Tucan fish

Tucan fish
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Characiformes
Family:	Chalceidae
Genus:	Chalceus
Species:	C. erythrurus
Binomial name
Chalceus erythrurus Cope, 1870

The tucan fish (Chalceus erythrurus),^[1][2] also called the yellowfin chalceus,^[3][4] is a species of freshwater fish in the family Chalceidae. It is one of five species in the genus Chalceus, and was the second species to be described therein.

Description[]

The tucan fish has a pale-silver body, with bright-yellow ventral fins (hence its other common name); the rest of its fins are some mixture of yellow and red, usually with a reddish tail fin.^[5] In terms of size, it reaches 21.4 cm SL.^[1] This makes it one of the larger members of the genus Chalceus, outsized only by the pinktail chalceus.

Etymology[]

The name "tucan fish" directly translates to "toucan fish", as "tucán" means toucan in Spanish.^[6] All members of the family Chalceidae are sometimes referred to as tucanfishes, but C. erythrurus is the species to which it is most often applied.^[7]

The genus name Chalceus is Greek, and means brass or copper.^[1] The specific name erythrurus also originates in Greek, with "eruthros" meaning red and "ouros" meaning tail in reference to its caudal fin usually being reddish.^[8]

Taxonomy[]

Upon being described by Edward Drinker Cope in the year 1870, the tucan fish was placed in the new genus Plethodectes with the full name Plethodectes erythrurus.^[9] However, Cope switched it over to the genus Chalceus in the year 1872.^[10]

It was briefly classified as Chalceus macrolepidotus iquitensis, a subspecies of the pinktail chalceus C. macrolepidotus, by Shoji Nakashima in 1941.^[11] Henry Watson Fowler described it as Pellegrinina heterolepis in 1907, but Jacques Géry proved it to be a member of the Chalceus genus in 1977.^[12][13]

The name Chalceus erythrurus was once mistakenly applied to C. macrolepidotus, and they are sometimes confused with one another.^[14] They can be told apart because of the tucan fish's bright-yellow ventral fins, as well as a few other coloration patterns.^[5]

Habitat[]

The tucan fish can be found in the Amazon and Solimões rivers, and its habitat extends into Peru by way of the Ucayali river.^[1][13]

Diet and behavior[]

Like others in the genus Chalceus, the tucan fish is primarily a carnivore, targeting aquatic invertebrates (such as insects and crustaceans).^[15] It is known to be somewhat skittish, and may jump out of the water on occasion.^[3]

References[]