Taxonomy & naming
Rhadinoloricaria yekuana was described by Francisco Provenzano-Rizzi in 2026, in Zootaxa (volume 5760, number 4, pages 450–466), in a paper titled 'Two new species of the genus Rhadinoloricaria from Venezuela, and comments on the taxonomic status of species included in Rhadinoloricaria (sensu lato)'. The two new species were recognised among preserved material held in the fish collection of the Museo de Biología de la Universidad Central de Venezuela (MBUCV-V), and their Orinoco-basin localities — this species in the Cuchivero and Caura Rivers of Bolívar State, the other (R. yanomami) in the upper Orinoco, Casiquiare, Mavaca and Manapiare Rivers of Amazonas State — considerably extend the previously known northern boundary of the genus's distribution. Comparative material for the study also included the holotype of Apistoloricaria listrorhinos and specimens of A. laani and A. ommation, leading the author to conclude that Apistoloricaria (aside from A. listrorhinos) and Rhadinoloricaria remain distinct, valid genera, while flagging that the full taxonomic status of species currently included in Rhadinoloricaria sensu lato — and their relationships within the wider Pseudohemiodon group of Loricariinae — still needs further molecular and morphological study.
The genus Rhadinoloricaria itself was erected by Isbrücker & Nijssen in 1974 for slender-bodied whiptail catfishes related to Pseudohemiodon and Planiloricaria. Both new species were diagnosed from the three previously recognised species of Rhadinoloricaria sensu stricto, and from each other, by external morphology and buccal (oral disc) ornamentation together with differences in snout shape, the pattern of plates covering the abdomen, head and body coloration, the morphology of the first and second predorsal plates, and unspecified morphometric values — the original paper was consulted only in abstract form for this account, so these characters could not be individually confirmed for R. yekuana versus R. yanomami.
The Catalog of Fishes (Eschmeyer, CAS) recognises Rhadinoloricaria yekuana Provenzano, 2026 as a valid species in the genus Rhadinoloricaria Isbrücker & Nijssen, 1974, subfamily Loricariinae. The holotype is MBUCV V-17593, collected from the Cuchivero River at a ferryboat crossing point, Orinoco River basin, Bolívar State, Venezuela (approximately 07°29'N, 65°52'W), with paratypes deposited at ANSP and MBUCV.
Morphology
No morphometric or meristic data for Rhadinoloricaria yekuana are available from the sources consulted for this account — the original description (Provenzano, 2026) was accessible here only as its published abstract, which describes the diagnostic characters in general terms rather than reporting specific measurements. Standard length, plate counts and colour pattern for this species are therefore not documented here and should not be assumed to match any congener.
At the genus level, Rhadinoloricaria comprises small, slender loricariine whiptails with an elongated, dorsoventrally depressed body and a suctorial, disc-like mouth bearing filamentous buccal papillae, features shared broadly across the closely related Pseudohemiodon group. Whether R. yekuana conforms closely to this general body plan has not been confirmed from a directly examined description.
Habitat
Rhadinoloricaria yekuana is known from the Cuchivero River (type locality) and, per its original description, more broadly from the Cuchivero and Caura Rivers of Bolívar State, Venezuela. The Catalog of Fishes places its distribution within Guyana Shield drainages of the lower Orinoco River basin — Precambrian shield rivers distinct from the Andean-influenced upper Orinoco system occupied by its sister species R. yanomami.
No specific microhabitat or water-chemistry data (current, substrate, depth, temperature, pH) have been published for R. yekuana. Congeneric Rhadinoloricaria such as R. bahuaja are documented over open sandy river-channel beaches, a pattern consistent with the sand-associated habits typical of Pseudohemiodon-group whiptails generally, but this is a genus-level inference, not a direct observation of R. yekuana.
Feeding
No dietary data have been published for Rhadinoloricaria yekuana. In the congener R. bahuaja, stomach contents documented in the original description consisted of aquatic insect larvae, small seeds and detritus — a plausible baseline for the genus's sand-dwelling, omnivorous-detritivorous feeding mode, given the shared suctorial mouth and buccal papillae across Rhadinoloricaria. This is inferred from a related species, not observed in R. yekuana itself.
Mating
No courtship or mating observations have been published for Rhadinoloricaria yekuana. Rhadinoloricaria sits within the Pseudohemiodon group of Loricariinae, whose members — including the well-documented congener R. bahuaja, whose type series included a male carrying more than fifty fertilised eggs on his lips — are known for abdomino-lip brooding, in which males take on the parental role. Whether R. yekuana shares this pattern has not been confirmed.
Breeding
No breeding data — wild or captive — exist for Rhadinoloricaria yekuana, which is known only from museum voucher specimens and has no history in the aquarium trade. By analogy with the Pseudohemiodon group and the directly documented lip-brooding of its congener R. bahuaja, males may be expected to carry the fertilised egg mass on an enlarged lower lip, but this remains an inference from related species rather than a confirmed trait of R. yekuana. Clutch size, incubation and fry development are entirely undocumented.
In the aquarium
Rhadinoloricaria yekuana was described only in 2026 from preserved museum material and has no presence in the ornamental fish trade. No husbandry guidance exists for this species, and none should be inferred beyond the very general sand-substrate, well-oxygenated-water template used for sand-dwelling Loricariinae as a group — an extrapolation offered with no captive experience behind it.
Conservation
Rhadinoloricaria yekuana has not been assessed by the IUCN Red List; its status there is Not Evaluated, as expected for a species described in 2026. The original description is a taxonomic and systematic study rather than a conservation assessment, and no population, threat or range-extent data specific to this species have been published. Its documented range lies within Guyana Shield drainages of the lower Orinoco basin in Bolívar State, southern Venezuela, a region where broader regional pressures on Orinoco-basin freshwater habitats include illegal gold mining and associated mercury contamination and sedimentation — a general regional concern, not a documented threat to this species specifically.