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Parotocinclus cristatus Garavello, 1977

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Relevant Information:

Habitat: Parotocinclus cristatus is distributed in the Almada River basin and coastal drainages near Ilhéus, Bahia (Sarmento-Soares et al. 2009, Schaefer 2003). The type locality of the species is the Almada farm, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil (Schaefer 2003). The species has been recorded in the Cachoeira and Pardo river basins, southern Bahia (Cetra et al. 2010) and in the Cachoeira River basin, Bahia (Trindade et al. 2010, Cetra et al. 2009). Aquarium Care: Not a well known species but good aquarium husbandry with regular water changes and good oxygen content should suffice. Diet: They are omnivorous (vegetable and meat diet) and will eat lettuce, cucumber, courgette (zucchini) and also white and grindal worm, frozen bloodworm, flake and tablet food. Etymology: The specific name cristatus: Latin for crested, presumably referring to tuft of denticles on supraoccipital bone.

Common Name:

Dwarf Pleco

Synonyms:

None

Family:

Loricariidae

Distribution:

South America: Coastal rivers near Ilhéus, Bahia State (Brazil). Type locality: Fazenda Almada, Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil.

Size:

4.0cm. (1¾ins)

Temp:

25-29°c (77-85°f)

p.H.

6.5-7.5.

IUCN Red List

A species endemic to Bahia, Parotocinclus cristatus is found in the Contas, Cachoeira, and Pardo river basins. It is an abundant and frequent species. No threats to its population have been identified. Based on this information, P. cristatus has been listed as Least Concern (LC), (IUCN 2022).

Reference:

Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2024. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (06/2024).
Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio). 2022. Parotocinclus cristatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.
Schaefer, S.A., 2003. Loricariidae - Hypoptopomatinae (Armored catfishes). p. 321-329. In R.E. Reis, S.O. Kullander and C.J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, Brasi.l.

Family: Loricariidae Back to Ident-A-Cat Click on Thumbnails

Parotocinclus cristatus

Parotocinclus cristatus
Head view

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