PlanetCatfish.com

The cory shown in the photos below was sold to me as a pygmy cory but looks so different from my other pygmy corys. Is it actually a pygmy cory or is it something else. If so what?

Interesting...several of these arrived as a contaminant in a batch of Otocinclus a week ago here. I believe they're CW008. Here's their Cat-eLog page--

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/_s ... es_id=1072

This fish certainly belongs to the so called "Elegans" group but I do not think it is C. elegans. The images do not give a clear view of the dorsal, which to me looks like there is a bark area covering the top two thirds of the fin. C. elegans has two or three more or less horizontal irregular band in the dorsal fin.

To remove CW008 from the equation is easy enough, as the gold stripe, which runs along the upper body from the caudal peduncle, stops just above and behind the eye. In your fish the gold stripes on either side meet on top of the head.

Your fish is very similar to one caught on my recent trip to the Rio Marañón in Peru. In the specimens caught the intensity of the dark are of the dorsal varied from grey to intense black, but I have found that the intensity of colour in fish can vary according to mood and conditions.

Ian

I beleive this to be a new species and as such issued it with the CW-number CW064.

And to basically answer your initial question these fish would fall into what I would call "small" Corys, rather than "dwarf". They grow to around 45 mm SL for males and up to 55 mm SL for females