Identifying Corydoras 3

Look-a-likes

Twenty years after I first spawned and raised the two look-alike species Corydoras rabauti La Monte, 1941 and Corydoras zygatus Eigenmann & Allen, 1942 there is still a great deal of debate as to which one is which. Here I will try to eliminate all doubt.

The first point to establish is the fact that we are indeed looking at two distinct species, when the type specimens were examined, the differences between them were very small and the debate was whether in fact they were one and the same species. I spawned Corydoras zygatus on 21st April 1980 and then three months later on 23rd July my Corydoras rabauti spawned. Here I must say that I had not set out to prove anything, other than that I could successfully induce Corydoras species to breed. I had at that time successfully spawned and raised sixteen species, keeping detailed notes on all of them, especially the patterns of the developing fry. This was something that had interested me from my very first Corydoras spawning, the tiny fry of Corydoras pygmaeus were so different from the adults I thought it would be something worth keeping notes on.