Finally got real agassizii... and a question:

[bekateen]

Hi Everybody,

The old impulse buy got the best of me Monday, when I saw a group of 8

Corydoras agassizii

in a LFS. I've seen agassizii in many previous visits to LFSs, and I've always passed on buying them mainly because I already have a number of

Corydoras ambiacus

(which ironically were sold to me as agassizii!). However, these fish caught my eye because they were sitting on black gravel... So? Well, the substrate color caused the fish to darken their own colors, which brought out their full radiance; and as a result, the rusty red coloration on their heads was SPECTACULAR.

I took the plunge and bought them all. Here's a short video of them in quarantine. The colors aren't as striking because the fish are on light-colored sand, but you can still see the rusty red patch of skin (albeit much-faded here) above and behind the eyes on several of the fish.

Here's my question: I know these have been bred in captivity, but I've also heard that both agassizii and ambiacus are a challenge to breed. If that is true, what is the likelihood that these fish are captive bred instead of wild caught? I assume they are captive bred because (1) of the homogeneity of their size and (2) the LFS confirmed that the wholesaler list did not specify "wild caught" (which it will on occasion). Do any of you know if agassizii is a farmed fish? I'm just curious because in the end the answer doesn't matter - this is strictly an academic exercise. Thank you.

Cheers, Eric

Direct link to YouTube: Agassiz's Cory (Corydoras agassizii), new acquisition

[bekateen]

Here are two screen captured images from the video, somewhat showing the rusty red heads of these fish. Again, the red is much more obvious on dark substrate, so maybe I'll break my habit and buy some black sand.

Cheers,
Eric

[AZCatfish]

Those are very handsome cory's Eric. I like the one at the end of your film that is swimming towards the camera with his head in the sand like a plow or the cow catcher on an old locomotive train going thru the snow. That's just too funny to watch! You might try a bag of CaribSea "Sunset Gold" sand if you want to try something between black & white to bring out the cory's colors. I just got a bag from Amazon.com to try. Here is a pic of it with an old penny for comparison. It seems really nice and has a pleasing natural color! -Mike