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Armored Catfishes
Loricariidae
Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with 92 genera and just over 680 species to date, with new species being described each year. 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.
8 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 1,070 known species
Suckermouth Catfishes
subfamilyHypostominae
Whiptail Catfishes
subfamilyLoricariinae
Cascudinhos
subfamilyHypoptopomatinae
Rhinelepine Plecos
subfamilyRhinelepinae
Nannoplecostomus
genusNannoplecostomus
Microplecostomus
genusMicroplecostomus
Climbing Armored Catfishes
subfamilyLithogeninae
Primitive Suckermouth Catfishes
subfamilyDelturinae
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Loricariidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 85876.