Bronze corydoras

Metal armored catfish

The metal armored catfish ( Corydoras aeneus, Latin for " aeneus " - bronze, coppery ), also gold stripe catfish, is a species of fish from the family of armored catfish and calluses. The species name refers to the metallic luster of the animals.

Description

The typical genus in habit metal armored catfish reached a total length of about seven inches. Males stay smaller than their female counterparts in the rule. The ground color varies from yellowish brown and light red The upper half of the body is dark colored. A narrow, yellowish longitudinal ligament runs from the upper edge of the gill cover below the base of the dorsal fin. The fins are translucent yellowish to reddish brown.

• Fins formula: Dorsal 1/7; Anal 1/6-7; Pectoral 1/7; Ventral fifth:

Occurrence

The species is a large part of the tropical and subtropical South America east of the Andes in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Guyana and the three in Trinidad before.

Way of life

Metal armored catfish live in small flocks of 20 to 30 animals. They are omnivorous, so omnivorous and eat worms, small crustaceans, insect larvae and detritus. With the beginning of the rainy season the metal armored catfish spawn and lay up to 20 eggs per copulation from. The fast-growing larvae hatch after about three days. To 100 to 400 eggs are produced over the entire spawning period.

System

The metal armored catfish is the eponymous nature of the Corydoras aeneus group, a monophyletic, relatively homogeneous group within the paraphyletic genus Corydoras. In 1871 by Cope Osteogaster the generic name for the group was proposed. It includes, in addition to the various forms of metal armored catfish, Corydoras eques, Corydoras melanotaenia, the rust catfish ( Corydoras rabauti ) and Corydoras zygatus.

Overall, the metal armor catfish is highly variable and it has by far the largest area of ​​distribution of all Corydoras species. Probably there is a group of different, closely related species together. Some forms have been described as separate species (C. macrosteus, C. and C. schultzei venezulanus ) later synonymized with Corydoras aeneus but again. Type locality is Trinidad. The metal armored catfish this island are 6-7 cm long and have such a strong metallic luster that is hard to see the dark side coloring yet. The C. venezulanus - type found in the current system of the Orinoco, is slightly smaller than other " metal armored catfish " and has on the body sides, a black spot, which is lined often reddish brown. The in German referred to as the gold stripe catfish C. schultzei - form lives in the Amazon basin and has a wide golden stripe above the pectoral fins. In small blackwater rivers in the area of ​​the Río Ucayali in Peru Gold Stripe Corydoras life-like armored catfish, which are referred to in the hobby as "Yellow Lasers", "Green Laser" and "Orange Lasers", C- numbers CW014, CW009 and CW010 and a luminous have side stripes. The value held in European aquariums metal armored catfish type comes from the river systems of the Río Paraná and Río Paraguay. He is deep-bodied than the C. schultzei shape and has only one discreet gold stripes.

Cultivated forms

Early on, many breeders began dazzling variations from the slightly shiny wild species to breed. From 1990, the first specially bred albino forms came on the market, which confuse the albino form of the marbled catfish tank to be similar. Meanwhile, there are also blackish molds and metal armored catfish with veil fins. Both forms were grown in Eastern Europe.