Taxonomy & naming
Harttia garavelloi was described by Osvaldo T. Oyakawa in 1993, in a study revising the southeastern Brazilian species of the genus Harttia. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) recognises it as a valid species (genus Harttia, species garavelloi), and FishBase follows the same valid combination.
The genus Harttia belongs to the subfamily Loricariinae, the flat-bodied, often elongate 'whiptail' loricariids distinguished from the wood-eating Hypostominae by their depressed bodies and long, tapering caudal peduncles. Within South American loricariin classification the species was catalogued in Ferraris's 2003 checklist of the freshwater fishes of South and Central America (in Reis, Kullander & Ferraris, eds.).
The species epithet honours the Brazilian ichthyologist Dr. Julio Cesar Garavello, a specialist in Neotropical fishes.
Morphology
Harttia garavelloi is a small loricariin, reaching a maximum recorded size of about 3.5 in standard length (SL). Like other members of the genus it has the characteristic depressed, dorsoventrally flattened body and long, slender caudal peduncle typical of the whiptail loricariids, with the ventral mouth forming the suckermouth disc used to graze and adhere to substrate in current.
Detailed published colour and meristic descriptions for this species sit in Oyakawa's 1993 revision; beyond the recorded maximum length, fine morphological detail and any sexual dimorphism are not summarised in the sources available here, so no further claims are made.
Habitat
The species is endemic to the upper rio Jequitinhonha basin in Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil, where it is recorded from the Fanado and Araçuaí rivers. These are tropical freshwater systems, and the fish is demersal — living on or near the bottom — consistent with the substrate-grazing habit of the genus.
Specific field measurements of temperature, pH, hardness, or depth for the type localities are not reported in the sources at hand. The genus as a whole favours clear, flowing upland streams with firm substrate, but no site-specific water chemistry is asserted here for H. garavelloi.
Feeding
Harttia garavelloi is a benthic grazer. FishBase assigns it an estimated trophic level of about 2.6, indicating a diet dominated by low-trophic items — the biofilm, algae (aufwuchs), and associated micro-invertebrates and detritus that coat rocks and submerged surfaces in flowing water, rasped from the substrate with the ventral suckermouth.
No gut-content study specific to this species is available in the sources here, so the dietary picture rests on the genus's grazing habit and the estimated trophic level rather than direct observation.
Mating
No courtship or mating behaviour has been published for Harttia garavelloi in the sources available here. Within the genus Harttia, lithophilous (rock-spawning) reproduction with paternal egg-guarding has been documented for several species, but no such observation is recorded for this species, so none is asserted.
Breeding
No breeding data — clutch size, spawning site, incubation, or parental care — have been published for Harttia garavelloi in the sources at hand. The species is not known to be bred in captivity, and no aquarium spawning report exists. Where the genus is concerned, males of several Harttia species carry and guard adhesive eggs, but specifics for H. garavelloi remain undocumented here.
In the aquarium
Harttia garavelloi is not a species of the ornamental trade and has no established aquarium husbandry record. As a small upland-stream loricariin, its general requirements would parallel those of other whiptail Harttia — clean, well-oxygenated, flowing water over firm substrate with grazing surfaces — but because no keeping or trade experience is documented in the sources here, no specific parameters or stocking advice are offered.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed Harttia garavelloi as Least Concern (LC) in 2018. Despite its narrow endemism to the upper rio Jequitinhonha basin, it was not considered to face imminent threats sufficient to warrant a higher category at the time of assessment. As with other range-restricted upland Brazilian fishes, localised habitat alteration — damming, water abstraction, and degradation of headwater streams — represents a latent concern for a species confined to a single river basin.