Adolfoi's Catfish

About

Found in the dark, acidic waters of the Unini River basin in Brazil's upper Negro drainage, this small heptapterid catfish, Brachyrhamdia rambarrani, has pulled off a convincing impersonation of certain Corydoras species. Right down to color pattern. The resemblance to Corydoras adolfoi is close enough that the common name references it directly, though the two may not even share the same waters in nature. You can tell them apart by looking at the barbels, which on this species are noticeably long, and by the absence of the bony scute-like plates that armor a Corydoras. It belongs to the family Heptapteridae, a group once lumped in with the pimelodids but now recognized as its own distinct lineage. In the aquarium it stays peaceful and manageable, though it may bother similarly patterned benthic fish and can potentially eat very small tankmates. Keeping it alongside one of its lookalike Corydoras species. C. adolfoi or C. duplicareus, for example. Suits it well, and upper-level characins of adequate size round out a natural-feeling setup. It rarely shows up in the trade intentionally, turning up more often as an accidental inclusion in shipments of other species, so if you find one, consider yourself lucky.