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Yann Fulliquet (1) Helen Burns (1) Allan James (4) Johnny Jensen's Photographic Library (1) Gert Blank (3) Ivor Hilton (5)

Description: This in my opinion is one of the most difficult whiptail species to identify with any great certainty as being easy to breed they are abundant in fish show and club auctions and are just sold as Rineloricaria sp., they could be anyone of half a dozen species or even crosses between two close species as a few of them have the cross banding on the body area but in the main R. parva should have double extensions to the caudal lobes. Reproduction: The Rineloricaria species are usually cave spawners, where the female will place their eggs after the male has cleaned inside. The male will then guard and fan the eggs until hatching. The eggs will hatch in 4-5 days whereas the male can now be removed. More breeding information can be found here in the articles breeding section. Aquarium Care: An easy species to keep with no excessive demands on water parameters. Diet: Omnivore. Vegetable food such as cucumber and other various foods such as tablet, flake and frozen. Remarks: The Loricariinae sp. LG06 which has been around in the hobby and has also been bred is now been mooted as being R. parva. Still seen on some online searches as Hemiloricaria parva. Etymology: The specific name parva: meaning small.

Common Whiptail Catfish, LG06

Loricaria parva, Hemiloricaria parva

Loricariidae

South America: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay: Paraguay River basin. Type locality: Descalvados, Matto Grosso Brazil.

12.5cm. (5ins)

23-26°c (73-79°f)

6.5-7.5.

Evers, H.-G. & I.Seidel: Mergus, Baensch Catfish Atlas Volume 1, 1st English edn., 2005. Pp.944.
Ferraris, C.J. Jr., 2007. Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types. Zootaxa 1418:1-628.
ScotCat Factsheet no.69. March 2002.