This pretty, at most 5 cm long corydoras wandered for many years under different names through the aquariums, until it was finally described in 1997 by Steven Grant as an independent species: Corydoras kanei. Unfortunately the description is flawed by the fact that the type specimens came from the trade and therefore the type locality is not exactly known (probably from the area of Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil, maybe Rio Branco). This is a pity with this group of taxonomically complicated armored catfishes, but it cannot be helped.
Corydoras kanei is relatively easy to distinguish from all other spotted Corydoras with round, short snouts by the following combination of characteristics: a distinct eye mask is present; the first rays of the dorsal fin are usually black; there is no sharply defined saddle patch below the dorsal fin; a fine banding of the caudal fin composed of dots. Not everything is always pronounced in a perfect, textbook manner in every individual, but on the whole the species is readily recognizable, which, incidentally, Grant named after his sick son.
In the aquarium C. kanei is a pure joy, because it is a lively, hardly shy armored catfish, which is easy to maintain and also to breed.
For our customers: the animals have code 232802 on our stocklist. Please note that we supply only wholesale.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
