Please ID this cory for me

Mean Harri

jeaninel

Hmmm...I don't know. I may have to disagree with you guys on the ID. Sterbai usually will have orange fins. On their head they have a dark colored background with yellowish/orange dots and their body is a yellowish/orange background with dark spots. This guy from the pic looks more black/white colored.

LisaC144

The fish will pick at the veggies too, not justthe cories/pleco, right? If so, I'll try a piece tomorrow and see how they like it.

Byron

I'm afraid that is not Corydoras sterbai. The reticulated pattern is quite different, and there is no orange on the pectoral fin spines.

There are two near-identical species that at first glance appear the same. Corydoras reticulatus and C. sodalis. I have the former presently, I have had the latter in the 1990's. Burgess says the pattern on C. sodalis can be variable, but always the dorsal distinguishes it from C. reticulatus; in the latter, the dorsal has a black blotch, albeit somewhat variable too, whereas C. sodalis has a dorsal with dark bands.

See photos below. C. sodalis is the top and middle fish, note the difference in the reticulation and the second is more like your fish; C. reticulatus is lower fish.

A lovely species, either one. In my experience, tends to remain out of sight more; I catch only brief glimpses when observing the tank, but at feeding times they are out. One of the slightly larger species, growing to about 2.5 inches, what I refer to as medium-large. The "large" are 4+ inches, and the medium around 2 inches; small dwarfs at 1 inch of course.

Byron.

Attached Images

	Corydoras sodalis.jpg (47.5 KB, 22 views)
	Corydoras sodalis2.jpg (32.7 KB, 21 views)
	Corydoras reticulatus.jpg (71.8 KB, 21 views)

LisaC144

Mine looks just like the C. Sodalis with the patterning on the dorsal fin. He's definitely on the medium-large side....not quite as large as 4" though. Now I hope my LFS has them in stock. They're stocking is always so random and the other LFS in the area doesn't carry much. Any idea if this type will shoal with other cories (in case they don't have them in stock) or is it more of a hit or miss thing with shoaling with other species?

Byron

This species isn't a 4-inch one, it is 2.5 I think I mentioned. Both these species are extremely rare where I am, only once have I ever seen them. May be different in Cal though, I would expect they can be found or at any rate ordered by mail from Corys-R-Us or other reliable places. As for shoaling with others, yes they will to be happy, better than nothing as at present. I actually only have one C. reticulatus now (the other two packed it in) and he seems to spend a fair bit of time with the C. leopardus which is very similar and same size, that may be it.

LisaC144

I'm actually from PA A suburb outside of Philadelphia At any rate, I think I'm going to have a hard time finding them again as well. I only saw them once. I think I will try to find cories that look similar to him and perhaps similar size if I cannot find his breed again. Thanks, Byron!

Byron

I must have been thinking of Stephanie. I sent her some plants in Cal, unfortunately they took a week (US postal service this time) and didn't survive. The ones I sent to Texas were fine, different species though.

FishinPole is in PA, he has a good store nearby and has ordered from Corys-R-Us with success. Send him a PM.

B.

Angel079

I often found if you only have 1-2 Corys of a given species in a tank and then add a group of let's say 6-7 of another species they tent to school together better then if you have existing 4-5Corys and add another kind of 4-5 Corys. So yours just being 1 alone I think chances are very good he/she will join the gang

LisaC144

Ok that makes me feel better hearing that! I'm going to give things a couple weeks to calm down a bit, make sure there's PLENTY of BB in the tank before I buy more cories. Hoping to have greater success this time around.