Description:
Body and head broad and flat, without keels or elevations.
Triangular head with tip of snout slightly prominent
and naked. Head plates smooth, without bristles. Large
eyes; orbit almost quadrangular; supraoccipital flat.
Subpreopercle large, triangular, and partly covered
by odontodes. Large mouth, well developed, thick upper
lip. Rictal barbels extremely reduced and attached
to the lower lip by well developed membrane, not papillated.
Incomplete abdominal covering. Lateral plates 29-30,
carinate, arranged in 2 confluent series. Colouration:
Head light brown blotches over a dark brown surface.
Five broad transversal dark bars covering body and
caudal peduncle; last bar very dark, surrounding caudal
fin insertion and covering part of supracaudal plates.
Aquarium Care: Not the easiest genera
to keep as they will need clean, oxygen rich water
and a strong current. Does not do well in imports
due to its difficulty in traveling containers. Diet:
Dry foods, algae wafers, Spirulina and normal tablet
foods. Frozen foods, Artemia nauplii, glass
worms and Daphnia. Sexual Differences:
Males tend to have odontodes (hair like structures)
on the first ray of the pectoral fins and the head
in males is broader. Etymology: The
genus name Harttia: –ia, belonging
to: Charles Frederick Hartt (1840-1878), geologist,
paleontologist and naturalist, who collect many specimens
that Steindachner studied during the Thayer Expedition
(1865-1866) to Brazil. The specific name of uatumensis:
–ensis, suffix denoting place: Uatumã
River basin, Brazil, type locality. Remarks:
The successive construction of dams over the last
25 years (Balbina, Paranapanema and Jatapú)
has changed the environment from lotic to lentic,
resulting in a continued decline in habitat quality.
Thus, H. uatumensis was categorised as Near
Threatened (NT), as it approaches the Vulnerable (VU)
category according to the B1b(iii) criteria (2022).
Common
Name:
None
Synonyms:
None
Family:
Loricariidae
Distribution:
South America:Uatumã River basin, Amazonas - Guiana
Shield, northern Brazil. Type locality:
Brazil: Amazonas: Rio Uatumã, at Santa Luzia
(59º28'36"W, 1º50'13"S).
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