New catfish! (Cory mystery solved)

[TankGirl]

Long story, sorry!

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine that she needed to come over and ID my cory cats, since she has a particular interest in aquarium catfish and I really did not know what kind I had. I have had them for 3-4 years now and I never see them at the LFS (which is where I got them originally) and I had no idea what they were, though based on pics on Planetcatfish.com I thought they were C. delphax. She said she'd be happy to come over and help me with that.

I went to the LFS to get some C. paleatus for a friend, since I have a Q-tank set up right now, and lo and behold, what do I see but 3 C. delphax, and they look exactly like what I have! I could not beleive the coincidence, since I always check out corys at the LFS and never see mine. I got the three that they had.

Here they are, and if anyone thinks they are not C. delphax please let me know, I don't want the mystery to continue!

 

[Rach101]

Hrm.. My petstore dosnt even put the scientific name up. I just recently bought a cory that looks exactly like that under the name of spotted cory. But ofcourse, they also called a oscar a "big mouth gold fish"before to so

 

[TankGirl]

You are right - common names cause so much confusion. Spotted cories are "usually" C. paleatus, which have several color patterns, but it is so much better to use a scientific name. I think the C. delphax actually has several color morphs as well and I think some were given a different name before it was determined that they belonged under C. delphax. It is so confusing, and it changes all the time! These are close enough to what I already have (though mine are bigger as adults) that I am very happy with the find.

 

[lmw80]

well, although I can't help in identification, I must say that they are quite adorable cories!

 

[Fluff]

Wow TG. You might have just helped me ID some cories. I bought four young panda cories about a year ago but as they matured and colored up, only one of them now looks like a panda. The others are banded and spotted like in your pics. Very nice cats. Congrats on the acquisition!!