A very nocturnal species that will be seen only infrequently during daylight hours. S. angelicus is very long-lived and can survive for over 20 years if maintained correctly.
S. angelicus was much sought after when first imported and commanded a correspondingly large price. They are still relatively expensive, though prices have dropped considerably. It is quite a rare species in its native waters.

The patterning and colour varies cosiderably, depending on type locality. Some specimens have w…

This species is popular in the aquarium hobby and unlike the majority of congeners tends to spend a fair amount of time away from the substrate, often forming groups in midwater.

It has been placed in the unofficial ‘C. elegans group’, which contains a number of species exhibiting similarities in morphology and colour pattern, some of which remain unidentified in scientific terms.

This species is among a number of congeners native to the rio Negro region to possess a colour pattern with an oblique dark bar running along the dorsal surface of the body.

This unofficial group also includes C. burgessi, C. davidsandsi, C. duplicareus, C. imitator, C. melini, and C. serratus, and among these C. duplicareus is most easily-confused with C. adolfoi.

The type series was said to have been collected from a “whitewater area”, but images of the rio Unini depict a blackwater system typical of the rio Negro basin, and this is supported by empirical evidence. There are sections of rapidly-flowing water so perhaps this is what the author was referring to.

Habitats should therefore comprise tributaries and areas of flooded forest where the water is…

This species can be told apart from congeners by its uniformly greyish colour pattern, deep body (fitting 2.1-2.4 times in standard length), large eye (3.2-4.0 times in head length), having the pectoral fins completely surrounded by the coracoid, and relatively long dorsal-fin spine (1.1-1.2 times in head length).

Scleromystax spp. are foraging omnivores, and most will accept sinking dried foods as well as small live and frozen varieties such as chironomid larvae (bloodworm), Tubifex, etc. Feeding a varied diet will ensure the fish are in optimum condition.

Under no circumstances should they be expected to survive on ‘left-overs’ from other inhabitants of the aquarium or relied on to ‘clean’ the aquarium.

This species is somewhat variable in appearance and can have between 1-3 dark lateral stripes on each flank, for example. It’s also known by the alternative common name ‘pink corydoras’.

It looks similar to the congener C. loxozonus plus unidentified fishes which have been assigned the codes C003 and CW021, and all four are sometimes traded under the fabricated names C. ‘deckeri’ or C. sp. ‘decker/deker’.

This species’ name is commonly misapplied to a number of similar-looking fishes and it can be difficult to identify if collection locality is unknown. In addition, colour pattern is variable and it’s not clear whether this occurs between, within, or both between and within populations.

In the original description, Steindachner did note that the first three dorsal-fin rays are completely black while the remainder is whi…

The most obvious distinguishing characters are that the black marking in the upper part of the body is restricted to the area beneath the dorsal-fin and extends into the majority of the fin , while the paler patch anterior to it, on top of the head, is yellowish rather than orangish.

Additional diagnostic characters have proven unavailable thus far since it was described in a hobbyist magazi…

Type locality is given as ‘Small tributary of the upper Rio Negro on the equator near São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Brazil’, and this species is apparently highly endemic there.

Some sources state that it also occurs in the rio Uaupés (known as ‘Vaupés’ in Colombia), a major tributary of the Negro, but we’ve been unable to obtain confirmation thus far.