Scleromystax spp. are foraging omnivores, and most will accept sinking dried foods as well as small live and frozen varieties such as chironomid larvae (bloodworm), Tubifex, etc. Feeding a varied diet will ensure the fish are in optimum condition.

Under no circumstances should they be expected to survive on ‘left-overs’ from other inhabitants of the aquarium or relied on to ‘clean’ the aquarium.

Known from minor rivers in the coastal states of São Paolo, Paraná, and Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, plus some tributaries of the rio Paraná basin in Paraguay.

Type locality is ‘Paranaguá, 25°32’S, 48°36’W, Paraná, Brazil’.

Its native rivers flow through one of the most densely-populated and industrialised parts of Brazil, and have suffered greatly from dam construction, water abstraction, pollution, introduced species (including over 40 exotic freshwater fishes in the rio Paraíba do Sul alone), and other forms of anthropogenic degradation. H. flammeus is now uncommon or even extinct across much of its putative natural range, and in Rio de Janeiro state only a handful of highly-fragmented populations remain at best, with the mo…