PYGMY????? Cory EEEK!!!!

Well, the whole thing is that I am an idiot. I got snookered. I am supposed to know better. I got these CUTE LITTLE darlings (little being the operative word), 3 of them to be exact. "Pygmy" cories, it read. The card even had the scientific name and some information but no pictures. I am not familiar much with cories, my education being slanted toward the species betta as some who know me would guess.

Well the first one died of shock from the wild betta sister scaring the liver out of him. Then the second was found with a small chunk taken out of his side in the tank with the same betta sister. (they were still under an inch in length) That left one and betta sister got moved to another tank to give it a chance for a bit. I thought when she came home she would be more accepting. Well we had tank upset in the mean time and Marty ended up in the tank with the cory. It was soothing for him and he was in need of a quieter environment. He liked him!! (cory is about 1 1/2" by now)

Well we went through a time with the Melafix thing and the cory had not been about much during the day but I would catch a glimpse but never the WHOLE fish until the other day when I am doing massive water changes and I have a MONSTER CORY. He is bigger than Marty and showing no signs of slowing down!! I would put him at about 2 1/2" without the fins. He is huge!!!! Then I thought better check the books. Now I have a mountain of books and a few that list over a thousand kinds of fish and MANY types of Corydoras. I could not find one that looked like him......

I am posting pictures (the best I could get as he would not come out from under the Sword Plant) in hopes that someone can give me an idea of how huge this behemoth will get. His belly is pearl white and fins are spotted but otherwise he is VERY dark grey and has large black spots. NO peppering. His barbells are black. That is all I know. The closest thing I found was the Corydoras paleatus but the picture that was there was not dark grey enough. Otherwise it is not far off.

Rose

 

Well, so much for Pygmy!! Looks to me mostly like paleatus but then again all the paleatus I've seen are more tan or brown, not dark grey...
Well, I'll look around and see if I can find anything.
That's weird the store labeled them pygmaeus. I mean, my lfs confused pygmaeus with hastatus which are the other type of pygmy Cory, but labelling a 2.5 in Cory a Pygmy!!! Did the fish look like a Pygmy when you got him?
Oh, I just thought of something, are you sure this is a Cory? Cause I know Brochis's look a lot like them but get much bigger.

 

So do Aspidoras and I looked at them all but either the body shape isn't right or the coloring so I couldn't find anything closer. All I am hoping is that he won't get BIGGER.

Rose

 

sent you a pm which included mystery cory stuff, if you want you can copy and paste that part onto here so other people can see what I said and agree/disagree with it...I should have done it myself but I didn't think to until after I sent it...whoops.

 

This is the one I asked you about earlier
Here is a whole list of Corys, maybe you could check out the one it's suppose to be and see what it looks like.
If that doesn't work maybe you could post a pic in their forums and get it ID'd. The site is run by Ian Fuller and he is well know for his expertise with Corys.
Carol

 

Here is the PM I got RElanet catfish information on Corydoras identification.  I think that he is a Corydoras paleatus for sure as the size is right and it looks to me in the picture spread that they do have a range of colors.  He is also almost identical to one of the pictures that they have in the selection.  I am going to pretend that is what he is and hope so.  2.8" is bad enough but now he has the tank all to himself so I know he is not crowded.  

Rose

This is the one I am pretty sure of. The photo to the left end in the third row is almost identical to him, maybe not quite a dark as he is.

 

Oh you're right I think...I didn't realize there was such a color range...though they were all lighter in color but I guess not. Glad you got him IDed.