Taxonomy & naming
Corumbataia liliai was described by Silva, Roxo, Souza and Oliveira in 2018, in a Neotropical Ichthyology paper that introduced two new species of the genus from the Rio Corrente, upper Rio Paraná basin — C. liliai alongside C. lucianoi. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) is the authority for the valid name and recognises the combination Corumbataia liliai with the authorship Silva, Roxo, Souza & Oliveira, 2018.
The genus Corumbataia belongs to the subfamily Hypoptopomatinae, the dwarf suckermouth catfishes. It is a small genus of diminutive, slender loricariids endemic to south-eastern and central Brazilian river systems, several of them very narrowly distributed.
Morphology
Corumbataia liliai is a miniature loricariid, reaching a maximum of about 1 in standard length. Like other members of the genus and subfamily, it is a small, slender, armoured catfish with a ventral suckermouth and the body protected by rows of bony plates. The detailed diagnostic characters that separate it from congeners — plate counts, fin-ray formulae, and colour-pattern details — are given in the original description; no information on sexual dimorphism in this species has been published.
Habitat
The species is known from the upper Rio Paraná basin in Brazil, where it inhabits small, low-flow streams associated with marginal vegetation. It is a freshwater, demersal, tropical fish. The narrow stream habitat — slow-moving water fringed by bankside plants — is part of what makes the species vulnerable, as such small watercourses are readily degraded. Beyond this, no detailed water-chemistry or depth measurements for the species have been published here.
Feeding
No dedicated dietary study of Corumbataia liliai has been published. Hypoptopomatines are characteristically grazers of periphyton — the biofilm of algae, microbes, and detritus that coats submerged surfaces and aquatic vegetation — and a small marginal-vegetation specialist such as this is presumed to feed similarly. No species-specific gut-content data are available to cite.
Mating
No data has been published on courtship or mating behaviour in Corumbataia liliai.
Breeding
No data has been published on the reproduction of Corumbataia liliai. There is no record of the species having been bred in captivity, and no information on spawning mode, clutch size, or parental care is available.
In the aquarium
Corumbataia liliai is not a species kept in the aquarium hobby. With a tiny range, Critically Endangered status, and no captive-breeding record, it has no husbandry literature, and no aquarium parameters or care guidance can be stated here without fabrication. It is best regarded as a subject for conservation and field study rather than the trade.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed Corumbataia liliai as Critically Endangered (CR) in 2020 — the highest category of extinction risk short of extinction in the wild. The listing reflects an extremely restricted distribution in small streams of the upper Rio Paraná basin, a region under intense pressure from agricultural expansion, deforestation of riparian zones, water abstraction, and pollution. For a fish confined to a handful of small, easily degraded watercourses, even localised habitat loss can threaten the entire known population. Protection of the remaining stream habitat and its marginal vegetation, together with targeted surveys to establish the species' true range and population size, are the immediate conservation priorities.