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A few weeks ago I bought a cory that was sold to me as C. zygatus, and until now I had no doubt that's what it was. It looks relatively similar to the C. zygatus I see on the internet (enough to convince me of its identity) except for one thing - a black dorsal fin.

My cory's dorsal fin is black in the upper half, but no other pictures I have seen of C. zygatus have this. The difference in patterning cannot be age-related because I have seen pictures of both juvenile and adult C. zygatus, and neither of them have this black area. I also looked at many pictures of C. rabauti, and that didn't have the black area either.

Does anyone know if my cory is C. zygatus or not? And if not, do you have any clue on what it could be? Could it be an undescribed species?

He was the the only cory in the whole store labled as C. zygatus, so I was not able to compare him to any other corys.

Thanks for the help! Here is a picture of him:

Hi!

Your fish really does not look like a Corydoras zygatus
Check here about ... you can compare it to your fish ...

Your cory has the body shape of the member of the Corydoras elegans group...
but I don't see what species he might be.... any chance to make other/better pictures
Cheers
Yannundefined

Here is a slightly better picture (I think). The fish is about 1" long, if that helps anything.

It's pretty close to a female C. elegans?

Jools

It's similar to female C. elegans, but there are also some fundemental differences between them:

1. My cory does not have any mottled coloration, the color is completely smooth.

2. The black area on the fins is completely solid - no spots.

3. C. elegans is a metallic green color, while my cory is coppery colored.



Other than those differences, it seems like a pretty good match.

Do you think the differences could be age/size related?

Here is another pic, just because... uhhh... I like posting pictures!

Yeah, but adult male and female C. elegans look entirely different! I stick with my opinion, this is a female C. elegans.

Jools

Thanks for identifying him (I mean her )!

After looking at lots of pictures, I think I like the look of C. elegans (even the females) better than C. zygatus.

But then there's also that part of me saying, "Damn, one of your rare corys didn't turn out to be so rare afterall."

On one website, I saw that C. elegans and C. bilineatus (the other cory in the last photo) are in the same 'group' of corys.

While we're on the topic of identifying corys, this guy does look like C. bilineatus, right?

I would hate to think my LFS would mislable two kinds of corys.

Fish demon
I think your fish is actually a C. napoensis, both species females can look identical except for the black dorsal blotch

C. zygatus


C . elegans female


Your other fish does look like C. bilineatus.

Ian

Well, at least I got the gender right! I didn't really see the black spot...

Jools

This is getting confusing!



EDIT: Nevermind ! I just saw this:

Your other fish does look like C. bilineatus.

Thanks for your help!

I'm the moron who mislabled the C. zygatus. Funny, the picture does not look very much like the fish I had labled. Of course the tank had insufficient lighting and a lousy red gravel ( 0.5 - 1.0 cm !). Since starting work at the store, I have been spending as much time as possible rounding up all the strays, and trying to properly id them. I've even found a shinner ( Notropis altipinnis) in a tetra tank. We are realy very understaffed. I'm the only one trying to straighten things out. Its likely that I'll make some mistakes, but I don't think I normally mess up this badly. I was unsure of my identification to begin with, but if I had seen these pictures, I would never have even though about C.zygatus. I'm very puzzled how I could have made the ID I did. At least I got the C. biliniatus right! Next time I'm uncomfortable with one of my IDs, I'll make sure to tell the manager to place a question mark next to the name.

Oh, and thanks for taking the time and interest to find out what you had bought. And thanks for telling me what you had discovered. Scouring Fish stores looking for "contaminates" and other unidentifieds, buying them, and IDing them has been one of the funnest parts of this hobby for me. I have ended up with some awsome stuff this way, e.g. Glossogobius aureus, one of the prettiest gobies there is ( N.B. I have never seen a photo that does this fish justis). Its kind of ashame that the supply chain does not provide this sort of thing too much anymore. About the only fun anymore are the sunfishes that sometimes come in with the feeder goldfish, and the Fundilus (etc) found with the ghost shrimp.


thx bob

Natalie,

IMO closest to your fish is Corydoras sp. C 41 from Rondonia (See Evers, H.-G. 1996 Panzerwelse aus Brasilien DATZ 49(3): 172-173. Unfortunatly i couldn't find a pic online, but the coloration of your fish almost exactly matches the picture of C41 in DATZ.

Greetings,

Achim

Bob - No worries! Part of the fun in keeping corys is identifying them! I am trying to get ahold of job application so I can hopefully work in your store, and assist in the identifying of the corys.

Achim - Thanks for the help! I will try to find a picture of the species you listed, and see if it looks like mine.

Thanks!

Achim - My fish is indeed C41! I just got a copy of "All Corydoras", and my fish looks nearly exactly like the one in the photo of C41.

Here is a comparison:

Aqualog cory


My cory



Thanks for the help everyone!

BTW: My tank does not actually look like that anymore (all the algae). I got some SAE's a while ago and they cleaned it all up.

Fish Demon wrote:BTW: My tank does not actually look like that anymore (all the algae). I got some SAE's a while ago and they cleaned it all up.

Maybe I'm just wierd, but I think it looked cool. I've always thought many of the hair algaes can be quite attractive, even black brush algae can look great if "pruned" regularly.
It can also do a great job of hiding unsightly things like filter tubes.... heh

..and I'm glad to see you finally found your cory's elusive ID, nice little fish there.


Tyler