Identification?

[Nosphaer]

Hello,

I'm going to adopt some cory cats soon, for my freshwater tank. (Size, 36 gallons)

I'm primarily curious about knowing of the common names of mistitled catfish.

I've heard that Brochis get bunched in with the Corydoras a lot, and I want to know as much as I can about the fish I'm taking in, so, in a nutshell, which catfish of the Brochis are referred to as a "Cory" in stores?

I saw some "emerald cory catfish" at an LFS, and I was wondering why they didn't look quite like I thought they would. My boyfriend had to tell me that I wasn't crazy, and I learned a bit about the debated biological categorization, and its contested state.

 

[Wills]

Emerald Cories are actually Brochis, I think they are Brochis Splendis you can kind of tell them apart I think by the face the Cories have rounded faces and Brochis look like they have swam into a wall at high speed.

Wills

 

[Nosphaer]

Emerald Cories are actually Brochis, I think they are Brochis Splendis you can kind of tell them apart I think by the face the Cories have rounded faces and Brochis look like they have swam into a wall at high speed.

Wills

Well, that's great to know. I'll keep my eyes open, and look sharply for any less rounded facial structure XD

Thanks... I'm still curious if any other Brochis catfish are rather misnamed.

 

[Wills]

There are only a handful of Brochis species and not many of them turn up in the hobby that often I think I have seen 3 of the 5 listed here http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/genus.php?genus_id=31#165

Wills

 

[mattlee]

brochis should also have a taller body compared to the normal corydoras.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

One of the easiest ways in identifying Brochis is counting the number of rays on their dorsal fin, as Corydoras all have less that eight (if memory serves me right) and the various Brochis species have anything from 10(?) through to a whopping 17 in B. multiradiatus. The only one I've ever encountered as mislabelled as a Corydoras is B. splendens, as "Emerald green cory."

In terms of size and behaviour, these are somewhere between your common Corydoras (Peppered, Trilineatus, Sterbai etc.) and the more elongated Callichthys/Megalechis/Hoplosternum species, in that they tend to reach closer to 10cm and their more boisterous behaviour plus eating habits make them a safer mix with loaches.

For such a small number of Brochis species so far identified, the temperature requirements do vary somewhat eg. multiradiatus need a sub-tropical tank of ~21C while splendens do well at typical midrange tropical temps of ~24C and can tolerate high-end tropical 28C for periods.Something else I just remembered that might be worth adding is that some of this family are not "happy bunnies" in shallow tanks, they like deep water in excess of 18".

 

[Nosphaer]

Goodness... Thank you all very much for the help. I feel that a lot of my questions have been answered. Given the previous reply, I have to ask this: are Corydoras at all difficult to keep with loaches?

I'm glad to know about the depth, temperature, and I'm greatly aided by the approximations on their dorsal fins, as this will all come in handy. I should be taking notes o:

 

[Inchworm]

...you can kind of tell them apart I think by the face the Cories have rounded faces and Brochis look like they have swam into a wall at high speed.

Not correct. Note the shape of this B. multiradiatis.

... are Corydoras at all difficult to keep with loaches?

It depends on the loach. I've kept kulii loaches with corys and had no problems whatsoever. On the other hand, I would not even try to keep something big, like a clown loach, with them. These loaches are just too big and active to share the same space with them.

 

[Nosphaer]

Thank you, Inchworm. I was very curious about khulis in particular, and their interactions with the Corydoras.