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Over the past 20 years I spent a lot of time travelling backwards and forwards to Africa. During my longer stays in the U.K. I maintained my interest in keeping fish at home. Unfortunately, my wife did not pursue the hobby with as much gusto. I used to try and breed various fish and on occasions was successful. Sometimes one of a pair would do the dirty on me and turn upside down. As a result of these situations, I was left with a number of odd fish and for some 5 or 6 years I had 3 odd Corydoras which I kept together. I had a C.zygatus,(which died last year) and I still have a C. melini and a C. panda. These were in a tank with a Microglanis iheringi, some Tetras and some Guppies. Imagine my surprise in November this year (2005) when I found this young chap swimming about in the tank. It was about 1/2" in length (just over 1cm). The tank is quite heavily planted, or more to the point, overgrown, which explains why I hadn't seen the fish before! I immediately set about searching for others but there weren't any more. I assumed that they had been got at by the Microglanis which was quickly removed to another residence. I believe that hybrids are sterile and therefore will not breed successfully;- but then, how do fish evolve?  The mother and father of the fish pictured above is, without doubt, a C. melini and C. panda, so .......... a C. melianda or a C. pandini?! * Note the panda spot on the caudal and the melini stripe behind the dorsal along the back. And then there are more!.... Since I first wrote this article for "Cat Chat" in December when I also removed the microglanis, I have recovered another 6 juveniles. They are now living in their own tank with hopefully more to come. May 2006 Yes, there are more! Latest update and there are now around 20 young fish. July, 2006 I now have about 30 hybrids of various sizes. I couldn't bring myself to separate the adults as they have been together for over 10 years. I am now interested to see if the offspring will breed. I appreciate that hybrid fish are not everyones cup of tea but, as it initially occurred by accident and the two fish are compatible, I saw no reason to split them up. This breeding may explain why there are so many Corys of similar appearance? ie I can't foresee C. panda breeding with C. schwartzi. Summary... It's a case of watch this space as I'm sure Bill will update me with any further developments. Bill Hurst is the Editor of Catfish Study Group U.K. and also a member of Sandgrounders A.S. For those (like myself) who are not too sure what a Microglanis looks like...... It's a S. American Bumble Bee Catfish and reaches around 8.5 cms, hence Bill's surprise at any Cory survival!  Copyright;- Text and Cory Photo by Bill Hurst. Copyright;- Microglanis photo by Allan James. (My thanks to Allan and "Scotcat";- an excellent site on my "LINKS" page.) |
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