CORYDORAS BARBATUS (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
A Very Cool Cat Indeed
by Don Kinyon
From Delta Tale, Potomac Valley Aquarium Society
Aquarticles
Here is a Cory that has been in the hobby for a good long time, yet never seems
commonplace, or for that matter, in the price range most of us are looking for. It comes
from the coastal creeks of Brazil, from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo.
One reason for its uncommonality is its appearance. The adult male is truly an unusual
fish. It can grow to over four inches, making it one of the largest of the genus. It is
one of the long-snouted Corydoras, with a fairly high dorsal fin. Its striking
coloration is an exercise in contrast. It has a brilliant white belly, white markings just
behind the gill and the front edge of the pectorals and a stripe right down the center of
its nose. These are offset by jet black squiggles, stripes, dots, and what-have-you,
throughout the rest of the body. To top off the unusual appearance of the fish, it has a
mass of spiked protrusions on each side of its snout, which seem more prevalent during
courting and spawning. More than anything else, they give the appearance that the fish is
in dire need of a shave.
I'd seen these fish at pet shops from time to time, but the cost always dissuaded me
from buying any, especially with no experience with the particular species. As luck would
have it, I found a bag of very young barbatus at a fish auction a while back, and
decided it was a good opportunity to give them a try.
Of course, it was quite a while before the six youngsters showed any signs of sexual
maturity, and haven't even yet, eighteen months later, grown to the size the species is
capable of, but they did grow and seemed healthy. They were kept in a community tank,
along with tetras, Apistogramma, Ancistrus, and a few other species of Corydoras.
For nearly a year, the fish lived on live, frozen, and dry prepared foods, and seemed to
thrive. The water in the tank was soft and acidic, pH of 6.2 and total hardness of less
than 1°.
One day after refilling the tank from a water change, I noticed a small group of eggs
on the front glass. Before I could remove the eggs, however, the tetras and cichlids had
cleaned them off nicely. After observing the tank for a few minutes, I saw one of the
female barbatus carrying a clutch of four eggs between her anal fins, and watched her
place them on the glass (then watched as her tank mates ate them). I was only able to save
a few eggs from this spawning, and none of them were fertile.
When I was able to free up tank space, I put the two males and three females into a
breeding setup. The breeding tank was a cube-style 45 gallon, with the same water as the
community tank, no gravel and no heater. The filtration consisted of a large foam filter
stuck onto a large power head, with the valve open all the way and an air line into the
outgoing jet for turbulence and aeration. I was also able to talk a friend from the fish
club (and fellow Corydoras nut) into putting his large colorful male barbatus
"out to stud". This gave me three good big females and three males, one of which
was outstanding.
It didn't take long for the breeding behavior to start. Once the new male was in the
tank with the rest, the females got very active and the large male started to prove his
dominance. While the females were making fast trips up and down the front aquarium glass,
the smaller males were being pushed around. It looked like the "stubble" on the
male Cory's snout is useful, at least at courting time; the larger male would swim
alongside his younger companions and whack the sides of their heads with his snout! I
don't think it did any real damage to the smaller fish, but they certainly didn't enjoy
it.
The fish presented me a group of eggs ranging in number from ten to thirty every four
days, almost like clockwork. The eggs were put into a small tank for hatching, and after
the fry were taking food, usually two days after hatching, they went into a ten gallon
tank for rearing. Many of the eggs weren't fertile and grew hair almost immediately, but
enough hatched to keep it interesting, and losses were rare after hatching. While the fry
were in the smaller tank, a two and one half gallon, they were fed very sparingly on micro
worms, and half the water got changed twice daily. Once they were eating and were moved
into the larger tank, they ate more microworms, along with newly-hatched brine shrimp, and
had half of the water changed only once daily.
When the majority of the young were two months old, they were all put into the 45
gallon tank that had served as the breeding tank, and fed finely chopped frozen, live, and
dry foods, along with the diet they had grown on to that point. The youngsters seem to
like to swim in a group, even more than other Corydoras species. It's
entertaining to watch as forty juvenile barbatus swim up and down the front aquarium glass
together.
These catfish are not particularly hard to care for or breed, and make an unusual
addition to a community tank, or a fine species tank by themselves.
For more information:
Baensch Aquarium Atlas, I- Reihl & Baensch, pp. 460, 461, 474- pictures & text
Back to Nature Guide to Catfishes,- Dr. David Sands, pp. 40, 41- pictures and text
Corydoras,- Werner Seuss, pp. 32, 62, 63- pictures & text
Freshwater and Marine Catfishes,- Dr. Warren Burgess, pp. 342, 362, 365- pictures &
text
Aquarium Quarterly, Corydoras,- Dr. Warren Burgess, pp. 60, 62,- pictures & text
Aqualog: All corydoras,- Glaser, Schafer, & Glaser, pp. 97, 98,- pictures and
information
Web Page: Planet Catfish www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.htm An excellent source of
information on the Internet for Corydoras, as well as most other catfish
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