Hoplisoma knaacki originates from the Madre de Dios region in Peru and belongs to a group of armored catfishes that are very close to the type species of the genus Hoplisoma Swainson, 1838 – H. punctatus (Bloch, 1794). Aquarists are best familiar with the two species H. julii and H. trilineatus from this group, which are very common and offered in different color variants in the pet trade. H. knaacki can be easily distinguished from all described species of the Hoplisoma group by the massive longitudinal stripe in the middle of the body, which begins at about the level of the posterior edge of the dorsal fin and ends at the caudal fin, in combination with the species-specific dorsal fin pattern, in which the first fin ray and the membrane to the spine are darkly pigmented and the remaining fin rays are dotted, as well as the significantly black and white banded caudal fin. Prior to the scientific description of the species in honor of Joachim Knaack, this armored catfish was referred to as Corydoras sp. “Morse” or Corydoras sp. CW 32.
There are at least two other species from the Madre de Dios that look almost identical but are still scientifically undescribed. Corydoras sp. C120 (see Datz 12/2003), CW 62 and CW 109 are referred to by Peruvian exporters as Corydoras sp. “Manu4” and differ from H. knaacki in approximately the same way as various populations currently assigned to H. trilineatus differ from each other; probably all these forms belong to the genus Hoplisoma. Another, practically identically colored species is Corydoras sp. “Manu2 Semi Longnose”, which to our knowledge does not yet have a C or CW number and has a longer snout (a longer mesethmoid); it should – with reservations – be assigned to the genus Brochis.
We can now offer the beautiful Hoplisoma knaacki as a German offspring.
We have also made a small film about these fish, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQYNZvoej8
For our customers: the species has code 232862 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
