Hmm hybrid?

[MissNoodle]

So my albino aeneus gave me a bunch of eggs ive been raising, going good.

But a couple of these older ones are nearly black. I do own some schultzei black in the same tank as my aeneus, though I did not witness any chasing by the schultzei boys nor any actual T position from them, but did from my aeneus males.

Mom is albino, my male aeneus are not albino.

The black stripe bleeds into the tail on some of the dark youngsters.

Thoughts? I've not seen aeneus this dark either.

I know they grouped schultzei as aeneus again but still :/ if I had witnessed the schultzei actually breeding with the aeneus, I wouldn't have saved the eggs as id rather not muddle them up.


Tank has 15 cories, a mix of aeneus, schultzei, and sterbai, only 4 fish are actually male in this tank(1 sterbai is male, 1 schultzei is male, and 2 aeneus are male) rest are female.

The albino is the mother of the babies.
Included are photos of my aeneus males and schultzei male.

[bekateen]

Hybrid is possible, but I'd wait for them to grow out.

Cheers, Eric

[MissNoodle]

Well most are almost ready to move to new homes within the next month, but gonna keep the darkest one to see how they develop.

Moved the darker one to the adult tank

The way the black bleeds into the tail is suspicious to me of a hybrid especially.

[MissNoodle]

Hybrid is possible, but I'd wait for them to grow out.

Cheers, Eric

So I have solved this a little more.
Baby lightened up more, but still pretty grey compared to my other one...

Face has gotten much longer than all my other aeneus... except one.
I'm fairly sure this lady snuck eggs on that glass with the albino lady and I didn't notice, baby is a mini me if that cory lady lol and that cory lady has always been darker than my other ones, so makes total sense. The batch of dark fry were likely from this lady. Both have the dark colour, both have the long face.
"Mom"

"Baby"

[bekateen]

The baby looks almost like a Venezuelans cory. But no.

[MissNoodle]

The baby looks almost like a Venezuelans cory. But no.

I dont even own Venezuelans cories lol

Another look at that same young fish

But I have had juveniles that look like them that grow to look like normal aeneus.

This young one here... (older photo)

Matured to this:

Aeneus are weird, having so much variation. But definitely makes them fun. Theyre not as flashy as other cories, so they have to make things complicated somehow

And of course, scientists naming them changing their minds on what is aeneus and what is not 500000 times lol (guess schultzei is back classed as aeneus now, like gee thats less confusing to an already muddled up species)

[Mlou]

That first photo definitely looks just like the young venezualan cory that I just got from my local IFS. mike

[MissNoodle]

This is the little one now.

And these are my adult normal "aeneus", do any seem like Venezuelanus?

[bekateen]

Do you notice how short (head to tail) your oddball is? That baby does look like Venezuelanus.

Don't know how it could be, unless your dark parent is an old dark venezuelanus rather than a schultzei black.

[MissNoodle]

Do you notice how short (head to tail) your oddball is? That baby does look like Venezuelanus.

Don't know how it could be, unless your dark parent is an old dark venezuelanus rather than a schultzei black.

I do have one female that's very short bodied compared to the long guys. She was also coloured vibrantly as a young fish too, but has dulled down to typical "aeneus" type colouring. But still very short bodied and smaller than the other aeneus the same age as her. She is a good half inch shorter than my others, even smaller than my male aeneus.

Though, I had my black schultzei since young as well, hes been black since I've gotten him, and seems typical black schultzei to me, but who knows, this is perplexing why some fry are weird.

[MissNoodle]

Also... should note I got more oddball fry from this tank. Tank only has my sterbai and what I thought were all aeneus but apparently someone is a sneaky imposter.

I suspect they may be sterbai fry, though I did not witness who laid the eggs, there were some typical aeneus fry mixed in that hatched same day but are twice the size and light coloured. And the tiny dark fry lack the fat bullhead look the aeneus fry typically have too.

This tank has too much surprises and unknowns, I'm done collecting community spawns from this tank lol