The Curimatidae, toothless characins, are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of freshwater fishes, of the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Characiformes. They originate from southern

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

to northern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. The family has around 105

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, many of them frequently exploited for human consumption. They are closely related to the Prochilodontidae. This family lacks jaw teeth, although they do sometimes have small teeth on their pharyngeal plates. They eat films of slime coating underwater surfaces, which consist largely of

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

and

detritus In biology, detritus () is dead particulate organic material, as distinguished from dissolved organic material. Detritus typically includes the bodies or fragments of bodies of dead organisms, and fecal material. Detritus typically hosts commun ...

. It has been suggested that feeding behavior of some species like '' Psectrogaster essequibensis'' may change its diet pattern in function of the sediment content of the water, showing a regime mainly based on

in waters with high sediment load, until an omnivorous or detritivore regime in waters with low sediment load.

Classification

The family has eight

genera 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 nomenclat ...

and around 105 species: Family Curimatidae * '' Curimata'' (13 species) * '' Curimatella'' (five species) * '' Curimatopsis'' (nine species) * '' Cyphocharax'' (38 species) * '' Potamorhina'' (five species) * '' Psectogaster'' (eight species) * '' Pseudocurimata'' (six species) * '' Steindachnerina'' (23 species)

References

* Nelson, Joseph S. (2006). ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classification of the ...

''. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Fish of South America Ray-finned fish families {{Characiformes-stub

Classification

See also

References