Corydoras nanus color variant or a different species?

[jimoo]

I bought a small group of Corydoras nanus recently. One fish appears different. I'm sorry for the poor photos, but it is the best I could do with my cell phone. What I'm asking is if the specimen with the pale stripe across the dorsal ridge is a different sp. of Cory, or a aberrant color variation of the nanus. If the former, any guesses?

[mummymonkey]

The elegans group can be difficult and it seems many species have a lot of variability. Also males are quite different from females. CW008 has a gold stripe like your fish. Also nanus is quite scarce and many more common species are sold as such.

[jimoo]

Ok, thank you. I guess it doesn't matter. I wonder what my "nanus" could be then. Was thinking about getting more.

[Karsten S.]

Hi,

one thing is very sure, you don't have C. nanus. As far as I know this species is not available in the hobby.
There are no commercial exports from Suriname, the chances to get some is zero. Most of the picture available also show different species.

The species of the elegans group are not the easiest to ID.

The first picture looks like a male of CW008, I agree on that.
The others probably are C. napoensis.

Cheers,

[jimoo]

Thank you.