Taxonomy & naming
Corydoras pavanelliae was described in 2016 by Luiz Tencatt and Willian Ohara, in a paper erecting two new Corydoras from the rio Madeira basin of Brazil. The holotype (MNRJ 43317, 2 in SL) came from the rio Aripuanã drainage in Mato Grosso. The epithet honours Dr Carla Simone Pavanelli, a Brazilian biologist recognised for her work on Neotropical fish taxonomy and ecology.
Like all the cory cats it was placed in the long-overloaded genus Corydoras Lacépède, 1803 (family Callichthyidae). The big 2024 revision by Dias, Tencatt and colleagues split that genus along molecular lines into several lineages, and under that scheme C. pavanelliae falls into the resurrected genus Hoplisoma — so the current valid combination is Hoplisoma pavanelliae. Because the hobby and most of the literature still say 'Corydoras pavanelliae,' we keep that as the heading while noting the new placement. FishBase already lists the species under Hoplisoma, consistent with the revision.
Morphology
This is a small, relatively slender cory, reaching about 2 in in standard length. It has the short, blunt-to-moderate snout typical of the group, a hard helmeted head and the two rows of overlapping bony plates (scutes) down each flank that give the cory cats their armour. The species was diagnosed in part on a short mesethmoid and a very reduced posterior laminar expansion of the second infraorbital — fine internal bones that ichthyologists use to tell near-identical corys apart.
The most obvious field mark is the colour pattern: two to three dark longitudinal black stripes running along the flanks over a pale ground, a banded look rather than the spotted or saddled patterns of many congeners. Three pairs of sensory barbels fringe the downturned mouth, and the dorsal, pectoral and adipose fins each carry a stiff leading spine, the usual cory defence.
Habitat
Corydoras pavanelliae is known from the rio Madeira basin in central Brazil, in the Aripuanã and associated drainages of the upper Madeira system that drain the southern Amazon. It is a fish of small, clear-water streams with a swift current — the kind of cool, oxygen-rich forest headwater very different from the warm, still backwaters favoured by the familiar bronze cory.
These clear-water streams typically run over sand and gravel with leaf litter and submerged wood. Precise water-chemistry measurements have not been published for the type localities, but clear-water Amazonian headwaters of this sort are generally soft and slightly acidic, warm, and well oxygenated by the flow. Like other corys it is a facultative air-breather, gulping atmospheric air at the surface and absorbing oxygen through a vascularised hindgut.
Feeding
No dedicated diet study has been published, but like all Corydoradinae this is a benthic omnivore and detritivore. It works the stream bottom, burying its snout and barbels in sand and fine gravel to taste out small invertebrates, insect larvae, worms and organic detritus, and expels cleaned sand through the gills. In an aquarium it would be expected to take sinking dried foods together with small live and frozen items such as bloodworm and brine shrimp.
Mating
The reproductive behaviour of C. pavanelliae has not been documented, but corys are egg-laying shoalers with a distinctive and well-conserved courtship. A ready female cleans a spawning site and the group becomes active; a male takes up the classic 'T-position' at right angles to her head, and a few adhesive eggs are clasped in a basket formed by her pelvic fins and pressed onto the chosen surface. The sequence repeats, a few eggs at a time, until the clutch is laid. There is no reason to expect this species departs from that pattern.
Breeding
There are no captive-breeding records for Corydoras pavanelliae, which remains essentially unknown in the hobby. If it follows its relatives, spawning would likely be triggered by a cool, large water change mimicking the rainy season, the adhesive eggs would receive no parental care (adults readily eat their own spawn), and eggs would hatch in roughly three to five days, with fry taking microworm and baby brine shrimp once the yolk sac is absorbed. As a swift-water, clear-stream species it may need cooler, more oxygenated conditions than the average cory to come into condition.
In the aquarium
Corydoras pavanelliae is rarely if ever traded, and there is no established body of aquarium experience for it. General cory husbandry applies and is sharpened by its origins. It is a shoaling fish that should be kept in groups of six or more over soft sand, which protects the delicate barbels that coarse gravel erodes. Because it comes from swift, clear, well-oxygenated headwaters, it would be expected to want cooler, faster, more highly oxygenated water than still-water species — strong filtration and good flow rather than a warm, sluggish tank. It is a peaceful fish suited only to equally calm tankmates. As with all corys, the fin spines can snag in a net (a cup is safer), and a stressed fish can release skin toxins that are dangerous in the confined volume of a bag.
Conservation
Corydoras pavanelliae has been assessed by the IUCN as Least Concern (2020). It is a recently described, range-restricted species of the southern Madeira tributaries, and although its known range is small it occurs in a region not yet heavily developed, which underpins the assessment. The broad pressures on Amazonian headwaters — deforestation, agriculture, road-building and the prospect of damming on the Madeira system — could degrade the clear, swift streams it depends on, so its status is worth watching even though it is not currently considered threatened. There is no meaningful collection pressure, as the species barely enters the trade.