The Aspidoras genera
differ from Corydoras by their different
behaviour such as their swimming habits. The eyes
are smaller, body smaller and a smaller head shape
in Aspidoras compared with Corydoras.
Aspidoras posses a duel fontanel bone structure
in the skull whereas Corydoras have only the
one larger fontanel.
Many species of Aspidoras are difficult to
tell apart unless there is catchment information available.
Lineage:
All Aspidoras
belong to Lineage 2 and
when there is a revision they will stay as Aspidoras
von Ihering, 1907 with the type species of A.
rochai Ihering, 1907. As
of the latest update (Dias
et al 2024), Aspidoras
azaghal has been placed in Lineage
2 and has retained the genus name of Aspidoras.
Aquarium
Care: With all of this genus they
are best kept in groups of six or more and are best
housed with small fishes that are not aggressive.
Provide a planted area in the tank for cover and include
a soft substrate such as sand or small rounded gravel.
Diet:Flake, tablet foods, small live and frozen
foods. Etymology: The epithet azaghal
refers to a fictional character within the fantastic
universe created by the South African/British writer,
poet, philologist, and academic, John Ronald Reuel
Tolkien (1892-1973). Azaghâl was the king of
the Broad-beam Dwarves, one of the seven dwarf clans,
and Lord of the dwarven realm of Belegost in the Blue
Mountains during Middle Earth's First Age. The name
comes from a double allusion, first about the region
where the species was found, Terra do Meio, freely
translated as Middle Earth in English, name of the
fictional world of Tolkien's legendarium, and second
by the fact that the new species occurs in a mountainous
region and presents a relatively small size, which
are both typical features of the fictional dwarves.
Common
Name:
Tolkien’s Cory
Synonyms:
None
Family:
Callichthyidae
Distribution:
South America:
Lower Xingu River basin (Pará, Brazil).
Type locality: Brazil, tributary
of the Igarapé do Pontal, in the remote Amazon
region Terra do Meio, intersection of the Xingu and
Iri rivers.
Size:
Male: 3.5cm (1½ins)
Female: 4.0cm 1¾ins)
Temp:
24-27°C
(75-81°F)
p.H.
6.0-7.0.
Reference:
Alexandrou, Markos
& Taylor, Martin. (2011). Evolution,
ecology and taxonomy of the Corydoradinae revisited. Angelica C Dias, Luiz F C Tencatt, Fabio F
Roxo, Gabriel de Souza da Costa Silva, Sérgio
A Santos, Marcelo R Britto, Martin I Taylor, Claudio
Oliveira, Phylogenomic analyses in the complex
Neotropical subfamily Corydoradinae (Siluriformes:
Callichthyidae) with a new classification based on
morphological and molecular data, Zoological Journal
of the Linnean Society, 2024;, zlae053. Ian A. M. Fuller & Hans-Georg Evers
(2011). Identifying Corydoradinae Catfish Supplement
1. Ian Fuller Enterprises. Tencatt, Muriel-Cunha, Zuanon, Ferreira &
Britto, 2020. A journey through the Amazon
Middle Earth reveals Aspidoras azaghal (Siluriformes:
Callichthyidae), a new species of armoured catfish
from the rio Xingu basin, Brazil. www.corydorasworld.com
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