New Corys Need ID Please

[PanzerFodder]

I have just found these corys at my LFS, they were in the same tank as some C.Sterba and the manager said that they came in with the last batch of corys, he also said that they could be a cross bred fish??? I was a bit put off by that statment but decided to get three of them anyway and am hoping that you guys could ID them for me , I am thinking that they look a bit like "C100" or "C016" but would not put money on it.

sorry about the photo, can't get the hang of how the macro works on my camera.


Thanks for looking, and hope you all had a good Christmas.

PanzerFodder.

[corybrummie2010]

I think the manager at your Lfs was right about the Corys being a Hybrids.Its look like a Corydoras Metae and maybe crossbreed with the Sterbai or similar pattern Corys.If you haven't bought it yet,Please! don't.

[MatsP]

To me they look like C. metae x C. schwartzi or something similar.

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Mats

[ginagv]

Hi..

I don't mean to sound ignorant, but why would you advise someone to not buy a hybrid cory like that? I'm just curious?

Gina

[corybrummie2010]

I only advise PanzerFodder not to purchase these to further spreading these corys,as many members on this forum strongly against this practise.If he have already bought these Corys i would think he should keep these Corys and not breed them and spread them into the hobby and shop.
Read this thread and you know why i said this:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =6&t=29730

[MatsP]

Because hybrids, unless clearly marked as hybrids, are like buying a "cut'n'shut car"[1].

Background: a hybrid is a cross between two different species, so it'snot a naturally occuring fish. We have this discussion every now and again (although not so often on Corydoras, I must say).

And it's not the fish as such that is the problem, but the fact that it's (nearly always) sold as a "new" or "unusual" species.

[1] "cut'n'shut" is where someone takes the back end of one car and attaches it to the front end of another car, to produce a "working" car from two crashed cars. Unfortunately, this is not the same as buying a "whole" used car. In the hybrid case, it's probably more like taking the front of one model of car, and putting the back of a different one, then calling it "unusual and worth more"...

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Mats

[PanzerFodder]

YIKES!!! looks like I bought a load of crap then

But not to worry guys!,only got these to go into my daughters Guppy tank as I have just started it for her and fancied something different to clean the bottom.

Been looking at the photo's on this forum and think they could well be a metae + schwartzi cross, based on the hight of the dorsel fins on my new fish as it's a lot taller than the fins on the C.Metae that I have and also taller than the one's on my C.Sterba.

Will try to get a better photo of these fish later on, just in case it does turn out to be somthing different, but I think that the Manager at the LFS knows who his suppliers are!, if you know what I mean

Thanks for the info...PanzerFodder...

[Birger]

, he also said that they could be a cross bred fish???

At least he was honest in this respect...better than trying to pass them off as something.

Birger

[PanzerFodder]

, he also said that they could be a cross bred fish???

At least he was honest in this respect...better than trying to pass them off as something.

Birger

Yep, he's one of the better people in the store to speak to, and he's always has time to help you out if your having a bit of trouble with something, which is most of the time in my case "LOL" .

Back on topic, I have been comparing these hybrids to my other fish this afternoon and I can say that they are not as attractive or bright as my other corys (Sterba and Metae)but as long as they do the job of cleaning and helping to start the new tank cycle, I don't think it's going to be a major problem.

Also my daughter is only four and She is just happy to have some corys at last , if all goes well with these I think that I'll get her some of the orange lazer corys as well, I saw some at the LFS today but did not want to get them as they looked a bit on the skiny side, will have to wait for some better stock to come in.

Cheer's...PanzerFodder...

[cartouche]

I have just found these corys at my LFS, they were in the same tank as some C.Sterba and the manager said that they came in with the last batch of corys, he also said that they could be a cross bred fish??? I was a bit put off by that statment but decided to get three of them anyway and am hoping that you guys could ID them for me , I am thinking that they look a bit like "C100" or "C016" but would not put money on it.

sorry about the photo, can't get the hang of how the macro works on my camera.


Thanks for looking, and hope you all had a good Christmas.

PanzerFodder.

Don't buy them! There are people on this forum, who officially banned crossbreeding and creation of new species in nature. This is a harsh infringement of this ban by that cory. He and his parents should be jailed and get life sentence in a dirty tank with high NH4, NO2 and NO3.

[apistomaster]

Hybrids? Perhaps but I suspect they are an as of yet not described species. Diversity with the ever expanding numbers of known Corydoras species has far from been completely revealed to us yet and without proof they are tank bred hybrids, I believe the chances of them being a rarely exported species is greater than their chances of being tank raised hybrids.
I feel we grasp the "hybrid" banner is applied too easily or at least too quickly without sufficient proof.

I think the honest shop employee should have simply said they were unknown to him and others in the shop without playing the hybrid card unless he knew with certainty these are products of intentional hybridization.
Many actual hybrids between considerably different looking species are not all that numerous nor well described in the trade enough for me to give up on nature so quickly. Some of the parents of these possible hybrids are hard enough to breed let alone with another species. More barriers against the survival of rare natural hybrids to survive as indeed even among quite viable species few live to be 1 year old a 50% survival rate would be considered very high. Hybrids rarely spontaneously arise and thrive in nature.

[Coryman]

These are not necessarily hybrids, they may just be a natural colour form. Anyone who has bred this fish will know that the young go through exactly the same colour pattern at around 5 to 9 weeks of age. Below are three images showing the speckled body pattern. In fact all Corys go through similar colour phases.

Because a fish is not conforming to the recognised colour pattern does not mean that it is a hybrid. It may just be a minor change in 1 gene that has made the difference.

Ian
C. metae @ 6 weeks (20 mm SL.)

C. metae @ 8 weeks (24 mm SL.)

C. metae adult female (42 mm SL.)

All images courtesy Ian Fuller & Corydorasworld.com

[Jools]

With the exception of the troublemaking by cartouche, the above comments about why hybrids are bad are fine but, as with Ian, I see zero evidence this is a hybrid. Agree it's too easy to jump on that bandwagon (for Corys). Maybe ask the store guy if he can find out where it was imported from? Mats suggestion that it looks like a C. schwartzi cross rather overlooks the fact that that species is one of the most infrequently spawned Corys.

Looks like an odd coloured

Corydoras metae

to me, wild caught ones a bit like this turn up from time to time.

Jools

[PanzerFodder]

Thank you very much for all the information and photo’s Guy’s.

All this is very interesting to me and I am learning a lot of stuff from your comments, I am planning to return to the LFS later today to have a chat with the Guy there and try to find out the source where these little Cory’s came from.
Although I am pretty sure that these fish must be tank bred???, as they are all about the same size (about ¾” ) and I would think that anything coming in from the wild would be more in the adult size ranges???.

Also Ian’s photo’s are very interesting, I am now thinking about getting another two of these Cory’s to give me a group of five, and do a kind of experiment with to see if they loose this unusual coloring as the get bigger. (I can post photos in this thread if this happens).

Got to say that these little guys are growing on me, I have spent a lot of hours this week watching them, and hybrid or not! they seem to be everything that a cory should be, very active and they stay together in a tight group as the move around in the tank looking for food, and am looking forward to seeing what they get up to when there are five of them in there .


EDIT: Just got back from the LFS, I spoke to the Guy there and he said that he gets these Cory’s from a local breeder, as well as the C.Sterba,.
I mentioned to him about the photos of the baby metae that Ian posted, and he agreed that it could be possible a gene has not turned on, or switched off causing them not to loose their spots, but all this gene stuff is above my head so I don’t know if this is possible or not.

I just got one more to make a total of four in the tank, and will try to get some more photos of then if any of you are interested?.

Cheer’s Guys…PanzerFodder…

[PanzerFodder]

Just an update with a better photo of these corys.

Had them for about two weeks now and they still carrie the black markings on their flanks and banding on thier tails.


Thanks for looking...PanzerFodder...