Taxonomy & naming
Rineloricaria microlepidota was described by the Austrian ichthyologist Franz Steindachner in 1907. It belongs to the family Loricariidae, subfamily Loricariinae — the whiptail catfishes. FishBase recognises the valid combination Rineloricaria microlepidota.
The genus Rineloricaria is large and has undergone repeated taxonomic revision over the past century, with many nominal species moved among related whiptail genera; the present combination reflects the currently accepted placement.
The species epithet 'microlepidota' is descriptive, formed from the Greek 'mikros' (small) and 'lepis' (scale), meaning 'small-scaled' — a reference to the fine bony plating that characterises the fish.
Morphology
Rineloricaria microlepidota reaches a maximum recorded length of about 5.5 in, making it a mid-sized whiptail for the genus. It has the typical Rineloricaria body plan: long, slender, and dorsally flattened, armoured in rows of bony plates and tapering to a thin tail. Its name points to its relatively small scales (plates) compared with some relatives.
No detailed dimorphism data for this species is published in the available sources. As in the genus generally, breeding males may develop odontodes on the head and pectoral fins, but no species-specific observations are available.
Habitat
The species is known from the Juruá River basin in Brazil, in the western Amazon. It is a freshwater, demersal (bottom-dwelling), tropical fish.
Members of Rineloricaria are facultative air-breathers, able to gulp atmospheric air to supplement gill respiration in warm, oxygen-poor water — a useful adaptation in the seasonally fluctuating waters of the Amazon lowlands. No measured temperature, pH, or hardness values for this species' habitat are published in the available sources.
Feeding
Rineloricaria microlepidota is a bottom-grazer with a low trophic level of about 2.5, indicating a diet built around algae (aufwuchs) and detritus. It rasps biofilm and fine organic material from the substrate, wood, and rock with its ventral suckermouth. No dedicated diet study for this species is published; the dietary picture follows from its trophic level and from the habits typical of the genus.
Mating
No data on the courtship or mating behaviour of Rineloricaria microlepidota has been published. Whiptail catfishes are generally substrate spawners with male egg-guarding, but no specific observations for this species are available in the consulted sources.
Breeding
No breeding data specific to Rineloricaria microlepidota exists in the available sources. The genus typically spawns in sheltered sites — crevices, tubes, or among submerged material — with the male tending the eggs until hatching, but no clutch size, spawning behaviour, or developmental data has been documented for this species.
In the aquarium
Rineloricaria microlepidota is not a commonly kept aquarium fish, and no L-number has been assigned. There is little or no established hobby husbandry data specific to the species.
No specific care recommendations can be made responsibly from published sources. Any keeper would have to reason from its natural setting — warm, flowing western-Amazon waters with a bottom of sand, wood, and detritus — rather than from documented aquarium experience, and such inferences should be treated as provisional.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed Rineloricaria microlepidota as Data Deficient (DD) on 7 November 2018. A Data Deficient listing means there is insufficient information on the species' distribution, population, and threats to assess its extinction risk — it is neither confirmed secure nor confirmed threatened. It is not evaluated under CITES.
With its range tied to the Juruá basin and very little biological information available, the species' true status is uncertain, and further survey work would be needed before a threat category could be assigned.