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Rare-ish Corydoras ID please!

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 14:18
by xsu-xsu
I bought 3 new pairs of corydoras today from my LFS who gets them in for me.

I can identify/confirm one pair as c. semiaquilus sp. Black Peru.

The other two came in as c. huanta and c. milagros, neither of which are in my Aqualog book and the Blue Yonder site has vanished!! I can see no diference between the Black Perus and the Huantas. Other clues, they are all huge, ranging from 7-10 cm!!

They are absolutely stunning!!

Help?

C. Milagros?

Image

C. Semiaquilus 'Black Peru'

Image

C. Huanta

Image

Image

Has anyone heard of these types of corydoras?

All your help is appreciated in advance!! Looking forward to finding out what these are! Anyone have any way of distinguishing between Black Peru and Huanta?

See also my gallery link: -

http://www.corydorasworld.com/planetcat ... Corymaniac

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 14:25
by Silurus
Actually, Ian's site is still up here.
The names Huanta and Milagros are trade names, and not validly published ones, which is why they don't show up in Aqualog.
Your Huantas actually look more like the real C. semiaquilus and your semiaquilus black peru are C. fowleri, I think.

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 15:34
by Caol_ila
Hi!

HH has been up to a challenge as so often...i agree with him.

What interests me is if theyve shown the midlevel swimming that got em their name?

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 15:37
by Silurus
What interests me is if theyve shown the midlevel swimming that got em their name?
Actually, the name semiaquilus literally means "half dark" and has nothing to do with their swimming habits.

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 15:50
by Caol_ila
oops i messed that up witht that freeswimming cory...some s name too...it was a long night of work last night sorry for my mistake.

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 15:52
by xsu-xsu
Ok, so what are the differences between c. huanta and c. Black Peru pictures so that I can tell them apart!!

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 15:59
by xsu-xsu
Actually, looking at Ian's site, the one labelled as c. milagros looks exactly like the semiaquilus on his site.

c. semiaquilus from Ian's site

Image

None of them can be fowleri, markings are way different. The body stripe goes from top to bottom on fowleri. Also, according to Ian's site, fowleri are too small to be these fish.

c. fowleri from Ian's site

Image

Still looking at the fish to see any differences. I can see none between what came in as Black Peru and Huantas, so is it fair to say that all of my new corys are semiaquilus or variations of?

1 - c semiaquilus

2- c semiaquilus 'Black Peru'

3 - c semiaquilus 'Black Peru'

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 16:07
by Silurus
You're probably right. They don't look that much different. I just thought some of the pics of fowleri in the Cat-eLog look like your fish. It seems that both C. fowleri and C. semiaquilus reach similar sizes (according to CLOFFSCA).

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 16:11
by xsu-xsu
Yes, I've just looked in my Aqualog All Corydoras book, and it does seem that fowleri and semiaquilus reach similar sizes. However, the picture of fowleri in the Aqualog is nearly identical to that on Ian's site. I think I can fairly safely say that none of these are fowleri.

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 16:38
by xsu-xsu
By the way, how rare are these? I paid 8 quid each for them. Is this about right?

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 18:08
by Coryman
Ok Guys,
Just thought I would put a couple off pence worth into the discussion.

All three names are as HH says just trade names for colour variants of the same species. They are all caught from within the known range of C. semiaquilus

Exporters are getting very cute and in the last couple of years have started putting new names to well known species just because it has minor colour differences, they usually use the name of the location where the fish was collected.

My site has been a little stagnent lately but will shortly be having some major revisions, especially the Cory sections. I am in the process of writing a new book purely on the Identification of all Corydoradinae species including sections on C numbers and the many unidentified odballs.

Ian

Posted: 31 Jul 2003, 18:53
by xsu-xsu
Thanks for that Coryman!!

You're information makes a lot of sense. So in other words, I've bought 3 pairs of c semiaquilus where normally I would have just bought the single pair, on the perception that they were three different species!!! Gits!!!

Still, they are fully-grown adults and are huge!! I love them anyway!!

I'll have to enter them in a show!!

BTW, does anyone know of any site that gives a list of a ll the fish clubs or aquarist societies in Britain?

Posted: 01 Aug 2003, 08:14
by Caol_ila
OK if anybody thought my comment on the name/swimming habits might have been stupid it originated in a language mixup...the german name for C.semiaquilus is "Flügelpanzerwels" which means "winged cory". And Mergus Bd.5 reads as follows on this: The Sp. drifts in open water "like a bird" (hence the name)
First import in 1996 to Aquarium Glaser, Germany. Lives in blackwater with Apistogramma nijseni.

Posted: 01 Aug 2003, 12:40
by Jools
Silurus wrote:You're probably right. They don't look that much different. I just thought some of the pics of fowleri in the Cat-eLog look like your fish. It seems that both C. fowleri and C. semiaquilus reach similar sizes (according to CLOFFSCA).
I'm hoping to get better pictures of both in the cat-elog, in fact I hope to mirror Ian's review of his site with updates to Planet. We have not really reviewed <I>Corydoras</I> on Planet for 3.5 years now.

Jools

Posted: 01 Aug 2003, 13:44
by xsu-xsu
If you want to use any of my pics, you're more than welcome!!

Tell me if you do though, so that I can point it out to everyone I know!!!

Posted: 01 Aug 2003, 16:01
by Charly EON
Check this web site to illustrate what Ian said about new names for old species

http://www.oafa-aquarium.com/general.htm

but sometyimes also appears new names for new species !!

If your LFS have different suppliers he can easily get the same fish with different names

Regards...

Posted: 01 Aug 2003, 17:55
by xsu-xsu
Can anyone order corys from this site or do you have to be 'trade'?

How can we go about wangling something from them?

Posted: 01 Aug 2003, 18:06
by Silurus
These are exporters, so they do not do retail. They only way you can get fish from them is if you ask an importer to order from them.

Posted: 02 Aug 2003, 00:01
by Coryman
xsu-xsu

If you are looking for a good club and with your interest in catfish you could always join the Catfish Study Group, Jools just happens to be the Membership Secretary.

Ian
Chairman CSG

Posted: 07 Aug 2003, 18:49
by philtre
Is it just me or does the first picture appears to have a dorsal blotch while the other two sp that you showed don't?
:)

btw, werner seussi book do have some interesting pointers as to how to differentiate the fowleri and the coriate. can't really remember anything about semiaquilius. erm ... just FYI. hope that helps somewhat.

regards
phil