30 Gallon Tank Why Is My Cory So Small??

Lowkey I've had this question for awhile but never thought to come on here to have it answered XD

for reference in this, I'll say I refer to my cory as a boy but I've never had him professionally sexed, appearance-wise he looks male to me.

I have four pepper corys and one of them was bought at a different time than the others. I've had him for about a year and he's still TINY compared to the others!! When I bought him he was the size of my pinky fingernail in a tank full of cories the same size, so I assumed he was juvenile. Now, he's grown, but at a slow rate, and after over a year is still not CLOSE to full size. Water parameters tested with API test kit and he and all other cories are perfectly healthy and have been for years. Is he stunted? A runt of the litter, so to speak? Was he malnourished as a fry? Will he still grow?

He never hangs out much with my other cories, mostly does his own thing. I thought maybe he was mislabeled and is actually a pygmy cory, but I've never seen a peppered pygmy before. Why is he so tiny?? LOL

 

Any chance you can post some photos of them? That could help us verify your species

 

I've grown peppered cories from eggs and in my first bunch I had 2 that were so very tiny. I don't think it's a peppered cory issue, but a coincidence because they're popular. When their 10 or so siblings were an inch long, these 2 looked a week old, and they grew that way for a long time. Now probably a year old, and in a 40 gallon tank with lots of others, I'd struggle to find them, they eventually caught up. And they were males. I read something this summer offering a possible reason, it had to do with some water measurement I never checked, but I can't remember. But why it affected about 10-12 % of that brood, I don't know.

Just curious, do you ever check your Gh and Kh? I don't know if it's related or not, but my Gh has been incredibly high. Since I'm learning more about raising shrimp, I'm finally aware of it and using unconditioned well water and bringing it way down. High Gh is hard on all fish. Again, did it stunt growth? I don't know that.

Keep feeding them a lot of varieties of food, maybe they will grow in time. Protein is important.

 

Any chance you can post some photos of them? That could help us verify your species

I'll take some in the morning!! Sorry.

I've grown peppered cories from eggs and in my first bunch I had 2 that were so very tiny. I don't think it's a peppered cory issue, but a coincidence because they're popular. When their 10 or so siblings were an inch long, these 2 looked a week old, and they grew that way for a long time. Now probably a year old, and in a 40 gallon tank with lots of others, I'd struggle to find them, they eventually caught up. And they were males. I read something this summer offering a possible reason, it had to do with some water measurement I never checked, but I can't remember. But why it affected about 10-12 % of that brood, I don't know.

Just curious, do you ever check your Gh and Kh? I don't know if it's related or not, but my Gh has been incredibly high. Since I'm learning more about raising shrimp, I'm finally aware of it and using unconditioned well water and bringing it way down. High Gh is hard on all fish. Again, did it stunt growth? I don't know that.

Keep feeding them a lot of varieties of food, maybe they will grow in time. Protein is important.

Fascinating!! At least it's not just me. No, I've never checked Gh or Kh The other cories grew normally from a small size, so I don't think it's my tank although it's always possible!! He gets two different types of dry food along with frozen, vegetable, brine shrimp, algae wafers XD you name it, he's pretty spoiled. I'll see if I can check my Gh, because now I'm curious haha

 

They hardly get nutrition from vegs / algaewafers and needs protein to grow.

Or did you buy a Salt and Pepper Cory (A dwarf ?

Or this one is a male which stay smaller than females.

 

One of the best foods for them are shrimp pellets. I bought a nice large size from Amazon, but it comes smaller. I have 23 cories in 5 varieties now. They seemed to have changed the name since the first time I had them. They were Shrimp Pellets, now Catfish Pellets, if my sleepy mind remembers right.. and the container is orange. They attack those things!
Sinking wafers look like mini algae wafers, but have more protein as well. Frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp are good, takes awhile for the brine shrimp to settle so they can find it. They also eat any sinking fish food the other fish miss.