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FACTSHEETS: September 2022 - no. 315

Parotocinclus haroldoi Garavello, 1988

s of September 2022 there are about 37 described species of Parotocinclus with Otocinclus maculicauda Steindachner, 1877 with type by monotypy (he condition of a taxon having only a single subordinate taxon). Our subject this month is of course a member of this genera namely Parotocinclus haroldoi, a very pretty loricariid which is now becoming more common in exports but is still one of the more rarer members of the Hypoptopomatinae sub-family. Not often exported due to the catchment area not being visited very often by fishermen but there are collections being made now in Northeastern Brazil by Brazilian exporter Hudson Crizanto Gonçalves so hopefully this species will be seen more often in the hobby. One of the nicest marked Parotocinclus species.

Parotocinclus haroldoi

Parotocinclus haroldoi

The genus Parotocinclus can readily be distinguished from Otocinclus by the presence of an adipose fin whereas Otocinclus do not posses one. Parotocinclus haroldoi was described originally based on eight specimens deposited in the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (MNRJ) and Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP), which were collected by Joaquim de Figueiredo in 1971 (Garavello, 1988).

Parotocinclus haroldoi - dorsal view

Parotocinclus haroldoi - dorsal view

Parotocinclus haroldoi is known from the Parnaíba river basin. The Parnaíba river basin extends in Ceará, Piauí and Maranhão States, Northeast, Brazil, in Caatinga and Cerrado region. It was collected at various locations in the upper, middle and low portions of the Rio Parnaíba, suggesting a wide geographic distribution of the species within the basin, large portion of places under the Caatinga domain and a small portion of the high Parnaíba, in the Cerrado. Specimens were collected in the main course of the Rio Parnaíba, and also on tributaries Gurgueia, Canindé-Piauí, Poti and Longá.

In its original description, Garavello (1988) only mentions the Córrego do Otaviano, Pocó do Sanharó, riacho Sanharó, Piauí as its type locality, not specifying the municipality (Ramos et al, 2020).

In the Parnaíba River basin there are two other congeners, P. cabessadecuia and P. cearensis. Parotocinclus haroldoi is distinguished from P. cabessadecuia for having developed adipose fin (vs. rudimentary or absent adipose fin) and P. cearensis, for having abdomen covered by entirely plates (vs. almost naked abdomen with small sparse plates).

Distrbution: Rio Parnaíba basin, Northeastern Brazil. Type locality: Córrego do Otaviano, Poço do Sanharó, Riacho Sanharó, Piauí, Brazil.

Parotocinclus haroldoi is usually found in moderate current flow in rivers with rock bottom and gravel substrate, at rivers under the dominion of the Caatinga and Cerrado. It was registered in co-occurrence in Rio Guaribas, tributary of Canindé-Piauí with other loricariids: Ancistrus damasceni (Steindachner), Loricariichthys derbyi Fowler, Hypostomus johnii (Steindachner) and Hypostomus sp. Other co-occuring species were Aequidens tetramerus (Heckel), Astyanax bimaculatus (Linnaeus), Astyanax fasciatus (Cuvier), Caenotropus labyrinthicus (Kner), Characidium zebra Eigenmann, Cichlasoma sanctifranciscense Kullander, Compsura heterura Eigenmann, Crenicichla menezesi Ploeg, Curimatella immaculata (Fernández-Yépez), Geophagus parnaibae Staeck & Schindler, Hemiodus parnaguae Eigenmann & Henn, Hoplias malabaricus (Bloch), Leporinus piau Lutken, Jupiaba polylepis (Günther), Knodus victoriae (Steindachner), Phenacogaster calverti (Fowler), Pimelodus sp., Poecilia sarrafae Bragança & Costa, Potamotrygon signata Garman, Prochilodus lacustris Steindachner, Psellogrammus kennedyi (Eigenmann), Pygocentrus nattereri Kner, Schizodon rostratus (Borodin), Serrapinnus piaba (Lütken), Steindachnerina notonota (Miranda Ribeiro) and Triportheus signatus (Garman) (Ramos et al, 2020).

Common Name

None

Synonyms

None

Family

Loricariidae

Subfamily

Hypoptopomatinae

Distribution

South America: The Rio Parnaíba basin, Northeastern Brazil. Type locality: Córrego do Otaviano, Poço do Sanharó, Riacho Sanharó, Piauí, Brazil.

Size

4.0cm. (1¾ins)

Temp.

25-29°c (77-85°f)

p.H.

6.5-7.5.

Characteristics

Body slightly short and somewhat depressed. Greatest body width at cleithrum, progressively tapering to the end of caudal peduncle. Dorsal profile slightly convex from snout to dorsal-fin origin; slightly concave from dorsal-fin origin to adipose fin; straight at adipose fin base; slightly concave from this point to origin of uppermost caudal-fin rays. Read more on the paper by Ramos et al.

Colouration

Background colour dark brown to greyish, with four lighter dark brown bars inconspicuous on the upper part of the trunk; most previous at the dorsal fin origin; the second on the base of the dorsal fin; the third at the adipose fin origin and the last on the caudal peduncle, near the origin of the caudal fin. Side with a dark brown band extending from the previous part or the snout to the caudal peduncle. Clear yellowish small elongated spots on the dorsal and lateral regions of the head and trunk, lighter patch in the pineal region; the spots of the trunk generally converging in two series on the lateral. Ventral region of the head and abdomen (trunk) yellowish. Fins with dark chromatophores concentrated, forming irregular set of stripes that alternates between dark brown and yellow clear: dorsal fin of three or four stripes; pectoral, pelvic and anal fins of two or three stripes dark brown inconspicuous. Caudal fin with three stripes dark, the first two rather dark: one transversal on the base of fin, the second a bar oblique only in the lower lobe and third transversal inconspicuous in both lobes (Ramos et al).

Aquarium Care & Compatibility

Not a well known species but good aquarium husbandry with regular water changes and good oxygen content should suffice.

Reproduction

Not reported.

Sexual differences

Males possess urogenital papilla positioned just behind anal opening. No other characters of sexual dimorphism were recorded in Parotocinclus haroldoi, as described for example for P. cabessadecuia in Ramos et al. (2017),

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.

Glossary of Terms

Adipose fin: Fleshy finlike projection without rays, behind the rayed dorsal fin.
Anal fin: The median, unpaired, ventrally located fin that lies behind the anus, usually on the posterior half of the fish.
Caudal peduncle: The narrow part of a fish's body to which the caudal or tail fin is attached.
Cleithrum: The major bone of the pectoral girdle, extending upward from the pectoral fin base and forming the rear margin of the gill cavity, also: the principal bow-shaped bone of the prectoral girlde, dermal in origin, forming the rear margin of the gill cavity. It articulates dorsally with the supracleithrum and ventrally with the scapula and coracoid.
Dorsal fin: The primary rayed fin(s) on top of the body.
Pectoral fins: The paired fins just behind the head.
Pelvic fins: The paired fins, between the pectorals and the anal fins. (also referred to as ventrals).

Etymology

Parotocinclus: Greek, para in the side of + greek, ous, otis = ear + Greek, kygklos, ou = a fish.

References

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. 2008. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org, version (02/2016).
Ramos, T. P. A., L. de F. B. Neto, K. C. F. Ferreira and J. E. de L. Barbosa 2020 (17 Mar.) Redescription of Parotocinclus haroldoi Garavello, 1988 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae), northeastern Brazil. Zootaxa 4751 (no. 2): 321-332.
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, Brasil.

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ScotCat Sources

Etymology-genera

Other Sources

Fishbase

Catalog of Fishes

GBIF

iNaturalist