Taxonomy & naming
Corydoras coriatae was described by Warren E. Burgess in 1997, in the aquarium magazine Tropical Fish Hobbyist, as a new callichthyid catfish related to Corydoras fowleri. The type material comes from the Ucayali River basin in Peru, and the species sits in the large genus Corydoras Lacépède, 1803, within the subfamily Corydoradinae of the armoured catfish family Callichthyidae.
The genus Corydoras had become enormous and was shown by molecular work not to be a single natural lineage. In 2024 Dias, Tencatt and colleagues published a phylogenomic revision (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society) that split the old genus into several units, resurrecting Brochis and erecting or restoring Hoplisoma, Osteogaster, Gastrodermus and others alongside a restricted Corydoras. C. coriatae falls within the long-snouted assemblage that the revision retains in Corydoras in the strict sense — the lineage built around the type species, C. geoffroy — so unlike many former 'corys' its combination is unchanged: it remains Corydoras coriatae. The eponym honours Mrs Nery Coriat, a long-serving supplier in the Peruvian ornamental-fish trade, and not a place or a feature of the fish.
Morphology
This is a small to medium Corydoras, recorded to about 2.5 in in standard length, with the elongated head and somewhat drawn-out snout characteristic of the fowleri group rather than the blunt, rounded profile of the familiar bronze and peppered corys. Like all members of the family it is armoured rather than scaled: two longitudinal rows of overlapping bony plates (scutes) sheath each flank and meet along the dorsal ridge, and three pairs of barbels fringe the small, downturned, sucker-like mouth used to sift the substrate.
The body is the pale, silvery-tan ground colour typical of the long-snouted corys, marked with fine dark speckling and patterning that, as in many of its relatives, is the main feature separating it from look-alikes. As in the rest of the genus the dorsal and pectoral fins each carry a stiff leading spine. Detailed published descriptions of live colour are sparse, and much of what hobbyists know comes from comparison with the better-documented C. fowleri and its allies.
Habitat
Corydoras coriatae is known from the Ucayali River basin in the Peruvian Amazon, one of the great headwater systems that join to form the Amazon proper. Like other corys it is a fish of the bottom, associated with soft substrates — sand and fine sediment over which it forages — in the shallow, warm, slow-moving margins of streams and rivers rather than open fast current.
Water across this part of the western Amazon is warm and soft, and the figures associated with the species in aquarium references sit in the usual Corydoras envelope: roughly 72–79 °F, a pH from acidic to neutral or slightly alkaline (about 6.0–8.0) and soft to moderately hard water. Like its relatives it is a facultative air-breather, periodically darting to the surface to gulp air that it absorbs through a vascularised hindgut — an adaptation that lets corys persist in warm, oxygen-poor backwaters. Precise field data on its ecology remain limited.
Feeding
No dedicated dietary study exists for C. coriatae, but its anatomy and habits place it squarely among the benthic omnivore–detritivores of its genus. It works soft substrate with its barbels and protrusible mouth, taking small invertebrates, insect larvae, worms, micro-crustaceans, and the organic film and fallen matter of the streambed, expelling sifted sand through the gill openings. In the aquarium, by analogy with its close relatives, it accepts sinking pellets and tablets, frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp, and other small prepared and live foods that reach the bottom; it should be fed a varied diet rather than left to scavenge leftovers.
Mating
Corydoras coriatae has not, as far as the literature records, been the subject of a published spawning account, but corys are remarkably uniform in their reproductive behaviour and it is expected to follow the genus pattern. These are egg-laying shoalers with no pair bond. A receptive female cleans a surface, and a male takes up the classic 'T-position' at right angles to her head; sperm is thought to pass quickly through the female's gut to fertilise the few eggs she holds in a basket formed by her pelvic fins, which she then presses onto the cleaned site. The sequence repeats, a few eggs at a time, until a clutch is distributed across the chosen surfaces.
Breeding
There is no published breeding report specific to C. coriatae, and it is not a commonly bred aquarium fish. Among long-snouted corys spawning is usually prompted, as in the rest of the genus, by a cool, large water change mimicking the onset of the rainy season, and groups skewed toward more males than females tend to be most productive. The adhesive eggs receive no parental care — adults will eat them, so breeders move either the eggs or the parents. Eggs typically hatch in a few days and the fry, once the yolk sac is absorbed, take micro-foods such as baby brine shrimp and powdered fry feeds. All of this is inferred from close relatives; the species' own reproduction in captivity is essentially undocumented.
In the aquarium
C. coriatae is an occasional import rather than a staple, but its needs are those of a typical long-snouted Corydoras. It is a shoaling fish and should be kept in a group of six or more; kept singly or in pairs it is stressed and reclusive. Provide a soft sand substrate — non-negotiable for the long-snouted species, which feed by burying the snout, and which suffer eroded, infected barbels over sharp or dirty gravel — together with shade from wood, rock or plants and an open foraging area.
Water should be warm but not hot (about 72–79 °F), clean, well-filtered and well-oxygenated, with a gentle current and regular changes; the species tolerates a fairly broad pH and hardness range. It is utterly peaceful and suits a community of tetras, small characins, rasboras and dwarf cichlids, never anything large or aggressive. The usual cory cautions apply: the fin spines tangle in nets (a cup is safer), and a stressed cory can release a skin toxin that, in the confined volume of a bag, can kill the whole group, so transport them with care.
Conservation
Corydoras coriatae was assessed by the IUCN Red List as Least Concern (assessment dated 2014). It occupies part of the vast and still largely intact western Amazon, and no species-specific threat has been identified; collection for the aquarium trade is light and sporadic. As with all western-Amazon fishes, the broad regional pressures — deforestation, agriculture, mining and the damming of Andean tributaries — degrade habitat over the long term, but the species itself is not currently considered at risk. Its true range and population remain poorly known, which is the main caveat on any assessment.