Tag Archives: arcuatus

Corydoras arcuatus “Purus”

25. January 2019

The skunk cory is one of the most famous Corydoras species – you might think! In reality it is most probably a scientifically undescribed species, while Corydoras arcuatus – this scientific name is used for the skunk cory – is hardly ever on the market. But regardless of that: the regularly in large numbers available skunk corys come from Peru and become about 5 cm long. 

From Brazil, more precisely from the basin of the Rio Purus (the Rio Purus is a more than 3,200 km long right tributary of the Amazon, which originates in the Peruvian Andes and flows into the Amazon about 150 km west of Manaus) come skunk corys, which become much bigger (6-7 cm). Mostly, these fish have a dark-gray back-fin spine (very much more brightly with “ordinary” skunk corys), is to be distinguished otherwise however from the smaller remaining skunk corys not colorwise.

Now we received, together with our imports of the Corydoras cf. urucu (https://www.aquariumglaser.de/en/fish-archives/corydoras-cf-urucu-2/), young of the skunk cory from the Rio Purus. They are clearly slimmer than about the same size Peru skunk corys, often have a fine drawing in the tail fin (the tail fin is transparent with Peru skunk corys) and above all a strong black tip of the dorsal fin. Such a thing never occurs with Peruvian skunk corys.

For our customers: the skunk corys from Purus in Brazil have code 222022 (3-4 cm), 222024 (6-7 cm), those from Peru 222004 (4-5 cm) on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.

Text & Photos: Frank Schäfer

Corydoras cf. urucu

2. November 2018

Once again we were able to import a new catfish, whose identity raises many questions. The fish were offered to us as Corydoras evelynae, a species that was described by only one specimen with a very inaccurate location (“upper Solimoes”, which includes an area larger than Germany). Our new imports were collected in the surroundings of Labrina in the Rio Mucuin in the central entry of the Rio Purus. According to our exporters there are very similar fish also in Rio Urucu and Rio Jutai, both tributaries of the Solimoes, but very far away from Rio Mucuim.

If one disregards the place of discovery, our new imports are very similar to Corydoras urucu, which was described in 2009 from the river of the same name. However, C. urucu is said to be a dwarf species that should not grow larger than 2-3 cm, while our largest animals are well twice as big. Obviously, this is a species complex that needs to be explored in more detail.

Our fish are very variable in terms of pattern. In fact, some animals are coloured similar to C. evelynae and have a back bandage dissolved to dots, while the majority of animals remind of Corydoras arcuatus in colour. However, the body shape is quite different from that of C. arcuatus and is more reminiscent of the relatives of C. loretoensis.

For our customers: the animals have code 248105 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply wholesalers.

Text & photos: Frank Schäfer