False bandit cory

Care at a glance

Overview

Keep false bandit cories in a group of six or more over smooth sand at 22 to 26 C in soft, acidic water. They spawn readily and are peaceful in a settled community. Feed sinking pellets and small frozen foods such as bloodworm.

In the wild

The false bandit cory lives in soft, acidic blackwater tributaries of the upper Rio Negro and Orinoco systems. It forages over sand among leaf litter and roots. Groups gather in slow, shaded water.

Good to know

It wears a black bandit band through the eye plus a dark stripe that runs diagonally from the dorsal fin back toward the tail. That diagonal stripe running well down the body separates it from the true bandit cory, whose dark saddle stays near the dorsal fin. The 2024 revision placed it in the genus Hoplisoma as Hoplisoma melini.

Did you know

The false bandit is told from the true bandit cory by its dark stripe running diagonally down the body toward the tail.

Related species

• 

  Dirty Bandit Cory

  Corydoras loxozonus

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)70–75°F (21–24°C)

• 

  Duplicate cory

  Corydoras duplicareus

  2 in (5 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Fairy cory

  Corydoras atropersonatus

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)70–81°F (21–27°C)

• 

  Horseman cory

  Corydoras eques

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Masked cory

  Corydoras metae

  2 in (5 cm)15 gal (55 L)70–79°F (21–26°C)

• 

  Napo cory

  Corydoras napoensis

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)