Peckoltia sp. (L076)

Loricariidae

Rio Pará (?)

Loricariidae: from the Latin lorica (= corselet, alluring to the armoured thoracic area of the fish); Peckoltia: in honour of Gustavo Peckolt, member of the Natural History Commission of Rondon.

 c. 18 cm TL.

The fish has a uniform olive green base colour with a golden trim at the end of the dorsal and caudal fins. It is often confused with the L099, L161 and L265. We have not managed to find a description / identification of this fish.

Adult males are more slender by comparison to females when viewed from above and develop small teeth-like odontodes on the leading pectoral fin rays and the back half of their body.

Rio Pará, Amazon.

We have kept and bred our colony in pH 7.6. The fish do not seem to be affected by pH fluctuations of 1 point either way (6.5 - 8.6).

We kept our colony at 25° C - 27° C. They spawned when the temperature rose to 31^oC, though this could have been co-incidental. See Breeding below.

Our colony lives and spawns in KH= 3 (with the addition of bicarbonate of soda) and dGH = 3.

Adults are omnivores but seem to require vegetable matter in their diet. We offer ours a combination of staple carnivore and herbivore foods inlcuding  including fresh vegetables and fruit (courgette, cuccumber, spinach, pok choi, melon, papaya and mango).

We have kept this fish with a small, medium and large loricariids of varying temperaments and they did very well. They are a quite peaceful, communal species. The fish loves their privacy. They will not harass other fish and learn to co-habit pretty easily. 

Peaceful small and medium size fish is the obvious choice. If you plan to breed the fish make sure their tank mates will not hurt the wrigglers once they are out of the cave.

Soft wood (bogwood) is the obvious choice. Sand substrate is preferred. Our colony spawns in slate caves.

We keep and breed our colony of four adults in a 250 lit tank (120cm x 55cm x 40cm). We have kept them in considerably smaller quarters too (100 lit) without caves and the did fine, though there were no spawnings.

Peaceful.They do not seem to be bothered by intense lights and will often be seen in the open if in appropriate quarters.

For a breeding report see Keeping and Breeding Peckoltia sp. (L076).