Taxonomy & naming
Pareiorhina pelicicei was described in 2015 by Valter M. Azevedo-Santos and Fábio F. Roxo in Zootaxa (volume 3937, number 2, pages 377-384), in 'A new species of the genus Pareiorhina from the upper rio Paraná basin, southeastern Brazil'. The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) lists it as a valid species (spid 73693).
The genus Pareiorhina is placed in the subfamily Neoplecostominae, a group of small loricariids characteristic of Brazilian Atlantic and upper Paraná streams. (FishBase records the subfamily as Hypoptopomatinae, but Pareiorhina belongs in Neoplecostominae.) The authors diagnosed P. pelicicei by the absence of a postdorsal ridge, 29 vertebrae, teeth bearing a minute lateral cusp, an elliptical anterior head profile, a naked snout tip, and counts of 35-48 premaxillary and 33-49 dentary teeth.
Morphology
Pareiorhina pelicicei is a small fish: males and unsexed specimens reach about 2 in standard length, females about 1.5 in. The body is elongated with an oval cross-section and an elliptical anterior head profile, and the tip of the snout is naked. There is no postdorsal ridge, and the vertebral count is 29. Fin counts are seven dorsal-fin and five anal-fin rays.
The teeth carry a minute lateral cusp, with 35 to 48 teeth on the premaxilla and 33 to 49 on the dentary. The difference in maximum recorded size between males and females is the only sexual distinction noted in the available data; no other dimorphic features are documented.
Habitat
The species occurs in the upper Rio Paraná basin of southeastern Brazil. It was collected in a clear-water stream over a bottom of bedrock and gravel, with partially submerged riparian vegetation along the margins.
Pareiorhina pelicicei was always found in lotic — flowing — environments associated with rocks, and never in lentic pools, marking it as a current-loving rheophile. At the collection site it was syntopic with fishes of the Astyanax scabripinnis group and with Trichomycterus species, typical companions of clear upland Brazilian streams.
Feeding
No direct study of the diet of Pareiorhina pelicicei has been published. As a small rock-associated loricariid of flowing streams, it is expected to graze biofilm — algae, diatoms, and fine organic material — from the surfaces of bedrock and gravel, but no stomach-content or feeding-behaviour data are available to confirm this.
Mating
No data on courtship or mating behaviour have been published for this species.
Breeding
No data on reproduction, spawning mode, clutch size, or parental care have been published for Pareiorhina pelicicei. No assumptions should be made from the breeding habits of related genera.
In the aquarium
Pareiorhina pelicicei is not a species of the aquarium trade, and there is no published husbandry information for it. It is known only from scientific collections of a small, current-dependent stream specialist, and any guidance on keeping it would be speculative.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed Pareiorhina pelicicei as Data Deficient (DD), with the assessment dated 14 December 2020 — meaning there is insufficient information to evaluate its risk of extinction. The fish is known from a restricted area of the upper Paraná basin and depends on flowing, rocky stream habitat. The species honours Dr. Fernando Mayer Pelicice, recognised for his work on the impacts of dams on Neotropical fishes, a fitting dedication for a current-dependent species in a heavily impounded basin; however, no specific threat analysis for P. pelicicei has been published beyond the Data Deficient listing.