Dragon-head whiptail

Rhadinoloricaria macromystax

Also known as Dragon head whiptail

FreshwaterFish

Care at a glance

Temperature: 73–82°F (23–28°C)
pH: 5.5–7.2
Adult size: 5.7 in (14.5 cm)
Minimum tank: 40 gal (150 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Schooling
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Medium
Breeding: No record
Rarity: Rare
Origin: Upper Amazon sand rivers, Peru and Ecuador
Family: Loricariidae

Overview

The dragon-head whiptail is a sand-dwelling catfish that is peaceful and best kept as a small group over open sand, where several can share the floor without trouble. It lies half-buried with only its fringed face showing and rises to feed. A deep bed of soft, fine sand is essential to how it lives. Keep it with calm, non-competitive tankmates, since it is slow and gentle at feeding time. Offer sinking pellets and soft meaty foods such as frozen bloodworm, dropped onto the sand. Give it an open-floored tank of at least 150 liters with gentle flow.

In the wild

This whiptail lives over sandy beds in clear and white-water rivers of the upper Amazon, where it feeds on the fine material in the sand. Its tank needs a broad layer of soft, fine sand it can bury into, with gentle current and clean, well-oxygenated water. Keep it soft and slightly acidic to neutral, roughly pH 5.5 to 7.2, and warm at about 23 to 28 C. As with other sand whiptails, the substrate matters more than any planting or hardscape.

Good to know

Rhadinoloricaria macromystax belongs to Loricariidae and reaches around 14 to 15 centimeters. The name macromystax means large mustache, for the fringe of whisker-like filaments around its mouth that it uses while sifting the sand. It is a bottom-feeding detritivore. There is no real record of it breeding in captivity, and it arrives in the hobby as a wild-caught fish.

Did you know

Buried in the sand, it is nearly invisible until feeding time, when it lifts a mask fringed with whisker-like barbels, the big mustache that its species name records.

Tank mates

Dragon-head whiptail is a peaceful, schooling species that keeps to the bottom. These picks match on water type, temperature, pH, size and temperament.