🐡 FOTM ENTER NOW - April 2025 Fish of the Month (Corydoras)

[connorlindeman]

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Enter Now

It's time for Fishforums bimonthly Fish of the Month Contest. This month we are featuring Corydoras. If you have that species in your household, we hope will enter one of them into the contest.
Please note that if you won a previous FOTM contest, you must skip one FOTM contest before you can enter a different fish in another FOTM contest.

RULES:
A picture (no videos) uploaded via our "attach files" tool with a handwritten note held in front of the fish stating "April 2025 TFF FOTM" is required to validate your entry. If you wish, you may also post a second recent picture without the note attached. If you do post a 2nd pic, that will be the pic that will be used for the poll. The picture(s) should focus on one fish.
Upload the picture(s) in FULL SIZE using upload controls in "reply" area.

• UNDER the picture(s), post any information about the fish such as species, age, tank mates, tank size, name you gave it , unique traits, feedings, etc.
• Submit the entry
• Latest date for you to enter the contest is April 23th at 4 PM ET or once we have 12 entries--whichever comes first. Any entry posted after we have 12 entries will be deleted and they will be asked to enter the next FOTM contest.
• Winner will be decided by fellow members via a poll which starts after the entry period has ended.
• Please note: you are not allowed to have friends or family join TFF for the main purpose of voting for your entry

What do I win?

• You will get a cool banner in your profile area noting that you are a winner of Fish of the Month.
• Your winning entry will be showcased in a "FOTM Winner" thread where members can congratulate you.
• Your winning entry will be added to our Wall of Fame

You are allowed to change your vote if you wish.
Comments about any specific entry are not allowed and will promptly be deleted. This thread will be cleaned up frequently for readability.

 

[connorlindeman]

@Magnum Man. I have delivered the contest theme you requested.

 

[CassCats]

I have 7 species of corydoras at the moment, it made it very, very difficult to choose which for this contest

In the end, I've opted for a sentimental species rather than one of my more flashy species.

Several years back I started with a group of hoplisoma trilineatum and then added a couple hoplisoma paleatum. These made up my first groups of cories and basically were my gateway to several others.

However, these fish ended up needing to be culled 1.5 years ago because of camallanus worms that became drug resistant and would not go away. However, a week before the cull, upon cleaning the tank, I had came across a bunch of cory eggs. I collected them and separated them to a separate nursery. At this point, they could have been any species from that tank (paleatum, panda, elegans, trilineatum, weitzmani). I didn't know for a couple weeks until the fry developed more.

I was devastated to lose that entire tank, a massive amount of my corydoras as well.

But, those fry I raised turned out to be hoplisoma paleatum, and when I rebuilt the tank after a couple months of leaving it dry and getting it back all cycled, I built the setup around them. 13 hoplisoma paleatum raised from my original group. I added 2 unrelated males to the group, totalling me 15 of them now, since the ones I raised ended up all being female anyways.

So, this is Fish. She is one of those hoplisoma paleatum I raised from my original group of lost fish. She is named Fish because if you look at one of her dark spots on her side, it is shaped like a little cartoon fish, or even a Goldfish cracker. It is a unique marking to her, none of her sisters share the same mark.

These paleatum are very valuable to me, even though they are one of the most common cories in the hobby. They're a small piece I've got from my originals, and now in turn, they themselves have bred and I've now raised a third generation as well.

This species may be common in the hobby, but I feel that it's unique patterns among the individuals can differentiate them to us better so we can give them unique names and know which is which fish. They also can grow to a good size, I've had a female from my original group reach over 3 inches. They tend to be more lanky in build compared to the most common in the hobby, osteogaster aenea. In good lighting, they shine with a foil-like blue iridescence, which is especially bold on their face and gill plates. This species comes from regions far south in South America, often from relatively cold water. Wild fish are known to come from habitats as cold as 59.9°F! The species tends to do better when kept cooler, even compared to other cories who also do better in cooler temperatures.

If noticed, I am calling them by their new name, hoplisoma paleatum. They used to be called corydoras paleatus, but late 2024 they were among the rest of the corydoras lineages that were reclassified to several new genus names.


Care info:
Temperature: 59.9-77°F or 15-25°C

Parameters: pH 6-7 | 1-12°DGH

Origin: Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil

Tank size: 20 gallon long for 6 fish to start

Diet: mostly insectivorous, vegetation is very limited in their diet. An insect based pellet with a rotation of frozen or live foods is best, algae wafers should remain a treat.

Other needs: sand substrate is a must, keeping in groups is a must. Appreciates good water flow. A mature setup is necessary as they are sensitive to swings in parameters common in immature tanks.



Verification photo:

 

[Magnum Man]

curious if this is open to fish formerly known as Cory???

I also have multiple varieties of Cory, only 4 different ones here... this is one of my fat & happy sterbai's, I believe after reclassification, they are still known as a Corydoras??? coincidentally these guys are not on sand, and are about 3 years old... they are in my South American Tetra tank, on a fine river gravel, with rounded edges... these guys don't sit still like my mature aeneus's do, so it took 4-5 try's at pictures to get one, that wasn't a more blurry "action" photo than this...

 

[CassCats]

I'll put up a verification picture later... curious if this is open to fish formerly known as Cory???

this is one of my fat & happy sterbai's, I believe after reclassification, they are still known as a Corydoras
... coincidentally these guys are not on sand, and are about 3 years old... they are in my South American Tetra tank, on a fine river gravel, with rounded edges... these guys don't sit still like my aeneus's do, so it took 4-5 pictures to get one, that wasn't a more blurry "action" photo than this...
View attachment 365531

If it was restricted to only what's NOW called corydoras genus, I doubt they'd have any entries. Former lineage 1 is now what's called corydoras only, and they're not majorly kept outside of most corydoras circles.

After the reclassification, sterbai is now hoplisoma sterbai, but it's still a "cory" as we know it, like how tetras are all tetras regardless if they've been moved to hyphessobrycon, bario, hemigrammus, nematobrycon, etc.

So I think we should be safe

 

[Fishkeeper123]

I’ll enter

Here’s one of my sterbai corys. He lives in my 48 gallon community tank. Which is kept at 24-25 degrees. He’s one of 5 of my cories and happily goes around the tank, normally in duos of trios. His favourite food is definitely vibra bites which is fed around twice a week. He also eats algae wafers, frozen daphnia, bug bites and some pellets. Sorry about the algae in the photos.

 

[connorlindeman]

Who's entering next?

 

[connorlindeman]

Voting will begin in less then 24 hours. I am hoping for a few more entry's before then. Who will it be?

 

[connorlindeman]

I have added an additional 24 hours to this contest in the hopes of additional entries. If you are seeing this and you keep corydoras, please consider entering.