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The banded knifefish (Gymnotus carapo) is a species of gymniform knifefish native to a wide range of freshwater habitats in South America. [1] It is the most widespread species of Gymnotus , [ 1 ] but it has frequently been confused with several relatives, including some found outside its range like the Central America G. maculosus .
They are sometimes referred to by the English name banded knifefish, [1] although this typically is reserved for the most widespread species, G. carapo. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Overall Gymnotus is the most widespread genus in the order Gymnotiformes .
Despite the name, the electric eel is a type of knifefish. The Gymnotiformes / dʒ ɪ m ˈ n ɒ t ɪ f ɔːr m iː z / are an order of teleost bony fishes commonly known as Neotropical knifefish or South American knifefish. They have long bodies and swim using undulations of their elongated anal fin.
Knifefish may refer to several knife-shaped fishes: The Neotropical or weakly electric knifefishes, order Gymnotiformes, containing five families: Family Gymnotidae (banded knifefishes and the electric eel) Family Rhamphichthyidae (sand knifefishes) Family Hypopomidae (bluntnose knifefishes) Family Sternopygidae (glass and rat-tail knifefishes)
Common names of fish can refer to a single species; to an entire group of species, such as a genus or family; or to multiple unrelated species or groups. Ambiguous common names are accompanied by their possible meanings. Scientific names for individual species and higher taxa are included in parentheses.
When originally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1766, he used the name Gymnotus electricus, placing it in the same genus as Gymnotus carapo (banded knifefish) which he had described several years earlier. It was only about a century later, in 1864, that the electric eel was moved to its own genus Electrophorus by Theodore Gill. [5]
[1] [2] [4] They generally resemble the related Steatogenys, but are smaller, [5] reaching up to 5.9–12.2 cm (2.3–4.8 in) in total length depending on the exact species of Hypopygus. [6] The smallest is H. hoedemani, which is the second-smallest knifefish, [1] after Microsternarchus brevis. [7] They are nocturnal and feed on small ...
The Hypopomidae are a family of fishes in the order Gymnotiformes known as the bluntnose knifefish.They may also be called grass or leaf knifefishes. [1] These electric fish are not often eaten, of little commercial importance, rarely kept as aquarium fish, and poorly studied; however, species in this family may constitute a significant fraction of the biomass in the areas they inhabit.