The saddle-snouted Corydoras serratus from the upper Rio Negro region in Brazil is one of the most sought-after armored catfish. Because the saddle-snouted Corydoras, in contrast to the long-snouted and round-snouted former (now assigned to other genera) Corydoras, tend to be solitary fish, they cannot be caught economically in large numbers. This and the fact that incredible prices were sometimes paid for these fish in Japan made them top rarities on the ornamental fish market for a long time.
There are several breeders of these beautiful fish. It is interesting to note that these offspring are quite different in color. Although the breeder only breeds animals that visually correspond to the ideal image of C. serratus (with a broad dorsal band from the base of the dorsal fin to the tail), there are also specimens among their offspring that only have a vertical stripe under the dorsal fin instead of a continuous dorsal band.
Such variance has also been observed in wild-caught specimens, but there was still uncertainty as to whether these were not other, closely related species. This question was clarified by the captive bred specimens. Nowadays, of course, the initial fuss made about this Corydoras has long since given way to a more sober approach, but word has still not got around that C. serratus is a very variably colored species.
We receive adult wild-caught specimens of this beautiful armored catfish from time to time. They show the described variance in coloration, but most of them have the broad and long dorsal stripe. We have attached a picture to this post showing a group of freshly imported wild-caught fish; the variability is clearly visible
For our customers: the animals have code 245614 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
