Polycentridae
Encyclopedia
Leaffishes are small freshwater fishes of the Polycentridae family
, from South America.
They usually have large heads, cryptic colors and very large protractile mouths. Those features, along with their peculiar movements help them to catch fairly large prey for the size of their bodies, including small fish, aquatic insects and other invertebrate
s.
Their odd leaf-like appearance make them interesting fishes for aquarium hobbyists. That is likely because of their unique
lifestyle, hanging around in the upper story of the tank imitating the leaves that commonly fall in temperate rivers were it typically lives.
They are extremely agile hunters, capable of consuming prey within a quarter of a second (0.2 seconds) making them one of the worlds fastest fish.
Genus Polycentrus
family, leaf fish of Southern Asia.
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
, from South America.
They usually have large heads, cryptic colors and very large protractile mouths. Those features, along with their peculiar movements help them to catch fairly large prey for the size of their bodies, including small fish, aquatic insects and other invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s.
Their odd leaf-like appearance make them interesting fishes for aquarium hobbyists. That is likely because of their unique
lifestyle, hanging around in the upper story of the tank imitating the leaves that commonly fall in temperate rivers were it typically lives.
They are extremely agile hunters, capable of consuming prey within a quarter of a second (0.2 seconds) making them one of the worlds fastest fish.
Genera and species
- Genus Monocirrhus
- Polycentrus schomburgkii Müller & Troschel, 1849
Taxonomic note
Polycentrus schomburgkii was formerly included in the NandidaeNandidae
Asian leaffishes are small freshwater fishes of the Nandidae family, from Southern Asia. There are only four genera in this group.These fish usually have small heads, coloration that appears to have evolved to resemble leaves and very large protractile mouths...
family, leaf fish of Southern Asia.