The tucan fish (''Chalceus erythrurus''), also called the yellowfin chalceus, is a species of freshwater fish in the family

Chalceidae Chalceidae, the tucanfishes, is a family of freshwater fish first described by Henry Weed Fowler in the year 1958. It is a monotypic family, home only to the genus ''incertae sedis'' ''Chalceus''. All members of the family inhabit areas of nort ...

. It is one of five species in the genus ''

Chalceus ''Chalceus'' is a genus of fish that inhabits freshwater habitats in South America. Members can be found in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, as well as in the Guianas and various tributaries of the former. It is the sole representative of the fam ...

'', and was the second species to be described therein.

Description

The tucan fish has a pale-silver body, with bright-yellow ventral fins (hence its other common name); the rest of its fins are some mixture of yellow and red, usually with a reddish tail fin. In terms of size, it reaches 21.4 cm SL. This makes it one of the larger members of the genus ''Chalceus'', outsized only by the

pinktail chalceus The pinktail chalceus (''Chalceus macrolepidotus''),U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Pinktail Chalceus (Chalceus macrolepidotus) Ecological Risk Screening Summary'. 2018. also called the pinktail characin, is a species of freshwater fish of the fa ...

Etymology

The name "tucan fish" directly translates to "toucan fish", as "tucán" means

toucan Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five ge ...

in Spanish. All members of the family Chalceidae are sometimes referred to as tucanfishes, but ''C. erythrurus'' is the species to which it is most often applied. The genus name ''Chalceus'' is Greek, and means brass or copper. The specific name ''erythrurus'' also originates in Greek, with "eruthros" meaning red and "ouros" meaning tail in reference to its caudal fin usually being reddish.

Taxonomy

Upon being described by Edward Drinker Cope in the year 1870, the tucan fish was placed in the new genus ''Plethodectes'' with the full name ''Plethodectes erythrurus''. However, Cope switched it over to the genus ''Chalceus'' in the year 1872. It was briefly classified as ''Chalceus macrolepidotus iquitensis'', a subspecies of the pinktail chalceus ''C. macrolepidotus'', by Shoji Nakashima in 1941. Henry Watson Fowler described it as ''Pellegrinina heterolepis'' in 1907, but Jacques Géry proved it to be a member of the ''Chalceus'' genus in 1977. The name ''Chalceus erythrurus'' was once mistakenly applied to ''C. macrolepidotus'', and they are sometimes confused with one another. They can be told apart because of the tucan fish's bright-yellow ventral fins, as well as a few other coloration patterns.

Habitat

The tucan fish can be found in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

and Solimões rivers, and its habitat extends into Peru by way of the

Ucayali The Ucayali River ( es, Río Ucayali, ) is the main headstream of the Amazon River. It rises about north of Lake Titicaca, in the Arequipa region of Peru and becomes the Amazon at the confluence of the Marañón close to Nauta city. The city o ...

river.

Diet and behavior

Like others in the genus Chalceus, the tucan fish is primarily a

carnivore A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...

, targeting aquatic invertebrates (such as insects and crustaceans). It is known to be somewhat skittish, and may jump out of the water on occasion.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4746460 Chalceidae Characiformes Fish of South America Taxa named by Henry Weed Fowler Fish described in 1870