Bolivia

Abramites spp. are separated from other anostomids primarily on the basis of their relatively deeper bodies and presence of a prominent, post-pelvic median keel, a feature unique to the genus. At time of writing A. eques is the only other species recognised and is native to the Río Magdalena drainage in western Colombia. It can be distinguished by possession of 13-14 bra...

This species, which may also be referred to by the alternative vernacular names 'spiny catfish', 'painted talking catfish' or 'chocolate raphael', isn't particularly common in the trade and most often exported only as bycatch among shipments of Platydoras armatulus. It appears very similar to the congener A. spinosissimus with the most useful external distinguishing character being the presence of pale blotches on the dorsal surface, between the dorsal and caud...

An obligate piscivore capable of consuming surprisingly surprisingly large prey. Newly-imported specimens may refuse to accept anything but live fishes although most can be weaned onto dead alternatives once they recognise them as edible, and some even learn to accept dried foods- Like the vast majority of predatory fishes this specie...

This species, which may also be referred to by the alternative vernacular names 'spotted raphael', 'white-spotted' or 'white-barred' catfish, is very common in the trade and despite its adult size is recommended to beginners and experienced aquarists alike since it is hardy, attractive and relatively-long-lived. The light body markings are highly variable in terms of exact placement and may be either white or pale to darkish yellow in colour. It is very similar i...

The genus Ageneiosus was at one point classified in the family Ageneiosidae alongside the genus Tetranematichthys, but this was not accepted by all authors. The grouping remains poorly-studied with the last major revision having been conducted by Watson (1990) in his unpublished dissertation, in which A. inermis was included under the currently synonymous name A. brevifilis. It can be separated from the majority of the genus (except A. marmoratus) by possession of a truncate caudal fin, and from...

This species is normally referred to as A. paraguayensis, but that name has been considered a synonym of A. nattereri since 2003. Confusion remains however, as the type locality for the latter is 'Villa Bella', now known as Parintins, a settlement on the main Amazon river channel between Manaus and Santarém and many kilometres away from the majority of confirmed localities.

Apistogramma commbrae and other members of the commbrae complex can be distinguished from congeners by the conspicuous double caudal peduncle spot. This species may also be polymorphic, with some males exhibiting red and blue markings on the cheeks and a yellow gular region.

This species is also referred to as 'velvet cichlid', 'red oscar', 'tiger oscar', or 'marble cichlid'. It is a popular aquarium fish although its adult size and typical life-span of 10-20 years must be taken into account before purchase. Numerous ornamental strains are now available, and while care is more-or-less identical for all of them a degree of additional care must be taken with the 'long-finned' variety which is a little less competitive than other forms.

Recorded throughout much of the Amazon basin, with its range extending eastwards from the Ucayali system in Peru as far as the Tocantins drainage which flows into the Atlantic alongside the Amazon at its delta. The southern extremity of its range appears to be the Río Mamoré in Bolivia, a tributary of the rio Guaporé, and the northern limit the Essequibo basin, Guyana.

The smallest and most delicate of the nominal hatchetfishes. The rounded keel is shallower than related species, giving this fish a distinctive elongate profile. The family Gasteropelecidae is separated from other Characiformes by the following combination of characters: front...

C. strigata is an enduringly popular species in the aquarium hobby but is not bred on a commercial basis with all fish offered for sale collected in the wild. It can be told apart from other members of the genus by its larger adult size and dark, marbled colour pattern appearing as a series of dark and light stripes running diagonally across the body below the lateral line. This colour pattern is variable and popul...

Despite the ubiquity of its name in aquarium literature, confusion surrounds its true identity. Given it's the only member of the genus occurring on the island, fish from Trinidad do presumably represent C. aeneus (see our image), but the classification of those from other localities appears far from certain. Today the species is accepted to occur throughout much of South America, and indeed similarly-patterned fish do occur across a large portion of the continent. Some of these, such as the gree...

This species is not well-documented but is said to differ from the comparable C. punctatus by possessing larger dark markings on the body which may form an irregular midlateral stripe in some specimens. Unfortunately diagnostic characters cannot be provided since we’ve been unable to obtain the type description, and little has been written about the species since it was published.

The congener C. seussi, which is also native to the rio Mamoré, has a similar colour pattern but its snout is noticeably prolonged compared with that of C. gossei, plus there are some subtle differences in pigmentation. There is a third variant which has been referred to as 'CW069' in the aquarium hobby and appears to be somewhat intermediate, with a short, rounded snout as in C. gossei but a colour pattern more reminiscent of C. seussi.

C. guapore is a sought after aquarium fish although it is not often traded. It exhibits slightly different behaviour to the majority of congeners in that it tends to form aggregations in midwater and spends a large proportion of its time away from the substrate. Its morphology exhibits corresponding adaptations towards a pelagic existence with a relatively large eye, a more terminal mouth position, more strongly-forked caudal-fin, and more symmetrical body shape than most other Corydoras species.

The original type locality is 'Rio Guaporé, Brazil', supposedly in the vicinity of Pontes e Lacerda in Mato Grosso state. However, this was modified by Nijssen and Isbrücker (1980) to 'Brazil-Goias, Rio Tocantins, road between Pedro-Afonso (08°59'S 48°12'W) and Itacajá (08°18'S 47°45'W)'. This is confusing since the distance between these two localities is well over 1000 km, although it appears that the former is correct as per our image of specimens with locality details.

It exhibits slightly different behaviour to the majority of congeners in that it tends to swim in midwater and spends a large proportion of its time away from the substrate. Its morphology exhibits corresponding adaptations towards a pelagic existence with a relatively large eye, a more terminal mouth position, more strongly-forked caudal-fin, and more symmetrical body shape than most other Corydoras species.

This species is rare in the aquarium trade but is arguably more suitable for the home aquarium than some of its better-known relatives given its adult size and relatively docile behaviour. Other vernacular names include 'Dientón' (Peru), 'Perrito' (Ecuador), 'Payara-chata' or 'Payarin' (Venezuela) and 'Icanga', 'Minguilista' or 'Peice-cachorro' (Brazil), some of which are also applied to related species.

This species is very rare in the aquarium hobby and may never have been available on a commercial basis although it has been collected, bred and distributed by some private collectors. It's a member of the putative G. surinamensis 'group' of closely-related species within the genus and ca...

This species may be referred to using a variety of names including 'scomb', 'sabre tooth tetra', 'sabre tusk barracuda', 'dog tooth characin, 'vampire fish', 'Cachorra' or Pirandirá (the latter two names being used in Brazil where they're also applied to congeners). It's regularly confused with the payara, H. armatus, though that species grows considerably larger, is pop...

This species is very common in the aquarium trade and is also referred to as 'jewel', 'red minor', 'blood', or 'callistus' tetra. A number of selectively-bred ornamental strains have been developed, including 'metallic', 'long-finned', 'balloon' and 'fairy-fin'. Characiformes is among the most diverse orders of freshwa...

This species has been a ubiquitous aquarium fish since its discovery, and is produced on a commercial basis in several countries, therefore wild fish are no longer collected. An ornamental albino form is sometimes available. Apart from its distinctive colour pattern, it can be identified from related species via the following combination of charac...

The majority of records pertain to the rio Guaporé (Río Iténez in Bolivia), the main affluent of the rio Mamoré, which drains the vast tropical wetland known as the Pantanal, and the upper rio Paraguai, which also has its headwaters in the Pantanal but flows in the opposite direction. The Guaporé and Paraguai are connected due to rising water levels during the annual wet season.

Widely-distributed throughout the Amazon, Orinoco, Essequibo, and Tocantins river systems in Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana. Type locality is 'Rio Cupai [= Rio Cupari], Rio Tapajós basin, Amazon River drainage, Pará State, Brazil'.

L. taeniata is the largest-growing and second most widely-distributed member of the genus although it's a rarely-seen in the aquarium trade. It can be distinguished from all congeners since it uniquely possesses 5 lateral scale rows between the lateral line and dorsal-fin origin (vs. 4 or 6–8 in the remaining species).

This species is relatively common in the aquarium hobby but is not easy to maintain and recommended only for experienced aquarists. It can be told apart from all congeners by specimens larger than 60 mm SL possessing an extended pectoral-fin spine forming an extremely long filament that may be more than four times the length of the first branched pectoral-fin ray (vs. not possessing such a filament in other species of Lamontichthys).

Type locality is given simply as 'Amazon River, Brazil' and according to current thinking this species has a huge natural range encompassing the Amazon River system in Brazil and Peru plus the Paraná-Paraguay drainage in southern Brazil and Paraguay and rio São Francisco basin in southern Brazil. Specimens in our images were collected fro...

This species is also referred to as 'black-anded leporinus', 'striped leporinus' and 'eight-banded leporinus'. Young specimens are often traded for aquaria without warning as to their potential size and requirements, and as a result it's fairly ubiquitous in public aquarium displays.

This species was described from Suriname but no specific locality was given. It's currently accepted to occur throughout much of the Amazon river system in Brazil, Peru and Bolivia with additional records from coastal drainages of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana plus the island of Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago).

Metynnis maculatus

This species appears endemic to the upper rio Madeira basin in Bolivia and Brazil. Records exist from the Río Mamoré and Río Guaporé drainages in Bolivia (where the Guaporé is known as the Iténez) and Brazil plus the upper Río Orthon (ríos Tahuamanu and Manuripi). Type locality is 'sand-bank in the Rio Marm...

Wild populations vary in colour pattern depending on origin, and some populations have previously been described as distinct species. A form from Peru has a particularly silvery body colour, for example, while another, marketed as 'super red' possesses an unusually long red stripe on the body, extending much of the length of the dark central stripe. A population from around Boa Vista in the rio Branco system, Pará state, Brazil has an ocellus o...

This species has been referred to the genera Poecilobrycon and Nannobrycon in the past and in the aquarium hobby is also known as 'oneline' or 'red fin' pencilfish. It's a popular aquarium fish and has an interesting oblique swimming-style, a behavioural trait shared only with N. eques among congeners. The most recent diagnosis of the species appears to be that giv...

Famed as a rapacious predator capable of rapidly stripping flesh from bone and a danger to any animal entering its native waters, P. nattereri is among the most notorious freshwater fishes in the world. As a result, displays featuring this “bloodthirsty” creature are found in most public aquaria, grisly Hollywood movies have been released, and the species has become popular in the aquarium trade. Little of this infamy is based on factual evidence, however.

S. jurupari is also known as 'demon fish', 'jurupari earth eater', 'green horse face', or simply 'jurupari' in the aquarium hobby. It can be distinguished from other members of the genus by the following combination of characters: presence of a relatively small dark ocellus on the upper caudal-fin base; absence of well-defined dark blot...

S. pappaterra is relatively rare in the ornamental trade and much sought after by enthusiasts. It is easily distinguished from all known congeners by presence of a series of prominent black blotches beneath the dorsal-fin, plus a well-defined dark band extending along the side of the body. In recent genetic analyses its genetic distinctness was strongly supported, with S. jurupari and S. leucosticta its closest relatives.

T. stellatus is superficially similar to its only congener T. securis, but can immediately be identified by the presence (vs. absence) of a prominent dark spot in the dorsal-fin. It is sometimes traded as 'platinum hatchetfish'. The genus Thoracocharax was originally erected by Fowler in 1906 as a subgenus of Gasteropelecus, but was elevated to generic status by Weitzman (1960).

This is the type species of the genus Aequidens and has the widest distribution of any member species. It exists in various colour forms depending on locality with variants from Ecuador and Peru being particularly sought after since they develop striking red (Ecuador) or orange (Peru) colouration on the lower part of the jaw, head and anterior portion of the belly whereas those from Brazil tend to have an overall grey/blue/green colouration, for example. Despite its type status it's long...

This species can be confused with three similar-looking fishes of uncertain taxonomic status which have been assigned the C numbers C024, C077, and C109 in the aquarium hobby. C024 and C109 are unlikely to be conspecific in that they occur in Pará state, Brazil, several thousand kilometers outside the range of C. acutus, in the rio Guamá (Tocantins drainage), and lower rio Xingu, respectively.

In the upper Iténez it most commonly inhabits riparian zones with sandy substrates or edges of sand banks, although it's also been collected in smaller streams and residual flood waters. It typically forms large aggregations of up to several thousand individuals and at the confluence of the ríos Paraguá and Iténez occurs sympatrically with the congener C. paragua.

C. aurofrenatus is currently understood to occur throughout much of the Río Paraguay-Paraná system in Paraguay, and has also been recorded in Argentina and Bolivia. It was described from Paraguay with type locality given as 'Aguada near Arroyo Trementina'. The latter is stated to be a tributary of the 'Rio Aquido Canigi'.

C. caudimaculatus may be confused with the congener C. similis but can be told apart by possession of a well-defined, blackish spot on the caudal peduncle vs. a 'smudged' bluish marking. C. guapore also has a comparable colour pattern but possesses a distinctly rounded snout and tends to swim above the substrate.

Despite being a wholly unsuitable aquarium subject, C. idella is often traded as such, with an albino form having been developed specifically for the ornamental market. Individuals which have outgrown their aquarium or pond should never be released into natural waters, either, since this species has proven capable of causing serious environmental damage under a wide range of climatic conditions.

Wild fish are probably foragers feeding on algae, organic detritus, small insects, worms, crustaceans, and other zooplankton. In the aquarium it's easily-fed but the best condition and colours offer regular meals of small live and frozen foods such as bloodworm, Daphnia, and Artemia, alongside good quality dried flakes and granules, at least some of which should include additional plant or algal content.