Cory ID

[AquaKitty34]

I was wondering if anyone could please help me in identifying my new cory. I just picked up three of them at my local shop and the only info I have to go on is that the owner thinks they are from Peru. Thanks!

[Carolus]

The pattern looks like corydoras schwartzi to me but it's so dark...

[AquaKitty34]

Thanks Carolus! Yes, c. schwartzi is the closest match I have been able to find. However, as you have also observed, these specimens seem significantly darker.

[bekateen]

The presence of an eye mask indicates this is not schwartzi. If the fish basically looks like schwartzi but with an eye mask, then

Corydoras surinamensis

is the likely option. But still you have the problem that your fish is very dark.

Cheers, Eric

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

sorry, but I have to contradict.

...

Corydoras surinamensis

is ...

...an extremely unlikely option.
This species is not available in the trade and can only be found in some creeks of Coppename river rather high upstream.
Nearly all (life) pictures that you can find under that name don't show C. surinamensis.

It is 100% sure not this species, the caudal fin pattern doesn't match and C. surinamensis also has a very pronounced dorsal blotch.
Why should C. schwartzi not have an eye mask, I have not yet seen any without ?

I would go with a very dark C. schwartzi, even though they usually come from Brazil.

Cheers,
Karsten

[bekateen]

Hi,

sorry, but I have to contradict.

...

Corydoras surinamensis

is ...

...an extremely unlikely option.
This species is not available in the trade and can only be found in some creeks of Coppename river rather high upstream.
Nearly all (life) pictures that you can find under that name don't show C. surinamensis.

It is 100% sure not this species, the caudal fin pattern doesn't match and C. surinamensis also has a very pronounced dorsal blotch.
Why should C. schwartzi not have an eye mask, I have not yet seen any without ?

I would go with a very dark C. schwartzi, even though they usually come from Brazil.

Cheers,
Karsten

Hi Karsten,

Understand I was only making a suggestion and I don't claim to presume that it is definitively surinamensis.

Also, I must confess that I was mistaken in my motivation for challenging the ID as not schwartzi: There has been an ongoing conversation on CorydorasWorld about the fact that most recent imports ID'd as schwartzi probably aren't schwartzi at all. The clue to the mistaken ID was not the eye mask, but rather the presence (not schwartzi) or absence (schwartzi) of a pigmented spot at the base of the dorsal fin - the holotype of schwartzi lacks such a spot. But I had incorrectly recalled that conversation as being about the eye mask rather than the sub-dorsal spot. So in fact yes, schwartzi does have the eye mask.

That fixed, I'm still not convinced that this is schwartzi.

Cheers, Eric

[AquaKitty34]

Thank you all for the comments. Here's another picture from a different angle.