Wild specimens are probably omnivorous foragers but with a preference for aquatic invertebrates and suchlike.

In the aquarium it does best when offered a varied diet comprising sinking dried foods, frozen Daphnia, mosquito larvae, chironomid larvae (bloodworm), and prawn/shrimp, for, example, plus some fresh fruit, parboiled potato, etc.

Not difficult to maintain under the correct conditions; we strongly recommend keeping it in a tank designed to simulate a flowing stream with a substrate of variably-sized rocks, sand, fine gravel, and some water-worn boulders.

This can be further furnished with driftwood branches, terracotta pipes, plant pots, etc., arranged to form a network of nooks, crannies, and shaded spots, thus providing broken lines of sight.

This species can be distinguished from all congeners except P. bachi and some specimens of P. furcata by possessing only faint spots and saddles on the body.

It can be told apart from P. bachi by possession of narrow (vs. wide) pelvic-fin spines, having the eyes positioned high (vs. low) on the head, and distinctly round (vs. appearing more as a mottling) spots on the body.

Mostly collected in the in the rio Negro basin, Amazonas state, Brazil, and in particular the rio Demini, a northern tributary flowing into the central Negro in the municipality of Barcelos.

P. leopardus was described from the Rupununi River in Guyana and the identity of this fish thus remains unconfirmed.

This ‘species’ is also traded simply as ‘leo…

This species has had several L-numbers assigned to it, with L146 collected from an unspecified locality in Colombia and L232 from the Río Putomayo/Içá.

It’s exported for the aquarium trade under a number of different generic names including Hemiancistrus, Sophiancistrus and Peckoltichthys.

Following Armbruster (2008) it can be to…

L234 was previously applied to M. paranus, which has also has the L-number L113 assigned to it.

However M. paranus is native to the Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay drainages, whereas L234 is collected in the rio São Francisco so appears to represent an unidentified species.

M. barrae and M. sp. ‘LDA097’ are also exported from the São Francisco system.

L076 and L099 appear to be the same species with the former exhibiting a darker diurnal colour pattern than the latter, though both appear similar at night.

A paternal ‘lip brooder’ which has been bred in aquaria.

Post-spawning the male carries the eggs attached to his labial barbels for a period of 12-14 days after which the fry hatch with a large yolk sac attached, this being absorbed over the next 48 hours or so.

During incubation the behaviour of the male i…

This species has been exported for the ornamental trade but often labelled as the congener R. mekongianus.

Although the two do appear relatively similar R. chiengmaiensis can be identified by a combination of external characters including: presence of 5 irregular dark markings on the body (vs. 7-8 i…

This species’ name has appeared quite regularly on ornamental fish trade lists since the mid-00’s but it’s unclear whether the species itself has ever been exported since fish labelled as such do not appear to fully match the most recent key (see below).

That said, its natural habitats lie in the same region as the loach Yaoshania pachychilus so it’s reasonable to assume that some specimens may have been collected, and the fish in our images were ca…