Taxonomy & naming
The Leticia cory was described in 1986 by the Colombian ichthyologist D. M. Castro, from material in the upper Amazon near the tri-border town of Leticia. It was placed in Corydoras Lacépède, 1803, the very large genus of South American armoured catfishes in the family Callichthyidae (subfamily Corydoradinae). The species name honours Juan A. Gómez, director of the research centre at the Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano, acknowledged for his support of Castro's work on the freshwater fishes of Colombia.
Corydoras had grown into a taxonomic catch-all of well over 170 species and was shown by molecular data not to be a single natural group. The 2024 phylogenomic revision by Dias, Tencatt and colleagues (Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society) split it into several genera — Brochis, Hoplisoma, Osteogaster, Gastrodermus and others. Under that classification the Leticia cory becomes Brochis gomezi, the combination now carried by Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes and FishBase. Because the revision is recent and aquarium usage still says 'Corydoras gomezi', we keep that as the heading while recording the current valid combination. Placement in Brochis groups it with the larger, multi-rayed 'green' and 'giant' corys of that resurrected lineage rather than with the typical small Corydoras of the trade.
Morphology
This is a small cory, reaching only about 1.5 in in standard length. It has the standard corydoradine build — a short, fairly deep, flat-bellied body sheathed in two overlapping rows of bony plates rather than scales, a blunt helmeted head, and a small downturned mouth ringed with sensory barbels for tasting the substrate.
The colour pattern is the more distinctive feature: a pale ground crossed by dark markings, typically including a dark band or stripe running along the body and fine dark speckling, giving it a tidy, contrasty look that makes it appealing on the rare occasions it appears for sale. As in all corys, the dorsal, pectoral and adipose fins carry stiff leading spines that can jab a careless hand and snag in a net. Sexing follows the usual corydoradine rule: mature females grow larger and noticeably broader-bodied than males, most obvious from above and when in breeding condition.
Habitat
Corydoras gomezi is recorded from the Amazon River basin near the border of Colombia and Brazil, in the region around Leticia in the upper Amazon (Solimões) drainage. This is classic warm-lowland cory country: shallow, slow stretches and margins of streams and rivers over soft sand and mud, with leaf litter and submerged wood, in the western Amazon.
FishBase lists a broad working envelope consistent with other lowland corys of the region — temperatures of about 72–79 °F, a pH band from acid to slightly alkaline (roughly 6.0–8.0) and soft to moderately hard water (around 2–25 dH). Like other corydoradines it is a facultative air-breather, gulping atmospheric air at the surface and absorbing oxygen through a modified, vascularised hindgut, which lets it tolerate the warm, oxygen-poor pools and seasonal channels typical of the Amazon lowlands.
Feeding
The Leticia cory is, like its relatives, a benthic omnivore and detritivore. It forages continuously over the bottom, burying its barbels in soft sediment to taste out small invertebrates, insect larvae, worms, micro-crustaceans and organic detritus, expelling cleaned sand through the gill openings as it goes. It is an opportunist rather than a dietary specialist. In the aquarium it takes the usual cory foods — sinking pellets and granules, frozen and live bloodworm and brine shrimp, and edible material that settles to the substrate — and, as with all corys, should be fed deliberately rather than left to subsist on leftovers.
Mating
Spawning has not been documented for Corydoras gomezi specifically, but it can be expected to follow the well-studied corydoradine pattern. These are egg-laying shoalers with no pair bond: a receptive female cleans a spawning site, the group becomes active, and a male takes the classic 'T-position' at right angles to her head. The female appears to take milt into her mouth, with sperm thought to pass rapidly through her gut to fertilise the few eggs she holds in a basket formed by her clamped pelvic fins, which she then presses onto the cleaned surface. The sequence repeats a few eggs at a time until the clutch is laid.
Breeding
There is no aquarium breeding record specific to C. gomezi, which is uncommon in the hobby and mostly wild-collected when available, so the following is the general corydoradine pattern rather than a confirmed protocol. Spawning in the group is typically triggered by a large, cooler water change mimicking the onset of the rains. The adhesive eggs are laid in small batches on firm surfaces, the adults give no parental care and will eat the eggs, and breeders therefore remove eggs or parents. Eggs generally hatch in three to five days depending on temperature, and the fry take microworm, baby brine shrimp and powdered foods once the yolk sac is absorbed.
In the aquarium
Where it can be obtained, the Leticia cory is kept exactly like other small corys, and its small size makes it well suited to modest tanks. It is a shoaling species that is stressed when kept singly or in pairs, so keep a group of six or more; a group is comfortable in a tank of around 23.5 in / 20 US gal or more, where bottom area matters more than height.
Substrate is functional rather than decorative: provide soft sand or very smooth, rounded fine gravel, because corys feed by sifting and sharp or coarse gravel erodes and infects the barbels, leaving the blunted faces that signal poor husbandry. Keep the bottom clean. Water should be warm but not hot (about 72–79 °F), well-filtered and well-oxygenated, with gentle flow and regular changes; the species tolerates a broad pH and hardness range. It is utterly peaceful and suits a quiet community of tetras, small rasboras, dwarf cichlids and similar calm fish — never tankmates large enough to bully it. The standard cautions apply: the fin spines snag in nets, so a cup is safer for moving them, and a badly stressed cory can release a skin toxin that, in the confined volume of a bag or bucket, can wipe out the whole group during transport.
Conservation
Corydoras gomezi is assessed by the IUCN as Data Deficient (assessment dated 2020) — meaning there is not enough information on its distribution and population to judge its risk of extinction. It is known from a limited area of the upper Amazon around the Colombia–Brazil border, and the Data Deficient listing reflects that narrow, poorly surveyed range rather than evidence of either security or decline. The broad pressures on western-Amazon freshwaters — deforestation, agricultural and mining run-off, and habitat alteration — apply here as elsewhere, and a restricted-range species is more exposed to them than a widespread one. Better survey data would be needed before its status could be assessed with confidence.