| This is a large family (ca. 550 species) of
freshwater fishes from Costa Rica, Panama and South America. Their
body lacks true scales but is generally covered by bony plates. Their
mouth is ventral, with or without conspicuous barbels. They are
usually found in swift-flowing streams from lowlands up to 3000 m a.s.l.
They tend to be detritivorous (Nelson 1994). No remarkable
characteristic seems to make fish of this family preadapted to the
hypogean environment. The genus Ancistrus has 60 species,
three of which are hypogean. |
|
1. Ancistrus cryptophthalmus Reis,
1987
2. Ancistrus formoso Sabino & Trajano, 1997
3. Ancistrus galani Perez & Viloria, 1994 |