Taxonomy & naming
Pseudolaguvia muricata Ng, 2005 is the valid name in the Catalog of Fishes. It was described from Rangapani Khal, a creek in the Sylhet District of Bangladesh. The epithet muricata is Latin for 'spiny' or 'rough with points', apparently referring to skin tubercles.
Morphology
Pseudolaguvia are small, flattened sisorid catfishes of hill-stream and foothill drainages of South Asia, with a depressed head and body, a pad-like thoracic adhesive apparatus on the underside, and bony tubercles or ridges on the skin in many species. FishBase gives this species a maximum of 1 in SL.
Habitat
FishBase places it in the Brahmaputra River drainage of Bangladesh, in clear, shallow, slow-flowing stream water over a mixed bottom of sand and detritus. The type locality is Rangapani Khal, a creek near Sylhet.
Feeding
Diet in the wild is not recorded in the sources available to the atlas. Small sisorids of this kind are generally benthic feeders on tiny invertebrates, and in captivity small frozen foods such as bloodworm, daphnia and cyclops, along with fine sinking foods, are the usual offering.
Mating
Mating behaviour is not recorded in the sources available to the atlas.
Breeding
Breeding of this species in captivity is not recorded in the sources available to the atlas.
In the aquarium
It is an uncommon, specialist import. Provide clean, well-oxygenated, moderately flowing water over sand or fine gravel with stones and leaf litter for cover, and keep it with small peaceful tankmates. FishBase gives no temperature, pH or hardness range for this species.
Conservation
The IUCN Red List assessed it as Data Deficient in 2009, meaning there is too little information to rate its risk. Small hill-stream fishes of the region are exposed to habitat alteration.