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I picked up a trio of cories at a LFS. They were the only 3 in the tank and had no name given. According to the pictures they are probably C. axelrodi they also look like the picture of CW-021. My question is are they both the same fish?

From Corydoras World for

This species has a very similar colour pattern to Corydoras axelrodi and may be be proven to be a regional variation of that species.

CW21 and C.axelrodi are classed as separate species with CW21 having 3 distinctive dark parallel lines along the body, where as C.axelrodi generally has 2 parallel lines and normally some other not as distinct markings along the body.
When seeing the 2 side by side you can see the differences, though only possibly DNA can discover wether they are 2 species or just separate colour forms of C.axelrodi.
Hope this helps.
Col.

Thank you. There are a lot of fish that leave it questionable as to whether they are separate species or just colour variants.

Bwhiskered wrote:Thank you. There are a lot of fish that leave it questionable as to whether they are separate species or just colour variants.

Yup, you are right there... As a general rule, we should probably always treat regional variants as "separate groups" - so if you keep one regional variant, don't mix it (in a way that allows breeding) with another variant.

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Mats