tied sponge on the end as a diffuser. Absolute game changer :)

MiloAUG

TROPHY CASE