Unknown cory ID please

[parrot1974]

Hi,
I was looking for some friends for my c. leucomelas but hadn't had any luck. Was in my LFS and saw this group of 3 corys. It turned out that they'd been handed in to the LFS a few days before and no-one knew what they were, so I got them for £1 each
However, I can't work out what they are. They all have the same three rows of spots on their sides and the very dark mask and stripe on their dorsal fin and when seem from above, the stripe across their 'shoulders' glows.
I had a look and ruled out quite a few, but the problem is that my mind gets confused by all the spots and stripes.
Anyone got any ideas?
Thanks.

[bekateen]

Do they all have a blunt, short snout? It may be a photographic optical illusion, but in your first photo, the front-most fish in the bag appears to have a longer snout.

Cheers, Eric

[parrot1974]

Thanks, Eric. I really don't know! Their snouts are longer than e.g. the CW010, but not as pointy as brochis splendens. More like a sterbai, I think, but when I go upstairs I'll see if I can get better pics.

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

without knowing the origin this might be more or less impossible to tell.
However, they remind me of C 154.
Better pictures might help to rule out some, but there are many species and forms with a similar colour pattern.

Cheers,

[parrot1974]

Eric, they do all have long heads but blunt snouts, I think. The most similar pictures I've found have been of the c. brevirostris, but there seems to be some variation in spot size (mine are medium and regular) and also whether the spots extend to the gold shoulder strip (mine don't). The largest (female?) has a fractionally different angle to her snout, but the length is the same. I will post some more pics in a bit.

[parrot1974]

They do look like the picture of a C154 on Scot Cat. Will get those pics posted.

[parrot1974]

Some more photos - excuse the quality as I took them on a phone & these move fast!

[parrot1974]

When they're not searching for food, their snouts look even blunter - like they started out rounded and then rammed head-first into a wall!