Black Corys with red eyes?!

Naias · Post by **Naias** » 25 Oct 2005, 12:14

Hi,
someone in a German forum bought Corydoras which are black with red fins and deep red eyes. Nobody there seem to have a clue about them. Is here anybody who knows something about them? Which species this is (mutation? purposeful breeding?)?

There are some pictures. You have to click on "free" to see them:
http://rapidshare.de/files/6731137/welz ... 3.JPG.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/6731172/welz ... z.JPG.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/6731189/welz ... 2.JPG.html

I am very curious about them and put my hopes in you experts here.

Thank you!

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 25 Oct 2005, 12:18

These look liek the normal black corydoras to me. They appear (shape wise) most similar to C. melanotaenia to me.

Jools

Naias · Post by **Naias** » 25 Oct 2005, 12:37

Hi,
Jools, thank you for your very fast answer. However, I cannot find anything on black melanotaenia or any other black Corydoras on the net, even no picture. Yet it seems quite a normal thing to you?!

So, I would be very grateful if you could go a little more into detail about black corydoras with red fins and eyes or provide me with a link.
Thank you so much

Post by **Silurus** » 25 Oct 2005, 12:51

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ca ... a/34_f.php

Naias · Post by **Naias** » 25 Oct 2005, 13:52

Hi,
thank you Silurus,
but Jools identified them to be probably C. melanotaenia and said on the other hand that they looked like "normal black C." to him. So I interprete this answer in the way that it is quite common that there are black/red varieties in different kind of Corydoras???

Post by **Silurus** » 25 Oct 2005, 13:58

I think what Jools meant is that a number of color variants of C. aeneus (including the black one) are actually more closely related to C. melanotaenia (although they are listed as C. aeneus in the Cat-eLog).

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 25 Oct 2005, 17:30

Yeah, that's about right. The problem is that those that are very pale look more like C. aeneus. They listed as C. sp. cf. aeneus right now as I think they're not C. aeneus but am not brave enough to say they are C. cf. melanotaenia.

Jools

mummymonkey · Post by **mummymonkey** » 26 Oct 2005, 01:12

Jools wrote:Yeah, that's about right. The problem is that those that are very pale look more like C. aeneus. They listed as C. sp. cf. aeneus right now as I think they're not C. aeneus but am not brave enough to say they are C. cf. melanotaenia.

Jools

We've just had a thread on this in another forum.

C. sp. cf. aeneus doesn't make sense does it? The "sp." means you think it's an undescribed species but the "cf." means you think it is aeneus.

From what I understand about these fish, the choice is between:

C. sp. aff. aeneus - probably an undescribed species similar to aeneus

C. cf. melanotaenia - probably a new form of melanotaenia

Post by **Coryman** » 26 Oct 2005, 12:07

mommymonkey

C. sp. cf. aeneus doesn't make sense does it? The "sp." means you think it's an undescribed species but the "cf." means you think it is aeneus.

The term cf is as I believe a scientific reference to having the 'Character of', in other words looks similar to the species referred to.

I along with several other Cory specialists believe that several of the so called C. aeneus variants are indeed closer morphametrically to C. melanotaenia than C. aeneus. The two prime examples known in the trade as "Laser green" and "Laser gold", the C. sp Black from Venezuela may also fall into this group, but to add even more confusion there is a C. aeneus "Black"widespread in the hobby that was developed artificially in the Czech Republic and the origin of the original material in this development is not known.

Ian