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Loricariidae
Sign in to saveAlso known as suckermouth armoured catfishes
Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with over 90 genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South America. These fish are noted for the bony plates covering their bodies and their suckermouths. Several genera are sold as "plecos", notably the suckermouth catfish, Hypostomus plecostomus, and are popular as aquarium fish.
OverviewAI-generated
Loricariidae is a family of fish within the order Siluriformes. It belongs to the class Teleostei, phylum Chordata, and kingdom Animalia. The family was described by Rafinesque in 1815 and is currently accepted as a valid taxon. Members of this family are commonly known as armored catfishes.
The habitat range for Loricariidae includes marine, brackish, and freshwater environments. Records indicate that there are 154,847 occurrences associated with this taxon.
Synthesized by Vinony from 19 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, GBIF, Gbif Occ, WoRMS, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
~19 min read
Encyclopedic overview
12 sectionsContents
- Common names
- L-numbers
- Taxonomy and evolution
- Subfamilies and genera
- Distribution and habitat
- Description and biology
- Omega iris
- Genetics
- Ecology
- In the aquarium
- References
- External links
Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with over 90 genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South America. These fish are noted for the bony plates covering their bodies and their suckermouths. Several genera are sold as "plecos", notably the suckermouth catfish, Hypostomus plecostomus, and are popular as aquarium fish.
==Common names== Members of the family Loricariidae are commonly referred to as loricariids, suckermouth catfishes, armoured catfish, or suckermouth armoured catfish. The name "plecostomus", and its shortened forms "pleco" and "plec", are used for many Loricariidae, since Plecostomus plecostomus (now called Hypostomus plecostomus) was one of the first loricariid species imported for the fish-keeping hobby.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Loricariidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.