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HI,
I have 5 Corydoras paleatus adults, already breeding but my question is: one of them has extra long fins, reaching the tail. is this normal for an adult cory?
Thanks,

Barrycal wrote: ↑10 Jul 2019, 22:48I have 5 Corydoras paleatus adults, already breeding but my question is: one of them has extra long fins, reaching the tail. is this normal for an adult cory?

Hi Barrycal,

Assuming you have , the answer is no but it's not uncommon. Wild-caught C. paleatus have "normal" length fins for the species. However, some people have developed "long-fin" genetic mutants of C. paleatus, which as you can expect, have long flowing fins, which can reach back to the tail.

Here is a C. paleatus with normal fins:


Here is a C. paleatus with the long fin mutation, showing deformed extensions of the dorsal, pectoral, and tail fins:


That said, there is another cory species, , which is related to C. paleatus. C. longipinnis naturally has a tall dorsal fin. Its other fins aren't so extended, so this fish can easily be distinguished from the mutant long-finned C. paleatus.

Here is C. longipinnis. Only the male C. longipinnis develops the extended dorsal fin:


Photos of your cory with long fins would be helpful, to ensure that we aren't confusing two different species. That said, C. longipinnis is an uncommon import, so you probably have captive-bred long-fin mutant C. paleatus.

Cheers, Eric

There are a ton of man made fish in the hobby. Angels, discus, bettas, long fin plecos, color morphs, the list is really long. Over the years I have kept and do keep my share of such fish along with my many "natural" fish.

I could not resist and came home from the NEC with 10 of the long/high fin paleateus. They do look really neat, but I also know exactly what they are. I also kept lf ancistrus years back and liked them as well. I do draw the line at glowfish or tattooed fish.

How many folks on this site would love to have some of the super white L236?