Sold Huge Cory Cats? Plus Stocking Two Species In A Smaller Tank

[trianglekitty]

I have one panda cory cat and two albino cats, all rescued. This leaves me in something of a situation, as my tank is a twenty gallon, and I know I can't get enough to have a proper shoal of two different types of cory cat.

I was at the LFS store today (a huge family owned store with hundreds of tanks) and was told that all cory cat types will school together. I know this isn't typically true. I wanted two of the bronze cory cats because I know they'll go with the albinos. From my understanding, they are the same species.

I'm not entirely sure what he sold me, but these cory cats are at least twice the size of my full grown albinos. I guess I didn't realize it at the store because I didn't have fish to compare it to, but these things are giants. If they were just the non albino form, I would expect them to be the same size? Or am I the one who is off base on this?

Any suggestions for the best way to stock with two different species in a smaller tank? I'm trying to rehome the panda, but no luck thus far, and anyone who did take it would properly keep it by itself anyway.

 

[fluttermoth]

Obviously they'd be happier with their own species, but different corys will shoal together.

it's quite common for the wild colour types to grow larger than the man made varieties; I wouldn't worry too much about that. They ought to be the same species, but there is a catfish called Brochis splendens that looks very much like a bronze cory although it's not. They do grow much bigger than a 'normal' cory, so it's possible you have those.

You can tell by counting the rays in the dorsal fin; corys have between 6 and 8 and Brochis have 10 or 12.

 

[lilfishie]

Agreed its possible its a Brochis, they could however still be Bronze cory, could you get a piture any how?

note on the panda, advertise him on here i know if you are local to me he could happily join my 11

 

[Parasaurolophus]

They had giant emerald cories in my local maidenhead you could possibly have a pair of those they look similar to bronze cory? they were selling them for £200 per trio though so if you did get a pair your extremely lucky..