This species as its name would suggest comes from the area of Brazil and Bolivia known as the Pantanal, translated means marsh or bog; this is a vast wetland area estimated to be between 54 and 81 thousand square miles. It has an average rainfall of 1.6 metres, which would indicate considerable variances in water parameters during the course of a year. This tells us that C. pantanalensis is tolerant of these changes, however for their general wellbeing a neutral pH of 7.0 and a general hardness of between 3 and 9 dGH would be ideal.

Size: This species is one of the larger members of the family and under aquarium conditions would be expected to grow to 75 mm SL for males, females a little larger, up to 80 mm SL.