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I had two of these, unfortunetly both passed away during the quarantine period.
The tank that they were sold in was marked Corydoras sp. (typical pet$mart mislabeling)
It contained , , and these unknown ones:


Any clues as to what they might have been?

They look very much like C. virginiae in a poor state of health.

The naming of fish in stores has always been contentious, and many make no effort at all to make sure they are selling what they claim to be. I wonder how they would react if someone took them to task under the trades description act.

Ian

Ian,

You make a good point - I find that even the better of my LFS' are not particularly good at giving correct scientific names (if any). But one of the problems you'd have is that the shop would just blame the wholesaler, the wholesaler would say "Well, we got them from the exporter under this name..." and so on. A typical case would be the so called C. julii, which in fact are C. trilineatus - but everyone from the collector to the LFS calls them C. julii.

And in the above case of saying "Corydoras sp.", I guess you can't complain about that - it's like buying a box of nails in the hardware store under "Mixed nails" - you can't complain about that unless the box contains screws rather than nails, right? And I think we all agres that they are some species of Corydoras...

--
Mats

But one of the problems you'd have is that the shop would just blame the wholesaler,

All though in some cases this may be correct, How much do up to date "good" identification books cost trade?
One LFS in my area still uses an Innes atlas from the 1960's. which he refers to as his 'bible'.
As most of us hobbyists buy books such as Aqualogs, Identifying Corydoradinae,& Baensch to name only a few, is it to much to ask retailers do the same.
I for one think not. Needless to say I do not use that LFS as if he can not be bothered to check what fish he is offering for sale, It then comes under that old heading "Buyer beware" which for those who are getting their first aquarium is not a very helpfull attitude, and therefore I can not be bothered to use this store.
However, I am aware that in some countries there is only one LFS for a few hundred miles around, and therefore their only source for fish, with them My sympathies lie

Personally I think this is a bit unfair.
Even experts, with access to the primary literature and type collections, can't always identify fish (especially not just by looking at them), and the people collecting/exporting/owning LFS's aren't experts. Also, for many catfish groups the aquarium literature is brimming with errors, and there doesn't exist any up-to-date or comprehensive scientific literature.

It's easy to say that all fish should be well-identified and have an up-to-date latin name at the time of sale, but in practice it's simply a fact of life that a non-trivial percentage will be misidentified.

But is it going to stop you from buying that fish IF you know the label is wrong?

Bare in mind that it would be those like ourselves who would even realise it's incorrect. And those like ourselves who would bother to sit around and discuss the phernomena.

I'd imagine that these guys (LFS) do a fair portion of their trade with the Goldfish Bowl brigade. And they certainly don't care if the label is wrong. "I want that one, Mummy!"

I'd suggest in most case's, those that know the labeling is dodgy, are those same that know what they want anyway (for breeding etc), and would make quite an informed decision before making that purchase.

I'm sure nature will balance itself.

Actually there is a very big bonus to be had in the stores that say "That's what it say's on the invoice so that's what they are" Annoying as it may be these are the places where you can often get the rare and unusual at common prices, like the group of a dozen C. cochui I picked up a few years back for £10 just because they hadn't been labelled and the assistant didn't know what they were, just small Corys to him. I recently picked up a group of C89's that had arrived as C. elegans £2.50 each, very nice thank you. So although it is annoying at times it can be advantageous at others.

Ian

Sorry if this is a bit off topic, but on the LFS labelling thing, it's about what they get wrong, not if they get it wrong. There's a big difference between labelling a Corydoras trilineatus as C. julii and labelling a red tail cat as a pim pictus.

I personally find the best shops are the ones with the most "errors" as they are the ones trying to stock something different. IME something with a name, any name, sells better than one without.

The argument about reference books is pretty obsolete anyhow as you can look up 99% of all the stuff an average LFS stocks on the internet.

Jools

I'm not sure the material posted on internet is more accurate wrt identificiation than your average aquarium book.

Planetcatfish excluded, of course.

Mike_Noren wrote:I'm not sure the material posted on internet is more accurate wrt identificiation than your average aquarium book.

Yes, but it's free...

Mike_Noren wrote:Planetcatfish excluded, of course.

Jools

Coryman wrote:They look very much like C. virginiae in a poor state of health

Do you have any other guesses? or maybe some different pictures then the ones listed here: those look to be more elongated than the one from my shots.