Metal armored catfish

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Metal armored catfish
Metal armored catfish

Metal armored catfish

Systematics
Sub-cohort : Ostariophysi
Order : Catfish (Siluriformes)
Subordination : Loricarioidei
Family : Armored and calloused catfish (Callichthyidae)
Genre : Corydoras
Type : Metal armored catfish
Scientific name
Corydoras aeneus
( Gill , 1858)

The metal armored catfish ( Corydoras aeneus , lat. "Aeneus" - bronze, copper), also gold-striped armored catfish , is a species of fish from the family of armored and calloused catfish . The species name refers to the metallic sheen of the animals.

description

The metal armored catfish, which is typical in its habitus , reaches a total length of about seven centimeters. Male animals usually stay smaller than their female counterparts. The basic color varies between yellowish brown and a light red. The upper half of the body is dark in color. A narrow, yellowish longitudinal ligament extends from the upper edge of the gill cover to under the base of the dorsal fin . The fins are translucent yellowish to reddish brown.

Occurrence

The species occurs in a large part of tropical and subtropical South America east of the Andes in Argentina , Paraguay , Bolivia , Brazil , Colombia , Peru , Venezuela , Guyana , Suriname , French Guiana and on Trinidad .

Way of life

Metal armored catfish live in small schools 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 mating act. The fast-growing larvae hatch after about three days. 100 to 400 eggs can be produced over the entire spawning period.

Systematics

The metal armored catfish is the eponymous species of the Corydoras aeneus group, a monophyletic , relatively homogeneous group within the paraphyletic genus Corydoras . The generic name Osteogaster was suggested for the group as early as 1871 by Cope . In addition to the various forms of the metal armored catfish , Corydoras eques , Corydoras melanotaenia , the rust-armored catfish ( Corydoras rabauti ) and Corydoras zygatus belong to it .

Corydoras sp. "Orange Laser"

Overall, the metal armored catfish is very variable and has by far the largest range of all Corydoras species. It is likely a group of different closely related species. Some forms have already been described as independent species ( C. macrosteus , C. schultzei and C. venezulanus ), but later synonymous with Corydoras aeneus . Type locality is Trinidad. The metal armored catfish on this island are 6 to 7 cm long and have such a strong metallic sheen that the dark side coloring can hardly be seen. The C. venezulanus type, which occurs in the Orinoco's electricity system , is slightly smaller than other "metal armored catfish" and has a black spot on the sides of the body, which is often outlined in red-brown. The C. schultzei form, known in German as the gold-striped catfish, lives in the Amazon basin and has a wide, golden stripe above the pectoral fins. In small black water rivers in the area of ​​the Río Ucayali in Peru, armored catfish similar to the gold stripe armored catfish live, which are called "Yellow Laser", "Green Laser" and "Orange Laser", the C-numbers CW014, CW009 and CW010 and a glowing one , Have hard shoulder. The type of metal armored catfish kept in European aquariums comes from the river systems of the Río Paraná and Río Paraguay . It is higher back than the C. Schulzei form and only has an inconspicuous gold stripe.

Cultivated forms

Many breeders began to breed dazzling variants from the slightly shiny wild forms very early on. From 1990 the first specially bred albinotic forms came onto the market, which are confusingly similar to the albinotic form of the marbled armored catfish . There are now blackish forms and metal armored catfish with veil fins. Both forms were bred in Eastern Europe.

Individual evidence

  1. a b Axel Zarske: Corydoras aeneus. In: Claus Schaefer, Torsten Schröer (Hrsg.): The large lexicon of aquaristics. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8001-7497-9 , p. 259.
  2. ^ Günther Sterba: Freshwater fish . Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2002, ISBN 3-89350-991-7 .
  3. Markos A. Alexandrou, Claudio Oliveira, Marjorie Maillard, Rona AR McGill, Jason Newton, Simon Creer & Martin I. Taylor: Competition and phylogeny determine community structure in Müllerian co-mimics. In: Nature . 469, 84–88 (January 2011), doi : 10.1038 / nature09660 Supplementary Information (5.9M) (PDF; 6.2 MB)
  4. Ingo Seidel: New knowledge about the relationships among armored catfish. In: Aquaristik Fachmagazin No. 223, February / March 2012, Tetra-Verlag GmbH, ISSN  1437-4854
  5. a b Ingo Seidel: The metal armored catfish - an evergreen with many faces. In: Aquaristik Fachmagazin. No. 223, February / March 2012, Tetra-Verlag GmbH, ISSN  1437-4854 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Metal armored catfish ( Corydoras aeneus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files