DubbieBoy Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 I picked up a bunch of these little guys some years ago believing they were plain' ol' C. aeneus (which I still believe they are). The thing is, none of them have ever gotten any bigger than 2-2.5cm in the years they've been puttering around my tank and I thought bronze cories got quite a bit bigger than that. I really like these mini-cories and would like to try and get some more; have I got some kind of pygmy or dwarf variety here or is this quite normal for these guys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 I've had bronze cories that stayed that sort of size. I think a lot depends on water quality and food, space etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F15hguy Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 I have heard that a lack of calcium can stunt their growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted November 12, 2012 Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 I have heard that a lack of calcium can stunt their growth. Definitely wasn't true in my case, but makes perfect sense. I do think they're being inbred a bit which is causing them to reach maturity faster and not grow as large. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DubbieBoy Posted November 12, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2012 Hmmm, I do have some calcium issues in that tank (can't seem to keep ramshorn snails alive or grow them out to any size). Our water is extremely soft and I have to supplement bicarbonate to even get a kH reading. GH is effectively zero. It's a techie-planted tank maintained at about pH6.8 with CO2. I occasionally supplement with CaCO3 just to try and introduce some mineral calcium in some form. I definitely don't think it's water quality or space. Was thinking of introducing some cuttlebone in there for the sake of the snails, maybe it'll help the cories bulk up a bit. So, they're just C. aeneus then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Laura Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Ours was the same, stayed tiny for life. And in a different tank some that were brought at the same time shot off and became monsters. We still have two jullii's that are miniscule and nearly 2 years old so are unfortunately stunted rather than some awesome new pygmy cory I've got it now with some baby loaches I purchased, it's been 6 months and they're still ridiculously small compared to ones a mate got at the same time, same shop, both gone into similarly sized tanks and hers are massive. Just trying to manage all the water quality etc better now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Ours was the same, stayed tiny for life. And in a different tank some that were brought at the same time shot off and became monsters. We still have two jullii's that are miniscule and nearly 2 years old so are unfortunately stunted rather than some awesome new pygmy cory I've got it now with some baby loaches I purchased, it's been 6 months and they're still ridiculously small compared to ones a mate got at the same time, same shop, both gone into similarly sized tanks and hers are massive. Just trying to manage all the water quality etc better now I'm not even convinced it's necessarily *bad* water quality that causes it. I mean, my ones were in a breeding tank where I bred blue rams, so the water quality was pretty spot on for that. The cories were also breeding regularly. I think it's just a certain aspect in the water, like calcium as suggested by F15hguy. I'm not sure it's just calcium; it's probably a combination of macros that contribute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Munkii Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 I've had bronze corys before, but all of them got bigger than that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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