There are several species of Corydoras, which even pronounced specialists are not able to distinguish. In such cases it might be useful to speak of species groups instead of species. One such example is the species group around Corydoras elegans in the narrower sense, which includes C. elegans, C. napoensis, C. nanus and several C- and CW-numbers. What they all have in common is that the males and females are completely different in colour during the breeding season. In addition, these species swim more frequently in open water than other Corydoras.
In wild catches, a distinction is usually made between Corydoras elegans (widespread in Amazonia), in which the sexually active males have bands in the dorsal fin, and C. napoensis (Peru, Rio Napo), in which the sexually active males have a black dot in the dorsal fin; there are usually no imports from the distribution area of C. nanus (Suriname) and the various C- and CW-numbers. Based on the characteristic of the dorsal fin coloration, the beautiful Corydoras we have currently in our stock from Peru are C. elegans.
For our customers: the animals have code 229054 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
