''Crenicichla'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted this ...

s native to

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 southe ...

commonly known as the pike cichlids. They are found in most

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

freshwater habitats between the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

Description

The smallest species of ''Crenicichla'' (notably members of the ''C. wallacii''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

) are no larger than ,Gottwald, J:
Crenicichla arten.
' and technically qualify as "

dwarf cichlid Dwarf cichlid is a term used by fishkeeping hobbyists to describe an arbitrary assemblage of small-sized fish from the family Cichlidae. Although the grouping is widely used in the aquarium industry and hobby, the grouping has no taxonomic or ...

s" for the

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

hobby – though their aggressive and voracious habits should let prospective keepers beware. The biggest pike cichlids can grow to about long. Most ''Crenicichla'' measure in the range of . Like many other predatory fishes, a pike cichlid has a wide mouth and elongated body.

Distribution and ecology

The genus ''Crenicichla'' is native to

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...

in tropical and

South America east of the Andes, ranging from

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and the

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...

(including

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

), through 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

Río de la Plata Basin The Río de la Plata basin ( es, Cuenca del Plata, pt, Bacia do Prata), more often called the River Plate basin in scholarly writings, sometimes called the Platine basin or Platine region, is the hydrographical area in South America that drains ...

s, south as far as Río Negro in

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 ...

. Although widespread as a group, the individual species are often restricted to a single river or

river basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

. They are found in a wide range of habitats, including rivers, streams, pools and lakes; some species are

rheophilic A rheophile is an animal that prefers to live in fast-moving water. Examples of rheophilic animals Insects *Many aquatic insects living in riffles require current to survive. *''Epeorus sylvicola'', a rheophilic mayfly species ( Ephemeroptera) ...

. The vast majority of pike cichlids are

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

and feed on fish, insects, and other small animals. They usually place themselves where they can stay undetected by the prey, like close to a sunken tree stem or behind a rock. This behavior, as well as the correspondingly

adapted In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...

shape, which resembles that the unrelated

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

s (Esocidae) of the

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

, gives the pike cichlids their common name. An exception is ''C. tapii'', which is similar in general appearance to other pike cichlids, but unusual for being gregarious and feeding on

periphyton Periphyton is a complex mixture of algae, cyanobacteria, heterotrophic microbes, and detritus that is attached to submerged surfaces in most aquatic ecosystems. The related term Aufwuchs (German "surface growth" or "overgrowth") refers to the col ...

Species

There are currently around 93 recognized species in this genus: * '' Crenicichla acutirostris'' Günther, 1862 * '' Crenicichla adspersa'' Heckel, 1840 * '' Crenicichla albopunctata'' Pellegrin, 1904 * '' Crenicichla alta'' C. H. Eigenmann, 1912 * '' Crenicichla anamiri'' P. M. M. Ito & Rapp Py-Daniel, 2015 * '' Crenicichla anthurus''

Cope The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colours, litu ...

, 1872 * '' Crenicichla brasiliensis'' (

Bloch Bloch is a surname of German origin. Notable people with this surname include: A–F * (1859-1914), French rabbi *Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), Austrian entrepreneur *Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter * (born 1972), German motor journal ...

, 1792) * ''

Crenicichla britskii ''Crenicichla britskii'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found in the Paraná River basin, in the Paraná River drainage upstream from Guaira, Brazil. This species reaches a length of .Kullander, S.O., 2003. Cichlidae (Cich ...

'' S. O. Kullander, 1982 * '' Crenicichla cametana'' Steindachner, 1911 * '' Crenicichla celidochilus'' Casciotta, 1987 * '' Crenicichla chicha'' H. R. Varella, S. O. Kullander & F. C. T. Lima, 2012 * '' Crenicichla cincta''

Regan The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' ...

, 1905 * '' Crenicichla compressiceps'' Ploeg, 1986 * '' Crenicichla coppenamensis'' Ploeg, 1987 * '' Crenicichla cyanonotus''

, 1870 * '' Crenicichla cyclostoma'' Ploeg, 1986 * '' Crenicichla empheres'' C. A. S. de Lucena, 2007 * '' Crenicichla frenata'' T. N. Gill, 1858 * '' Crenicichla gaucho'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla geayi'' Pellegrin, 1903 (Half-banded pike cichlid) * '' Crenicichla gillmorlisi'' S. O. Kullander & C. A. S. de Lucena, 2013 * '' Crenicichla hadrostigma'' C. A. S. de Lucena, 2007 * ''

Crenicichla haroldoi ''Crenicichla haroldoi'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found swimming in the upper Paraná River basin, Brazil. This species reaches a length of .Kullander, S.O., 2003. Cichlidae (Cichlids). p. 605-654. In R.E. Reis, S.O. ...

'' Luengo & Britski, 1974 * '' Crenicichla heckeli'' Ploeg, 1989 * ''

Crenicichla hemera ''Crenicichla hemera'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found in the Amazon River basin, in the upper Aripuanã River and in the Madeira River drainage. This species reaches a length of . References

Crenicichla, he ...

'' S. O. Kullander, 1990 * '' Crenicichla hu'' Piálek, Říčan, Casciotta & Almirón, 2010 * '' Crenicichla hummelincki'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla igara'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla iguapina'' S. O. Kullander & C. A. S. de Lucena, 2006 * ''

Crenicichla iguassuensis ''Crenicichla iguassuensis'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found in the Paraná River basin, in the Iguaçu River basin and reported to be from the Uruguay streams in Argentina. This species reaches a length of .Kullander ...

'' Haseman, 1911 * '' Crenicichla inpa'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla isbrueckeri'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla jaguarensis'' Haseman, 1911 * '' Crenicichla jegui'' Ploeg, 1986 * '' Crenicichla johanna'' Heckel, 1840 * ''

Crenicichla jupiaensis ''Crenicichla jupiaensis'' is a species of cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order P ...

'' Britski & Luengo, 1968 * '' Crenicichla jurubi'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla labrina'' (

Spix Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (9 February 1781 – 13 March 1826) was a German biologist. From his expedition to Brazil, he brought to Germany a large variety of specimens of plants, insects, mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. They constitute ...

& Agassiz, 1831) * '' Crenicichla lacustris'' ( Castelnau, 1855) * '' Crenicichla lenticulata'' Heckel, 1840 * '' Crenicichla lepidota'' Heckel, 1840 (Pike cichlid) * '' Crenicichla lucenai'' Mattos, I. Schindler, Ottoni & Cheffe, 2014 Mattos, J.L., Schindler, I., Ottoni, F.P. & Cheffe, M.M. (2014)
A new species of ''Crenicichla'' from the upper Rio das Antas basin, dos Patos lagoon system, southern Brazil (Teleostei: Cichlidae).
''Vertebrate Zoology, 64 (1): 35–42.'' * '' Crenicichla lucius''

, 1870 * '' Crenicichla lugubris'' Heckel, 1840 * '' Crenicichla macrophthalma'' Heckel, 1840 * '' Crenicichla maculata'' S. O. Kullander & C. A. S. de Lucena, 2006 * '' Crenicichla mandelburgeri'' S. O. Kullander, 2009 * '' Crenicichla marmorata'' Pellegrin, 1904 * '' Crenicichla menezesi'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla minuano'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla missioneira'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla monicae'' S. O. Kullander & H. R. Varella, 2015 (Wallace’s pike cichlid) * '' Crenicichla mucuryna'' R. Ihering ( pt), 1914 * '' Crenicichla multispinosa'' Pellegrin, 1903 * '' Crenicichla nickeriensis'' Ploeg, 1987 * '' Crenicichla niederleinii'' (

Holmberg Holmberg is a Swedish surname formed from the words ''holm(e)'' meaning islet and ''berg'' meaning mountain. It is a relatively common name, at least in Sweden, which has to do with the fact that many Swedish place names contain the suffixes ''-holm ...

, 1891) * '' Crenicichla notophthalmus''

, 1913 * '' Crenicichla pellegrini'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla percna'' S. O. Kullander, 1991 * '' Crenicichla phaiospilus'' S. O. Kullander, 1991 * '' Crenicichla ploegi'' H. R. Varella, Loeb, F. C. T. Lima & S. O. Kullander, 2018 * '' Crenicichla prenda'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla proteus''

, 1872 * '' Crenicichla punctata'' R. F. Hensel, 1870 * '' Crenicichla pydanielae'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla regani'' Ploeg, 1989 * '' Crenicichla reticulata'' ( Heckel, 1840) * '' Crenicichla rosemariae'' S. O. Kullander, 1997 * '' Crenicichla santosi'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla saxatilis'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, 1758) (Ring-tail pike cichlid) * ''

Crenicichla scottii ''Crenicichla scottii'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found in the middle and lower parts of the Uruguay River drainage in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. This species reaches a length of . The fish is named in honor of v ...

'' ( C. H. Eigenmann, 1907) * '' Crenicichla sedentaria'' S. O. Kullander, 1986 * '' Crenicichla semicincta'' Steindachner, 1892 * ''

Crenicichla semifasciata ''Crenicichla semifasciata'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found in the Paraná River basin, in the Paraguay River in Paraguay and Brazil, and the Paraná drainage in Argentina. This species reaches a length of . Referen ...

'' ( Heckel, 1840) * '' Crenicichla sipaliwini'' Ploeg, 1987 * '' Crenicichla stocki'' Ploeg, 1991 * ''

Crenicichla strigata ''Crenicichla strigata'' is a species of cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Per ...

'' Günther, 1862 * '' Crenicichla sveni'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla taikyra'' Casciotta, Almirón, Aichino, S. E. Gómez, Piálek, & Říčan, 2013 * '' Crenicichla tapii'' Piálek, Dragová, Casciotta, Almirón & Říčan, 2015 Piálek, L., Dragová, K., Casciotta, J., Almirón, A. & Říčan, O. (2015): Description of two new species of ''Crenicichla'' (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from the lower Iguazú River with a taxonomic reappraisal of ''C. iguassuensis'', ''C. tesay'' and ''C. yaha''. ''Historia Natural, 5 (2): 5-27.'' * '' Crenicichla tendybaguassu'' C. A. S. de Lucena & S. O. Kullander, 1992 * '' Crenicichla ternetzi''

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

, 1926 * '' Crenicichla tesay'' Casciotta & Almirón, 2009 * '' Crenicichla tigrina'' Ploeg, Jégu & E. J. G. Ferreira, 1991 * '' Crenicichla tingui'' S. O. Kullander & C. A. S. de Lucena, 2006 * ''

Crenicichla tuca ''Crenicichla tuca'' is a species of cichlid native to South America. It is found in the Lower Iguazú River basin above the Iguazú Falls in Argentina. Distributional range extends upstream of the Misiones Province of Argentina into the neighbor ...

'' Piálek, Dragová, Casciotta, Almirón & Říčan, 2015 * '' Crenicichla urosema'' S. O. Kullander, 1990 * '' Crenicichla vaillanti'' Pellegrin, 1903 * '' Crenicichla virgatula'' Ploeg, 1991 * '' Crenicichla vittata'' Heckel, 1840 * '' Crenicichla wallacii''

, 1905 * '' Crenicichla yaha'' Casciotta, Almirón & S. E. Gómez, 2006 * '' Crenicichla ypo'' Casciotta, Almirón, Piálek, S. E. Gómez & Říčan, 2010 * '' Crenicichla zebrina'' C. G. Montaña, López-Fernández & Taphorn, 2008 In addition to these, several

undescribed species In taxonomy, an undescribed taxon is a taxon (for example, a species) that has been discovered, but not yet formally described and named. The various Nomenclature Codes specify the requirements for a new taxon to be validly described and named. U ...

are known.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3482 Geophagini Cichlid fish of South America Cichlid genera Taxa named by Johann Jakob Heckel