As the weather cools and focus shifts indoors, the ‘trop season’ is upon us. Since the last one there’s been some changes to the names of things with Corydoras catfish and now it seems tetras being reclassified. Predictably, it takes suppliers a while to catch up with these name changes and many people will be pleased to hear that common names are pretty much unaffected.

Traditionally there’s a number of species that are bred and sold to us with the wrong names and have been for years, many of these are very familiar and seem to be here to stay. Let’s look at a few examples that generally perform under their stage names.

Pentazona barbs

If you like the vertical stripes of Tiger barbs (Puntigrus) but without the attitude, you may have considered a relative which is a model citizen. Pentazona, or Five-banded barbs are great community fish and are quite shy, thriving in peaceful communities in well-furnished aquaria. The males can be a little competitive at times but you could safely add these fish to any tank where you might add Cardinal tetras. The only thing is, somewhere along the line two very similar species got mixed up and the fish that we buy as pentazona is actually hexazona, the Six-banded barb.

The Six-banded barb (Desmopuntius hexazona) is the fish most commonly seen behind the Pentazona label. https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/cyprinids/six-banded-barb

The real pentazona is usually less colourful and rarely seen, as it’s not bred commercially. It’s a rare gem that wants to be kept in a softwater set up and cherished.

The real Five-banded barb (Desmopuntius pentazona) is a rare sight in captivity.

https://www.fishkeeper.co.uk/fish/freshwater/cyprinids/five-banded-barb-

 

Corydoras julii

Now complicated by a scientific name change, decades of confusion means that one of the most popular (and beautiful) catfish in the hobby seldom arrives properly identified. It doesn’t matter what you call them, corys are model community residents which only ask to be kept in groups on a sandy substrate with foods that sink to their level. Influential books written decades ago show illustrations or photos of the Three-lined cory (Hoplisoma trilineatum) captioned as julii and even today a Google search will return a lot of misidentified images. Although despised by hardcore cory fans, the previous common name of False julii at least hinted at the identity of this fish in a world where they always came in with the wrong name. Like the pentazona barb, the real julii isn’t bred commercially and is only ever seen as a rare Brazilian import.