Which Species Do You Recommend?

[mmorris]

I am thinking about buying either Duplicarus or Adolfoi for possible future breeding and I hope the experts here can help me decide which. I'm new to cories, but I have had fantastic success with Sterbai. My primary interest is discus and I chose Sterbai because they can take the discus temps - 82-84 degrees. Adolfois were recommended to me as another species that has similar requirements but now I understand that is true for Duplicarus too. Which would make a better investment for potential breeding? I also have albino Sterbais and my fingers are crossed that when they are a bit older they, too, will breed. ph 7.7 (my iron filter moves it up from 7.0 ) tds app. 75.

[N0body Of The Goat]

I'm very much a novice in the Corydoras realm, having kept C. sterbai and their larger "cousins" Brochis splendens together for a while last year (because they both experience temps upto 28C in the wild), but I was recently shocked when I looked at the temperature collection data for adolphoi and duplicareus on this site...

While both are often talked about as being good alternatives to C. sterbai in a high-end tropical tank, both experience winter lows of 20C in the wild and 26/24C respectively in the summer, so barely any overlap with sterbai at all and both are much more of a sub-tropical species (although not to the extent of paleatus, trilineatus or Scleromystax barbatus... which experience lows of 15/16C).

My 10/11 groups of C. sterbai and young B. splendens got on like a house on fire, the latter almost acting like dithers for the former, they were great to watch almost moving like a flock of birds across the footprint of my Rio240. They all went to the same buyer who came from London and while I knew the sterbai were showing typical breeding behaviour, I never saw the young brochis do the same but they were younger and I don't know if they are trickier to trigger breeding for anyway.

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

the temperature range that you indicate for "summer" (it's more dry and rainy season, C. adolfoi originates pretty much exactly from the equator) is definitely not the high end. There are at least temperatures of 28 °C in the biotopes (Rio Miuá, in november).

For breeding I would recommend C. duplicareus, the fry is much easier to raise. C. adolfoi requires much more effort (low pH, clean water).
To my personal mind C. duplicareus is also a bit nicer (usually broader dark band and the orange shoulder blotch more pronounced).

Cheers,

[mmorris]

Thanks guys. 'Clean' isn't an issue; I'm used to discus. If you just finished a wc, it's time to do another. I was under the impression adolfoi and duplicareus came from the same region and so had similar water requirements. To be honest I haven't read up on duplicareus. Guess I'd better. I was a bit concerned about my ph, but the discus don't care and neither do the sterbai. I think the duplicareus is a bit nicer too. Which has a higher market price?

[mmorris]

By the way, Goat, I'm a Southampton supporter. Through thick and thin.
Martha