Tavel

I recently purchased 2 Peppered Cory's to replace my mysteriously deceased Pleco (water chemistry was fine, adequate food, no signs of disease...it just up and died).

I was going to get 3 ottos...but I am pretty firm against wild harvest in places with ineffective conservation laws. (seriously, when ornamental fish bring in 10x more dollars/ton than food fish...they're absolutely going to over harvest.). but that's another story...

My question relates to my substrate. I have LARGE pea gravel in my aquarium, the type found at home centers for landscaping. Is this type of gravel unsuitable for Cory's?

In all of my research I only came across one site that specified substrate type as sand or fine gravel...no other sites (including fishlore) specify a substrate type. I'm thinking that single website suffers from fish-dogma, but I just want to make sure.

(If it is unsuitable, I will replace the cory's...not the substrate)

TFA101

I use reasonable sized pea gravel and they do just fine

Tavel

My pea gravel is about 1/2" in diameter on average. It's roughly the size of chick peas. The cory's seem to be doing just fine, they can stick their faces between the gaps and I think that helps.

TFA101

mine enjoy browsing and foraging under pebbles and my rock are just about your size too.

Barbrella

As long as the substrate is not rough or jagged, which would damage barbels, there shouldn't be a problem.