Description

Dorsal spines (total): 2; Dorsal soft rays (total): 7; Anal spines: 1; Anal soft rays: 4. This species is distinguished from all its congeners, except H. affinis, H. punctatus, H. ancistroides, H. commersoni, by the following characters: teeth bifid (vs. spoon-shaped); dark spots on light background (vs. light spots on a dark background or not spotted); with 4 rough lateral ridges on flanks (vs. no strong ridges on flanks); lateral series plates 26-29 (vs. < 28 in several species, 31-32 in H. laplatae); differs from H. laplatae with 1-2 plates bordering posterior margin of supraoccipital bone (vs. 3-4); differs from H. affinis, H. punctatus, H. ancistroides by its inter-dorsal distance 14.7-20.4% in SL (vs. 18.9-21.0%) and with head depth 48.8-76.4% in HL (vs. 48.2-49.9%); differs from H. commersoni by having large lateral ridges with odontodes posteriorly inclined (vs. fine and with odontodes in all directions), strong lateral ridges in caudal peduncle (vs. weak), mid lateral ridge from 2nd or 3rd plate (vs. from first plate), adults (> 12 cm SL) with a very weak ridge on temporal plate (vs. strong ridge) (Ref. 121236).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Siluriformes

Family: Loricariidae

Genus: Hypostomus

Species: Hypostomus spiniger (Hensel, 1870)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Facultative air-breathing in the genus (Ref. 126274); This species was collected on substrate mainly composed of sand, oxygenated waters (8.4-9.0 mg/l) with moderate current; water turbidity was 22.4-74.2 NTU., conductivity 567-1909 μS/cm, pH 7.6-8.3, and temperature 19.8-25.3°C (Ref. 121236). Feeds on organic material (detritus) on the bottom (Ref. 6868).

Habitat

demersal