Corydoras loxozonus belongs to the beautiful armored catfishes, which we receive relatively regularly from Colombia. The species is quite variable in pattern and therefore has already received the C-numbers C79 and C83. There was never any “proof” that these C-numbers really belong to the species C. loxozonus; this was only concluded from the fact that these unusually patterned C-numbers were always imported together with C. loxozonus.
We just received pretty Corydoras loxozonus and between them was a longnose with amazingly similar coloration. This longnose has so far not been described scientifically nor in the hobby, in the hobby an extremely similar species has the code number C16. C16 in turn has always been imported as a bycatch of another Colombian species, namely C. melini. C. melini is clearly more high-backed than C. loxozonus and originates from the Rio Uaupes (= Rio Vaupes), which belongs to the Amazon River system, whereas C. loxozonus originates from the Rio Meta, an Orinoco tributary. Therefore, the C16-like bycatch to C. loxozonus is probably not a C16, but another undescribed species! Unfortunately, this animal is not expected to ever enter the trade in larger numbers.
However, this example shows once again that it is worth to have a closer look also at “common” species. They also hold many a surprise!
For our customers: Corydoras loxozonus has code 233703 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply exclusively to wholesaler.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
