Corydoras hastatus
Eigenmann & Eigenmann,1888
|
orydoras hastatus
is a very small “mid-water shoaling” cory in that it doesn't
spend as much time on the substrate as other Cory's do, and seems
to prefer to sit on the leaves of aquarium plants rather than sitting
on the bottom.
As mentioned you should house these dwarf
Cory's with each other in a shoal with about about 1 dozen being
a nice number in a species tank, as these small Corydoras
will not do well in a community tank with robust tankmates unless
they are housed with small unagressive Characins.
This is the smallest Cory to date and the
females usually are a bit bigger than the males. They are similar
to Corydoras pygmaes, another dwarf Cory, but the black
diamond shape in the caudal peduncle and into the tail of hastatus,
with the top and bottom of this diamond ringed with white, tells
them apart as pygmaes sports a black band that runs the
full length of the body, ending just short of the tail end, and
ending in a slightly broader band.
You can see in the above picture of Corydoras
pygmaeus, the differences in the black mid-lateral line between
it and our factsheet subject this month, Corydoras hastatus.
D 1/7; A 2/5-6; 22 bony scutes in the upper
lateral series, 20 in the lower.
Ground colour grey-green to golden yellow.
Back green-olive, flanks yellowish, belly whitish. Head, body and
fins sprinkled with small dark spots. A black longitudinal band
runs from behind the gill-cover to a lozenge-shaped blotch at the
root of the tail; the latter blotch has a yellowish margin above
and below. A second broader streak runs along the lower edge of
the caudal peduncle. Fins dull grey, the base of the caudal blackish.
This is akin to most of this genus, very peaceful,
and would be best housed with small to medium tankmates such as
Tetras, Rasboras and Danios or in a
species tank due to their small size.
I successfully bred this species in 1988 and
from my notes I had them set-up in a 16” x 8” x 8”
tank furnished with a thin layer of sand, Java Moss and a sponge
filter. I had only the one pair and they spawned after a cool water
change, laying their eggs on the glass sides and in the Java Moss.
They also laid eggs on a small piece of bogwood that I had put in
the tank after a club member had spawned them this way and had advised
me about the bogwood when I had difficulty in trying to spawn them.
Whether this was a coincidence or not I do not know, but it worked.
I took the eggs away and into a small container, they hatched 6
days later and I started feeding with Liquifry for egglayers for
3 days, then on to brine shrimp.
Small pieces of food are needed for this cory
such as brine shrimp, crushed flake food, tablets, freezed dry blocks
of tubifex stuck on the sides of the tank and any such food that
will fit in to their tiny mouth's.
Corydoras:
Cory = helmeted;
doras = leathery skin,(helmeted
Doras) cuirass.
hastatus:
Spear-shaped, (referring to the spot.)
Seuss, Werner;
Corydoras The most popular catfishes of South America. Dähne
Verlag, Ettlingen.
Lambourne, Derek. Corydoras Catfish, An Aquarists
Handbook.
Sterba's Freshwater fishes of the World Vol.1 1973
Top picture: Ian Fuller @ 
Bottom Picture: © Danny
Blundell @ The Danny Blundell Photo Gallery |
Brazil, in the tributaries of the
Amazon near Parintins. The Rio Bento Gome, near Pocone (Pantanal)
and the Rio Paraguai
