Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Chilodontidae (fish)

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Kingdom
  
Animalia

Superfamily
  
Anostomoidea

Higher classification
  
Characiformes

Order
  
Characiformes

Phylum
  
Chordata

Rank
  
Family

Chilodontidae (fish) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Similar
  
Characiformes, Hemiodontidae, Chilodus, Parodontidae, Curimatidae

The Chilodontidae, or headstanders, are a small family of freshwater characiform fishes found in northern and central South America. This family is closely related to Anostomidae and is sometimes treated as a subfamily, Chilodontinae, within the Anostomidae family. Due to issues of homonymy with the gastropod family Chilodontidae, one of the families must be changed, possibly by having the fish family revert to Eigenmann's original name of Chilodidae. See here for a discussion regarding this issue.

Chilodontids have colourful markings, making them popular in aquariums. They are small fish, all less than 7 cm (2.8 in) in adult length, and are distinguished by their habitual head-down postures.

Genera

This family currently contains two genera:

  • Genus Caenotropus (4 species)
  • Genus Chilodus (4 species)
  • References

    Chilodontidae (fish) Wikipedia