t first glance you could be excused of thinking that this was a Corydoras species, but one look at the broader based dorsal and you can then see why this is in another genus, and along with another two species, B. britski and B. multiradiatus form the genus, Brochis. They look superficiality like a large bodied Cory but whereas the Cory's have between 6 and 8 dorsal ray counts Brochis splendens has 10-12, B. britski has between 15/18 and B. multiradiatus, with has also a longer snout, has 17.

There is actually a good excuse for compiling this months factsheet ( Jan.2001) as this was one of the fish that I had collected on my Peru 2000 trip in July alongside a few other U.K. catfish enthusiasts including good friend Jools Dignall of Planet Catfish fame.
 
We caught semi adults (picture above) at about 6cm in length in a small cocha (small lake cut of by the main River) in the Rio Orosa just downstream from the Madre Selva Forest Preserve. We also caught them in the banks of the main river as they seem to prefer slower moving waters and plenty of vegetation, and this is certainly different from the C. elegans that we had caught earlier in the day in a small red clay bottomed stream that was not too far away from this location..

They have a nice bronze/green body coloration and when caught in the wild (picture above) the colours stand out magnificently and you can see why their common name is the “Emerald Catfish” but they do fade slightly when brought home. We found this in most of the fish that we caught as there must be something to do with the diet and or water parameters that we can't seem to impersonate in our own tanks.

You can still sometimes see this fish sold in the aquatic outlets as Brochis coeruleus, a synonym which was used to describe the juvenile version of this fish which was superficially different to the adults in colouration and thus led to this confusion.

Allan James @