The high number of varierties of Corydoras in the upper Rio Negro is very confusing and even Corydoras experts in some cases have great difficulty in addressing the very similar species. A controversial species from the beginning is Corydoras crypticus, which was described together with C. amandajanea in 1995. The main difference between C. crypticus and this species is the shorter body and the lack of spots.
Recently we have received one of the very rare consignments of C. crypticus. On closer inspection, two types of different appearance can be distinguished, namely saddle-nosed, slightly slimmer fish and long-snouted, slightly higher-backed animals. The research revealed that the latter were recently assigned the CW number 157. However, the differentiation between CW 157 and C. crypticus is tricky and rather a matter of feeling, as we had to find out during sorting.
For our customers: Corydoras crypticus has code 226604, CW 157 code 226634 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
