NEWS113
12
Corydoras tukano,
male
.
The ”TukanoLongnose” isprobably themost popular of all themailed catfishes at present.
Male ...
...and femaleof
Corydoras tukano.
Corydoras reynoldsi
Die ”Reynoldsi-Langnase”.
Corydorastukano
und
Corydoras
sp.”TukanoLongnose”
It isvirtually impossibleto ignorethespecies
diversity that exists among the mailed
catfishes.
Corydorastukano
fromBrazil isone
of the most attractive, still relatively new
species in theaquariumhobby.This ”Panda”
among the mailed catfishes was named
after the Tukano people, inwhose territory
thespecies is found.
Corydorastukano
isasmallspecies (around5
cm), in which males develop noticeably
longer finnage than females.
The ”longnose” equivalent of
Corydoras
tukano
isanundescribed species. It is in fact
also a "saddlesnout".TheTukano Longnose
is currently undoubtedly one of the most
prized of all the mailed catfishes, as it is
extremely rare and expensive in the trade.
Obviously these fishesaren'tactually rare (in
the literal senseof theword) in thewild,but
they live solitary and are very shy, so that
onlyoneor twospecimensof theLongnose
are netted in the time it takes to catch
thousands of
Corydoras tukano.
And even
Aquarium Glaser was able to import only
eight specimens in the recent consignment
…
The reason for this mimicry - that is, why
completely different species imitate one
another intheircoloration-hasonlyrecently
beenclarified.Fish-eatingbirdsavoidmailed
catfishes once they have tried to swallow
oneofthese"prickly" fishes.So it isbeneficial
for other similar-looking species when a
mailedcatfish loses its life inorder to teacha
bird that mailed catfishes in general aren't
good toeat.
There isaspeciespair inColombiathat looks
very similar to
C. tukano
and the Tukano
Longnose, namely
Corydoras reynoldsi
and
its longnoseequivalent. In this case too the
saddlesnout is scientifically undescribed.
C.
reynoldsi
isaclose relativeof
C.tukano
,while
the two longnoses are thought tobemost
closely related to
C. ellisae
and
C.
septentrionalis.
