• Scientific name: Corydoras similis
• Common name: Smudge Spot Cory
• Group: Catfishes
• Habitat: South America; Brazil
• Size: 5 cm
• Biotope: Small tributaries of Rio Madeira, creeks, pools and areas of flooded forest.
• Social behavior: A peaceful, schooling fish, ideal for community tanks. Single specimens are timid, seeking security and company with congeners.
• Diet: Omnivorous; small Daphnia, Cyclops, mosquito larvae - live or frozen - flakes and tablets.
• Breeding: Quite easy
• Tank: Minimum 60 litres
• Population: 6-8 fish for 80 litres
• Decoration: These catfish like a well-planted tank with many hiding places (wood, roots, rocks). Use fine gravel or sand as a substrate, as these fish burrow. No strong current is neccessary.
• Temperature: 21-27 °C
• pH: 5.6-7
• Hardness: 1-15 NK°
• Lifespan: 5-10 years

Description: Smudge Spot Cory has a yellowish beige bodycolor, with small brown spots all over the body. The fins are transparent, and it has a smudged marking at the base of the caudal fin. This blue blotch darkens in colour the closer to the caudal peduncle it becomes.

The female's dorsal fin spine is shorter, and ventral region is more convex. Males are also smaller in length than females. Breeding is quite easy. Put a small group to a peat filtered soft water in a separate tank. Do a larger waterchange with soft, and 2-3 °C cooler water and increase oxygenation and flow in the tank. Do this every other day for a period, until they start to breed. In characteristic Corydoras fashion, the female deposit 25-30 eggs, 2 per pairing to the aquarium glass. Spawning takes place in the evening hours. At 23-25 °C the young hatch in 3-4 days. The parents do not prey on their offspring. 2 days after hatching the fry are free swimming and can be fed with powdered flake and brine shrimp or micro worm. The fry grow rapidly.