Magdalena

C. hujeta is traded under various names including 'slant-nosed gar', 'hujeta gar', 'rocket gar' and 'freshwater barracuda' but it and other members of the family Ctenoluciidae have traditionally been referred to as 'pike characids'. They're all predatory fishes native to South America, included in the order Characiformes and currently spread across two genera; Ctenolucius with two species and Boulengerella with five. The two genera are ...

This species lends its name to the 'G.' steindachneri, an assemblage of closely-related species with unresolved generic placement which currently also includes 'G.' crassilabris and 'G.' pellegrini. It exists in a number of colour forms which vary with locality, some of which may eventually be described as separate taxa. Some of these may appear on trade lists under the synonym Geophagus hondae.

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...