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Eurwentala — Gemstone with Whiskers
Published: 2013-01-29 15:29:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 1304; Favourites: 32; Downloads: 0
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Description
I never understood what's so special about Corydoras catfish. They're rather drab, mud-colored little things without much personality. They tend to just huddle together in some dark corner of their tank, not doing much.How wrong I was! I just had never actually seen happy corys in a proper tank. Last weekend, I visited a hobbyist who had those exact things, and took some photographs too. This is Corydoras similis. The common name of this species in Finnish means "little sapphire catfish," and now I realize there's a reason for that.
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Comments: 15
I had some Bronze Corys in my aquarium once, and they lasted for ages. Hardy little guys. Unfortunately, their whiskers aren't so hardy, and they wore off.
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Yes, they really require a clean, soft sand bottom to keep their whiskers intact. If there's something wrong with the substrate (or water, for that matter) they easily get whisker and fin infections which can eat away the whole appendages.
I've seen many of those, though I haven't kept much corys myself. The ones I had, something like 8 years ago, were luckily C. elegans, a swimming species that spends little time on the bottom. Thus their whiskers were in a pretty good condition regardless of the sharp-edged gravel substrate.
Happily, the man whose tanks I was photographing had taken excellent care of his fish, and even the most fragile species had perfect whiskers.
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I replaced my gravel with sand. The only problem is, it looks like it's actually pretty coarse sand. )X Haven't bought any Corydoras since than, though, so I'm not sure how they'd do.
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I absolutely love cories. They will die from negligence, but to see a group of happy cories swimming around, like little fish-piggies looking for food, makes me smile. My favorites are panda cories.
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They really do look like little pigs with armour, now that you said it. Especially when they dig their noses deep in the sand, looking for food.
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I haven't seen this species before to be honest. They're really pretty!
The only other colorful corys I know are Corydoras sterbai and Brochis splendens
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I had seen them before, but the ones I saw were not colorful. Apparently, the color of many species is really variable and only takes a metallic shine when the fish is really happy.
The man I visited had plenty more colorful species: C. robineae, C. gossei and C. pulcher where the most memorable.
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True, a friend once had a bunch of B. splendens and C. sterbai for months but they always were dull colored and had infected whiskers, fins, etc. and didn't looked that happy at all. He gave them to me since I had a few C. schwartzi since years who felt really well in my tank (since those seem to live forever no matter what) and after a few weeks they looked completely different, though I never thought they would look any better soon! All of a sudden the sterbai got an intense orange belly and ventral fins and the splendens sparkled emerald, though they have always been grey and dull before. Guess they really need perfect conditions to shine like that like very soft water, sand, etc.
Right now I put all my corys in a smaller tank, since my bichirs became bigger and tend to bite their fins when they put their snouts into the sand when searching for food, but they still kept their colors.
Was that man specialized in breeding corys? I've rarely seen those species you mentioned in shops, who usually only sell 3-5 of the more common and less colorful species.
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That's true. Luckily, soft water is not an issue here in Finland: the tap water is almost everywhere very soft and good quality. But the water also needs to be clean and the substrate soft sand, which are where many people fail.
He did not breed corys, though many of his fish were spawning regularly. But he has a very good network of wholesale stores in Finland and elsewhere, who can provide rare species for the small circle of serious cory keepers. He also had quite a collection of species not scientifically described.
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Same with the tap water in Switzerland, though I prefer to add wooden roots and a bit of black tea to the water to simulate the circumstances in the black water of the Amazon.
Sounds interesting to hear of corys that aren't scientifically described yet and even more so that you've been able to take a look at them. I personally am more interested in the Loricariidae catfish with all their unknown species, but the Corydoras also have a huge diversity who seems to never end.
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Thanks. 
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ah yes... I on the other hand have a South American tank with a vacancy for my own very special species of cory, namely Corydoras aeneus. In stores they too look quite drab but when kept in a suitable habitat they shine a bright metallic greenish blue ^_^
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