What are these corys?

[Helder]

Hi people!

First of all, Happy New Year!

Now, a couple of weeks ago I got some wild caught corydoras groups from a friend who was giving up the hobby.
They were bought under the labels C. melanistius and C. leucomelas and my friend was quite happy about.

After a close look at home, I started to realize that they don't really look like what they were name at and I've started an exhaustive search around the Web. Well, the truth is that I'm so sick of looking at pictures everywhere around and I can't look anymore without getting more and more confused... Specially when one reads that the fishes may vary in pattern and one finds no clue on which patterns those would be...

As confused as one can be,it just seems to me that my C. melanistius actually look more like C. agassizzi or C. ambiacus,
as both species have much bigger dots then C. melanistius and in Cat-eLog there are pictures from the three of then with the black spot on the base of the dorsal fin and the first rays are also black.

Well, about the C. leucomelas is not that easy for me as well. The pattern is similar in some pics here but not in all.
Some of them (mine) I believe them being C. schwartzi because of the aligned lateral stripes and lack of the black patch over the shoulders and not C. leucomelas as I was told they are.

I just hope you can help me with this and be as accurate as possible because if I can't give them the proper name I'll have to get ride of them. I make no money with my fishes, I just breed for fun, don't matter if it is an expensive/ cheap/ common/ rare/ pretty or ugly fish.

So, here are some pics for you guys to try to help me.

The so called C. melanistius...





C. leucomelas...





and maybe C. schwartzi...





I'm sorry for the bad pictures, they are still living in a low-light 160x50x50 Quarantine tank which makes it quite hard to get them in so much space...

Hope you guys can help me to sort this out.

Cheers
Helder

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

do you have any information of their origins ?
You are right with your doubts.

The first ones are close to C. ambiacus, but I think it's something different, but certainly not C. melanistius.
The second ones are certainly not C. leucomelas, should be C. schwartzi. The third species could as well be C. schwartzi.

What are the sizes and the age of the corys, are they fully grown ?!

Cheers,

[Helder]

Hi kamas88,

unfortunately, the only information I have about origins is that they were first imported to Ruinemans BV and then to Switzerland under that name. My friend still had the Excel List, but no Locality was written there.

About the sizes, first species differ from 4.5 to 6cm, second, they are a group of 10 under the name C. leucomelas where the smallest are around 4cm and the bigger, showing a slightly different pattern are around 5.5~6 cm.

The first species I saw for sale in another place long ago. It is a guy who has his own small business here and in Columbia and imports himself. I can provide the link if it is aloud but I don't think it will help much if he also sells under the false name.

I'll try to shot some pics from the all so called C. leucomelas group so you guys can have a look on the bigger ones as well... oh man, there are around 70 corys in that tank...

Thanks for your help and for other who might come to help.
As said, if I can't sort this out, I will have to get rid of them. As a "rule of the house" I can't keep something I will not breed... It is not fun.

Cheers

[Albert]

The first one's look just like my corydoras agassizii .

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

that also one reason why I asked for the sizes/ages.
Young C. agassizii look in fact similar with rather big spots but the first soft rays of the dorsal should also be black.
C. ambiacus has also as an adult spots of this size whereas in C. agassizii they are much smaller then.
There are a lot of similar species, some of them having C numbers (C 74, C 103, C 156) but I guess also some more without any official name or code.

Albert, if your corys are adult and look like these your corys are not C. agassizii.

Cheers,

[Albert]

Yes they are adults ,and look just like the first one's .They were identified as Corydoras Agassizii , here on this forum , thats all the information i got about them .

[Karsten S.]

Hello Albert,

perhaps I was a bit hasty with my ID in the other thread. They do look like young C. agassizii.
But yours are certainly not C. ambiacus (those never have the black colour in the dorsal fin running up to the top).
Your corys look still rather young perhaps the spots still will reduce in size.

This group of corys is rather difficult to ID without catching location.

Cheers,

[Helder]

Come on guys, don't start a fight now...

All corys are nice, some may not be the desired ones but they nice anyway.

Well, back to business... unfortunately I just can't get the bigger "leucomelas" on pics, huge tank, a lot of hiding places and I'm just a lousy photographer... anyway, I'll keep on trying.

About the first pics again, I saw some bigger ones from the same import at my friends neighbor. They are about 6~6.5cm long, the same spot size and pattern (some times aligned like three horizontal lines, sometimes not so and getting smaller as they reach the belly), golden stripe going all the way from top to bottom, not colored soft reays, only the two first ones and then just some small random spots, and finally, the same long pointy beautiful tail.
Oh man, such a mess....

I was looking to other possible C number but could not find something so close to mine as C. agassizzi or C. ambiacus.
I know that sometimes there are a lot of variations even in the same species (I come from breeding rainbow species...)
and looking only for pictures on the Web just kills me.

Thanks for your help and please point other people with the same knowledge as you guys to give me a hand on this.

Cheers

[Helder]

Hello people

after browsing a million pics from C. schwartzi I'm confused again.

Do, or do they not have the black patch on the first soft rays of the first dorsal fin?

Well, in the forum database they almost do not, the only picture where you can see this is the one conceded by Julian Dignall, but on Ian Fuller's page they do have.

Are there more then one form (with or without)?

Greets

[Coryman]

My best shot would be:-

C. agassizii
C. schwartzi
C. sp. C133

Ian

[Helder]

Thanks Ian.

Do you refer to my three pics?

What about my last post, about the black patch on C. schwartzi?
Can they vary or not?

Greets