''Panaqolus gnomus'', sometimes known as the dwarf panaque, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

in the family

Loricariidae The Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with 92 genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South America. These fish are not ...

. It is a freshwater fish native to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, where it occurs in the basins of the

Pastaza River The Pastaza River ( es, Río Pastaza, formerly known as the SumataraEnock, Charles Reginald (1914) ''Ecuador: its ancient and modern history, topography and natural resources, industries and social development'' Charles Scribner's sons, New York ...

and the

Marañón River , name_etymology = , image = Maranon.jpg , image_size = 270 , image_caption = Valley of the Marañón between Chachapoyas ( Leimebamba) and Celendín , map = Maranonrivermap.png , map_size ...

. The species reaches 7.1 cm (2.8 inches) SL. It is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus ''

Panaqolus ''Panaqolus'' is a genus of small catfish in the family Loricariidae native to rivers in tropical South America. Its members were formerly thought to belong to a clade of small-sized species in the genus ''Panaque'', until this genus was separate ...

'', which was historically considered to be a clade of small-sized species within the genus ''

Panaque The genus ''Panaque'' contains a small number of small to medium-sized South American suckermouth armoured catfishes that are notable for being among the very few vertebrates that feed extensively on wood. In addition, algae and aufwuchs are a ...

'', hence the common name of this species.Lujan, N. K., Steele, S., & Velasquez, M. (2013). A new distinctively banded-species of Panaqolus (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from the western Amazon Basin in Peru. ''Zootaxa'', ''3691'', 192–198. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3691.1.8

References

Ancistrini Fish described in 1993 {{Loricariidae-stub