Peckoltia is a genus of armoured suckermouth catfish — plecos — in the family Loricariidae, distributed across the Amazon and Orinoco drainages of South America, with atlas records from Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Guyana, Bolivia, Ecuador and French Guiana. Like other members of the bristlenose-adjacent subfamily Hypostominae, Peckoltia have a flattened, armour-plated body, a ventral sucker mouth used to graze algae and biofilm off rocks and wood, and, in males of many species, small bristle-like odontodes on the head and cheeks. Species range from compact 2.5–3 in dwarfs to robust individuals approaching 10 in, and most inhabit rocky, well-oxygenated river stretches rather than still water.
Few pleco genera are as prized by aquarists: many Peckoltia carry L-numbers from the trade's early cataloguing system (L015, L075, LDA020 and LDA078 among them), and species like the leopard frog pleco, P. compta, and the coal pleco, P. pankimpuju, are sought-after showpieces valued for bold, high-contrast patterning. That popularity sits alongside a genuinely fragile conservation picture — the atlas records one Critically Endangered, three Endangered and two Vulnerable Peckoltia, and two species carry an active CARES breeding-priority listing, making wild collection pressure and habitat loss in specific river stretches a live concern for a genus the hobby depends on.