''Astronotus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

n fish from the family Cichlidae. There are two commonly recognized species in the genus (listed below), though genetic evidence suggests that additional species exist; several of these possibly distinct populations also have very different juvenile coloration from the two recognized species. Both of the commonly recognized species are found in the Amazon Basin, while one of two also is found in the Paraná and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

rivers. ''Astronotus'' species grow to 35 cm in size, and are monomorphic. They are opportunistic omnivores and consume a range of smaller fish, fruits, nuts,

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group can ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s and other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s in the wild. One species, the

oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

(''Astronotus ocellatus''), is popular in the aquarium trade. ''A. ocellatus'' forms monogamous pairs which spawn in the open, typically on a flattened stone or in a shallow depression. The juvenile colouration is different from that of the adult and may aid in camouflage of the fry. In contrast, '' Astronotus crassipinnis'' is seldom exported for the aquarium trade. In some classifications the ''Astronotus'' is the sole genus in the

monogeneric In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

Astronoti of the subfamily Cichlinae. Abstract

Species

There are currently two recognized species in this genus:

Species

References

Further reading