''Moenkhausia'' is a genus of

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

in the family

Characidae Characidae, the characids or characins is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish, belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is the historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their st ...

native to tropical and subtropical South America. These are medium-sized tetras where the largest species only reach around . The

diamond tetra The diamond tetra (''Moenkhausia pittieri'') is a small freshwater fish of the characin family (family Characidae) of order Characiformes. It is found in and around Lake Valencia in Venezuela, South America. Description This species exhibits cl ...

and

red-eye tetra The redeye tetra (''Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae''), is a species of tetra from the São Francisco, upper Paraná, Paraguay and Uruguay river basins in eastern and central South America. This freshwater fish is commonly kept in aquariums and br ...

, which are commonly kept in aquaria, are members of this genus.SeriouslyFish
Moenkhausia sanctaefilomenae.
Retrieved 21 March 2017.

Species

There are currently 90 recognized species in this genus:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q140873 Characidae Fish of South America Freshwater fish genera Taxa named by Carl H. Eigenmann