Article © Chris Ralph, uploaded August 01, 2005.

Chris Ralph introduces this month's featured catfish, not a common find in our LFS despite belonging to the most commonly encountered group of catfishes. The basis for this Catfish of the Month article is an edit of an article first published in Tropical Fish magazine, June 2005.

Corydoras seussi belongs to the family Callichthyidae and hails from Brazil, specifically the Rio Poranga a tributary of the upper Rio Negro and the Mamore River basin.

The fish is the typical triangular Corydoras body shape but with a pointed snout. The base colour of the body is tan overlapped by a much darker coloured pigment that is slate grey/blue. The dorsolateral scutes are much darker exhibiting the slate grey/blue colour than the ventrolateral scutes that are tan coloured. In case you're wondering, the term dorsolateral refers to the area above the lateral line and below the dorsal fin and ventrolateral refers to the area below the lateral line and above the ventral fins.

The head region is overlaid with an orange to almost gold colour, in natural sunlight this is truly magnificent. The head area around the barbels and eyes is also overlaid with light coloured spots. The first rays of the dorsal, pectoral and ventral fins are orange in colour interspersed with some slate grey/blue colouration. The soft rays of the pectoral and ventral fins are orange in colour, whilst the remaining fins (dorsal, anal, adipose and caudal) are light (beige / white) coloured with slate grey to black coloured almost stripy markings. The caudal fin has 5-6 distinct vertical black bands/stripes. In bright sunlight there is a green sheen that can be seen over the top half of the body of this catfish.

Corydoras seussi has been available to the hobbyist for a few years now, and shares a similar colour pattern with Corydoras gossei, which differs in having a rounded snout. Before being described scientifically as Corydoras seussi this splendid catfish was referred to as C027. While this species prefers to be kept in water that has a pH in the range of 6.5-7.2, it has been known for this species to tolerate a much wider range of pH 6.0-8.0 and hardness in the range of 2.0-25.0 dGH.

As with all the other Corydoras that I have had the pleasure to keep over the years, Corydoras seussi readily accepts a mixed and varied diet. I personally feed all of my Corydoras on sinking pellets, good quality flake foods, granular foods, cultured whiteworm and frozen foods such as bloodworm to name but a few.

I would suggest a minimum size of 24" x 15" X 12" for a shoal of these fascinating catfish. The preferred substrate for keeping these catfish should be good quality aquarium sand or very smooth rounded gravel in order to prevent their barbels from being damaged. The aquarium should provide some shelter in the form of rocks, bogwood and aquatic plants. As with all species of fish, water quality and general husbandry is very important, and I would recommend that the aquarist undertake a minimum of 25% water change on a fortnightly basis.

These catfish are very peaceful towards their own kind and indeed other species of Corydoras. These catfish are ideally suited to being kept in a community aquarium environment with other non-aggressive species of fish such as tetras and dwarf cichlids. Whilst Corydoras seussi are not cheap to purchase, wherever possible I would recommend that you purchase a minimum of six specimens, as they are naturally found in the wild in large shoals.

Whilst this is a species of Corydoras that I am fortunate to have kept in recent years I was unable to persuade the fish to breed. Whilst there are documented records for spawning the similar coloured Corydoras gossei, I am not personally aware of any successful accounts for spawning C. seussi to date. I would however, envisage that when breeding these catfish would adopt the typical Corydoras "T" clinch when mating, which involves the female transferring sperm from the male to her eggs held in her ventral fins prior to them being laid carefully on a chosen surface. It is documented and observed that the female takes the sperm from the male into her mouth which is then passed out of her vent and on to the eggs that she holds in small numbers between her ventral fins.

Copyright information for the images used in this article can be found on the species' full Cat-eLog page.

Cat-eLog Data Sheet
Scientific Name	Corydoras (lineage 8 sub-clade 4) seussi  Dinkelmeyer, 1996
Common Names	C027, Seuss' Cory Orangefinnet Pansermalle (Denmark), Panzerwels (Germany)
Type Locality	Small side stream of Rio Pacas-Novos, side branch of Rio Mimoré, near Guajar-Mirim, Rondôndia, Brazil.
Pronunciation	kor ee doh rass (lineage eight subclade four). - sue see eye
Etymology	Cory = helmet, doras = skin. In this case it was incorrectly used to mean armour (cuirasse) instead of skin in allusion to the dual rows of plates that run along the flanks of this genus. This catfish was specifically named after (dedicated to) Mr. Werner Seuss, a well known German aquarist and author.
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Species Information
Size	60mm or 2.4" SL. Find near, nearer or same sized spp.
Identification	Shares a similar colour pattern with Corydoras gossei, which has a rounded snout.
Sexing	The males tend to be slightly smaller and more slender than the females. The dorsal and pectoral fins of the males tend to be more pointed than those of the females. Sexing of these catfish is easier when being viewed from above.
Habitat Information
Distribution	South America: Mamoré River basin. Amazon, Middle Amazon (Solimoes), Madeira, Mamoré (click on these areas to find other species found there) Log in to view data on a map.
IUCN Red List Category	Least Concern, range map and more is available on the IUCN species page. Last assessed 2020.
pH	6.0 - 8.0
Temperature	22.0-26.0°C or 71.6-78.8°F (Show species within this range)
Husbandry Information
Feeding	Suggested foods are high quality flake foods, sinking wafers, frozen blood worms, grindal worms, tubificid worms. User data.
Furniture	Sandy bottom with an open swimming space lined with bogwood and plants to retreat into.
Compatibility	Peaceful community fish.
Suggested Tankmates	Small peaceful characins or other non aggressive community fish. Keep in shoals.
Breeding	Unreported.
Breeding Reports	There is no breeding report.
Further Information
Reference	Aquaristik aktuell (Germany) 2/1996, pp 25.
Registered Keepers	There are 33 registered keepers, view all "my cats" data.
Wishlists	Love this species? Click the heart to add it to your wish list. There are 2 wishes to keep this species, see who wants what.
Spotters	Spotted this species somewhere? Click the binoculars! There are 11 records of this fish being seen, view them all.
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	Search for C. seussi
	Look up C. seussi on AquaticRepublic.com
	Look up C. seussi on Fishbase
	Look up C. seussi on Encyclopedia of Life
	Look up C. seussi on Global Biodiversity Information Facility
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Last Update	2020 Oct 22 04:43 (species record created: 2005 Aug 01 11:22)

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