Our Dear Old Corydoras Paleatus

Meaning of name: Corydoras, helmet-doras, Doras, having darts, referring to the barbels

Paleatus meaning with dappled markings

Paleatus Cory Cats are cute! These adorable denizens of the aquarium pass their time scuttling about in search of leftovers. They are well behaved and hard workers, and historically speaking they are seniors in our hobby.

In fact they go back to Carbonnier who was the Frenchman that successfully spawned the very first kept warm water fish the Paradise gourami. In 1876 Rousseau and Carbonnier imported the first Paleatus cory’s into France. Soon after, he spawned them and in 1880 he reported : ” a lengthy courtship takes place, followed by an embrace. This operation is repeated many times, until the total number of eggs, about 250, have been deposited.” ….bull sue zool. France 1880 p225

By 1905 Corydoras paleatus was imported to America and could be found in Aquarium Catalogs. These catalogs were much like the seed catalogs of our day, each year a new one went out advertising the new stock.

You could say; “the good ol’ days are still here today searching the gravel bed and amusing us,” just like they did for those that came before us.