Cory cat: Corydoras aeneus
Cory cat: Corydoras aeneus

The cory cat is also known as bronze corydoras, bronze catfish, lightspot corydoras or wavy catfish. It is native to South America commonly found on the eastern side of the Andes, from Colombia and Trinidad to the Rio de la Plata basin (Wikipedia, 2010). This species was introduced in Bangladesh from Thailand by the aquarium fish traders in 2009 (Galib and Mohsin, 2010 and 2011). Average lifespan is 10 years (Wikipedia, 2010).

Systematic position
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes)
Order: Siluriformes (Catfishes)
Family: Callichthyidae (Callichthyid armored catfishes)
Genus: Corydoras
Species: C. aeneus

Synonyms
Callichthys aeneus (Gill, 1858)
Corydoras macrosteus Regan, 1912
Corydoras microps Eigenmann and Kennedy, 1903
Corydoras schultzei Holly, 1940
Corydoras venezuelanus Ihering, 1911
Hoplosoma aeneum Gill, 1858.

Morphology: Body elongated and compressed posteriorly. It has a yellow or pink body, white belly and a blue-grey over its head and back. Fins are yellow or pink and immaculate. Barbels 3 pairs.

Maximum length: 5.8 cm (Galib and Mohsin, 2011).

Food and feeding: Feeds on worms, crustaceans, insects and plant matter (Mills and Vevers, 1989). Bottom dweller and takes almost all the feeds available commercially in aquarium (Galib and Mohsin, 2011).

Breeding and sexing: Reproduction occurs with the onset of rainy season (Wikipedia, 2010). Females spawn 10-20 egg-clutches with multiple males at a time, but an entire egg clutch is inseminated by sperm of a single male (Kohda et al., 2002). Like many other catfish, females are larger than males in this species (Khoda et al., 2002).

Diseases: No information of disease in Bangladesh (Galib and Mohsin, 2011).

Economic importance: Used as ornamental fish in Bangladesh and retail price varied between BDT 100-150 per pair (Galib and Mohsin, 2011).

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REFERENCES

Eigenmann CH and Kennedy CH. 1903. On a collection of fishes from Paraguay, with a synopsis of the American genera of cichlids. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 55:497-537.

Galib SM and Mohsin ABM. 2010. Exotic Ornamental Fishes of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Journal of Progressive Science and Technology, 8(2): 255-258.

Galib SM and Mohsin ABM. 2011. Cultured and Ornamental Exotic Fishes of Bangladesh Past and Present, LAP-Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, pp. 88-89.

Gill TN. 1858. Synopsis of the fresh water fishes of the western portion of the island of Trinidad, W. I. Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, 6: 363-430.

Ihering R von.  1911. Algumas especies novas de peixes d’agua doce (Nematognatha) (Corydoras, Plecotsomus, Hemipsilichthys). Revista do Museo São Paulo, 8:380-404.

Kohda, M., Yonebayashi, K., Nakamura, M., Ohnishi, N., Seki, S., Takahashi, D. and Takeyama, T. 2002. Male reproductive success in a promiscuous armoured catfish Corydoras aeneus (Callichthyidae). Environmental Biology of Fishes, 63:281–287.

Mills D and Vevers G. 1989. The Tetra encyclopedia of freshwater tropical aquarium fishes. Tetra Press, New Jersey, 208 pp.

Regan CT. 1912. A revision of the South-American siluroid fishes of the genus Corydoras, with a list of the specimens in the British Museum (Natural History). Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Series 8), 10(56):209-220.

Wikipedia. 2010. Bronze Corydoras. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, retrieved on January 01, 2010; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_corydoras

 


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Cory cat, Corydoras aeneus (Gill, 1858)

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Shams Galib

Shams works in freshwater ecosystems, primarily on fish diversity in terms of their availability, and richness; he is also interested in aquatic invasive species and their impacts on ecosystem. Email: thegalib@gmail.com. More...

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