Tail spot Corydoras
Author: Ian Fuller
Identifying Corydoras - The tail spot species
Towards the end of 1999 an unseen before species of Corydoras, appeared in several of the aquatic shops that I frequent. This proved to be a new species, which had in fact just been described by Joachim Knaack, in the German Journal "Aktuel" and had been given the name Corydoras spectabilis (Knaack, 1999). Although the fish was actually described in 1999 the publication issue was dated for 1/2000 but was actually available in December. This gave rise to the fish being nick named "The Millennium Cory". The fish comes from the upper Rio Guapore in the area of Vila Bela, Mato Grosso , Brazil .
Corydoras spectabilis (Knaack, 1999) joins a small unique group of six Corydoras species that all posses a large dark blotch covering the area of the caudal peduncle, each of them are all quite distinctive in their own right. The smallest of these species are Corydoras guapore (Rossel, 1961), Corydoras caudimaculatus (Rossel, 1961) and Corydoras panda Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1971. The size to which these species would be expected to grow to in the aquarium would be about forty-five millimetres for males and a little larger at around fifty millimetres for the females. The body shape of the first two species is quite different, Corydoras guapore has a fairly slim body with an almost even dorsal and ventral profile, it prefers to spend a good deal of its time swimming in mid water or searching amongst the upper leaves of plants for morsels of food. Corydoras caudimaculatus has a body shape is far more suited to spending its time on the bottom grubbing around the substrate in its pursuit of food, it has a far deeper and chunky looking body with a rounded head shape and curved ventral profile. Corydoras panda is distinctive in its own right its body shape is similar to that of Corydoras caudimaculatus but a lot slimmer. Where it is completely different from all other know tail spot Corydoras is in its body colour, which is a rich tan, it has a black broad band running vertically through the eye and a large black blotch in the base of the dorsal fin.
Moving up in size the next species we come to is Corydoras similis (Hieronimus, 1991) this one can be expected to grow to about fifty five millimetres for a male and up to sixty millimetres for a female, it has an almost identical body shape to Corydoras caudimaculatus although it does tend to look a little slimmer, where it is different is in the caudal blotch itself, instead of being jet matt black and with well defined edges like that of Corydoras caudimaculatus it is a very bark blue/black and has a fading edge which will often display a metallic sheen. Because of the ill-defined appearance of this blotch it has given rise to the fish being called the "Smudge Spot Cory".
Moving up in size again we have Corydoras ourastigma (Nijssen, 1972) this is one belongs to the long snouted group of species, and has a potential adult male size of sixty millimetres, with an adult female growing a little larger to about sixty-five millimetres. There should be no confusing this one with any other known Corydoras species, with its long snout and the dark grey to black blotch at the caudal peduncle, the shape of which is more of a laterally compressed oval compared to the shape of the other five species. This is also a species that prefers cooler water and temperatures, somewhere in the low seventies Fahrenheit 70 -73 (21-23 C) would be ideal
The largest member of this group of six brings us back our "Millenium Cory" Corydoras spectabilis which I would expect to grow to about sixty-five millimetres for a male and seventy millimetres for a female. When these fish were first imported early in November 1999, it was first thought that they were in fact a hybrid cross between Corydoras caudimaculatus and Corydoras haraldschultzi (Knaack, 1962) or even Corydoras maculifer (Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1971) and Corydoras haraldschultzi because of the variation in body markings and the caudal peduncle blotch in some specimens being almost none existent, it was even thought that there may actually be two hybrids. Both of these so-called crosses were actually being advertised in some areas as hybrids. The fact is that if it were not for the black blotch at the base of the caudal fin then it would be extremely difficult to separate them. The two main characteristics that Corydoras haraldschultzi has that Corydoras spectabilis does not is the yellow orange colouring in the dorsal, pectoral and ventral fin spines, nor the golden sheen to the body. My own six specimens are only a little over half grown at forty-five millimetres, and show no signs of any golden body colour but it may be a little to soon to say whether or not it will develop with age or when they are in breeding condition.
When Corydoras spectabilis arrived, there was yet another unknown species that arrived with it that show almost identical body markings this one carried the trade name of "Brazil Sharp nose" a name that could be given to at least a dozen species coming from Brazil . This particular species is almost identical in body markings to Corydoras haraldschultzi, and seams to be less variable in body markings than Corydoras spectabilis, but instead of having a large black blotch on the caudal peduncle, this species has a large black blotch in the top third of the dorsal fin, as far as I am aware it is as yet another undescribed species.
Article reproduced by kind permission of Ian Fuller of www.corycats.com
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Other articles by Ian Fuller
- Chela Dadyborjori
- Correct Temperature for Catfish
- Corydoras 2, Banded Corydoras
- Corydoras amapaensis, Nijssen
- Corydoras Sanchesi
- Corydoras, From Small beginings
- Corydoras, The Boys and the Girls
- Dwarf Cory and Pygmy Cory
- Identifying Corydoras
- Starting with Corydoras