Corydoras Punctatus

[Barracuda518]

Im a bit confused. I was at the LFS tonight and saw some cories that were labeled "Corydoras Punctatus," but they looked more like C. schwartzi to me. So I came home and did some research on this Corydoras punctatus and found out they are often miss labeled and are actually C. schwartzi, C. ambiacus, C. agassizii, or C. leucomelas. Anyone else noticed this at a LFS?

 

[Polardbear]

Yes. Every lfs around me has tanks of Leucomelas labeled as Punctatus. Which actually worked out ok for me since I wanted a few more Leucomelas, but it is annoying as heck. One of the stores is a good drive so I usually call ahead to find out what species they have on hand and then get there and they are mislabeled. The funniest one though was the orange lazers they had labeled as green lazers.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Barracuda518

This is a very good topic for discussion, because it's a very common thing to buy fish that are misnamed. Perhaps the most common of all is the C. trilineatus which is usually called a C. julii. There is no reason for this since they are both perfectly nice corys.

The funniest one though was the orange lazers they had labeled as green lazers.

Polardbear, it's funny you should say this. Just yesterday I received an order that was supposed to be some green lazers from a seller I believe to be reliable. But the corys I received were definitely orange lazers and not green ones. Here's a picture of them:

Naturally, I sent him an email. I thought perhaps I got someone else's fish. He replied that they were green lasers because he didn't have any orange ones. I can't figure this one out!

 

[Betterbettas]

Hi Barracuda518

This is a very good topic for discussion, because it's a very common thing to buy fish that are misnamed. Perhaps the most common of all is the C. trilineatus which is usually called a C. julii. There is no reason for this since they are both perfectly nice corys.

There's a simple reason for this ! All of these names are given to the fish from the people who catch them in the countries where they were exported from. These are long standing names for these fish and there is no explaining to them that these names are incorrect ! This is what they have called them for the past 50+ years and they most certainly are going to take the word of some gringo like myself.

In the past few years we have been fortunate that people like Ian Fuller, Hans Georg Evers, and Dr. Joachim Knaack have taken the time to accurately identify all of these species as it can be quite overwhelming !

Thankfully, many of the exporters are using the newest books to identify their catches but they still have a ways to go on being more accurate !

As for C. trilineatus which is usually called a C. julii, that's simple. Way back when it C. trilineatus was identified as C. julii and it has stuck ! C.julii is rarely imported to the hobby and most people couldn't tell the difference even if they were both in the same tank !

 

[Barracuda518]

Yes. Every lfs around me has tanks of Leucomelas labeled as Punctatus. Which actually worked out ok for me since I wanted a few more Leucomelas, but it is annoying as heck. One of the stores is a good drive so I usually call ahead to find out what species they have on hand and then get there and they are mislabeled. The funniest one though was the orange lazers they had labeled as green lazers.

Yeah, I am almost certain they are C. leucomelas. I stared at them for a while and then went back to my computer to do more research and kept narrowing it down. I think the deciding factor is more black coloring on the dorsel fin. I dont really care what kind they are, I like them the same and will care for them the same. They will be really happy once the 55 gallon is up and running

Inchworm, You can clearly see the orange lazer on those cories. Did you show them that picture? I guess im going to have to win an auction to get some green/orange lasers, because they are no where to found around here. Seems like you are having a lot of bad luck with the cories lately

Good Luck and I hope everything works out