What Corydoras is this?

[MChambers]

I have a group of Corydoras I acquired at a club auction a few months ago. The seller, a friend of mine, doesn't know what species they are. They were sold to him as Eques, but, as he says, they clearly are not. He doesn't know the collection location. Some have suggested that they may come from Colombia. They breed easily and prolifically.

The largest fish is nearly three inches long.

[bekateen]

They look exactly like the corys my LFS imported for me from Czechoslovakia under the name C. eques (here's my old thread: Imported as C. eques, but they aren't...).

The ones I got were farm raised. They grew out to be some colorful but otherwise nondescript cory, most likely

Corydoras schultzei

as indicated by the faint pale stripe on the upper body, possibly a hybrid between schultzei and something more aeneus-like, also possibly a seriously line-bred/inbred form of schultzei. Your friend's fish have the same faint pale stripe over the body.

Since I had mine (I got rid of mine pretty quickly), I've seen other people sharing similar photos, meaning there are other resellers distributing similar fish: colorful schultzei types proclaimed to be eques. So maybe the Czechs are not the only source.

If your friend doesn't know the original source, it is possible they are these. If so, sorry man.

Regards, Eric

[MChambers]

Thanks, Eric. They may be the same as yours. I dimly remember your thread, now that you mention it. I'll think of them as schultzei unless someone comes up with another suggestion.

No need to say sorry for me. I knew I probably wasn't getting anything special. They are nice fish, and I'm always happy to see spawning in the fishroom!

[bekateen]

I'll think of them as schultzei unless someone comes up with another suggestion.

No need to say sorry for me. I knew I probably wasn't getting anything special. They are nice fish, and I'm always happy to see spawning in the fishroom!

Good attitude, my friend. And yes they are pretty fish, no doubt about it.

Of course, there are plenty of similar but obscure schultzei and aeneus types in the wild. If you ever find out they were wild caught, then you can exclude the Czech source and all is golden!

Cheers, Eric