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In some online searches this species will come up as its previous name of Hemiloricaria melini. 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: A black water species that requires soft, acidic water to spawn. Diet: Omnivore. Vegetable food such as cucumber and other various foods such as tablet, flake and frozen. Etymology: Named in in honour of Swedish herpetologist Douglas Melin (1895-1946), who collected type. Remarks: Rineloricaria melini is known from a single record, in its type locality, on the Solimões River, near Manacapuru, Amazonas, Brazil. There is no information on the current conservation status of the species, but no direct threats that could lead to its extinction have been identified. Therefore, Rineloricaria melini was categorised as Least Concern (IUCN 2022).

Apache whiptail catfish

Hemiloricaria melini

Loricariidae

South America: Amazon River basin, Brazil. Type Locality: Rio Solimoes beim Ort Manacapuru, nahe der Mündung des Rio Negro, Brazil.

10.0cm (4ins)

26-29°c (79-87°f)

6.0-7.5.

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.
Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio). 2022. Rineloricaria melini. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.