Overview
Anablepidae is a family of and brackish water fishes living on river estuaries from southern Mexico to southern South America.1] There are three genera with sixteen species: the four-eyed fishes (genus Anableps), the onesided livebearers (genus Jenynsia) and the white-eye, Oxyzygonectes dovii. Fish of this family eat mostly insects and other invertebrates.
Reproduction
Fish in the subfamily Anablepinae are ovoviviparous. Curiously, they only mate on one side, right-"handed" males with left-"handed" females and vice versa.[2] The male of most species in the family has specialized anal rays which are greatly elongated and fused into a tube called a gonopodium associated with the sperm duct which he uses as an intromittent organ to deliver sperm to the female.
Classification
The Anablepidae contains seventeen species, grouped into three genera, as follows:[3]
Family Anablepidae
- Subfamily Anablepinae
- Genus Anableps
- Anableps anableps - Largescale foureyes
- Anableps dowei - Pacific foureyed fish
- Anableps microlepis - Foureyes
- Genus Jenynsia
- Jenynsia alternimaculata
- Jenynsia diphyes
- Jenynsia eigenmanni
- Jenynsia eirmostigma
- Jenynsia lineata
- Jenynsia maculata
- Jenynsia multidentata
- Jenynsia onca
- < i>Jenynsia pygogramma
- Jenynsia sanctaecatarinae
- Jenynsia tucumana
- Jenynsia unitaenia
- Jenynsia weitzmani
- Genus Anableps
- Subfamily Oxyxygonectinae
- Genus Oxyzygonectes
- Oxyzygonectes dovii - White-eye
- Genus Oxyzygonectes
Photos
Taxonomy
The Family Anablepidae is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Subfamily (3): Anablepinae · Jenynsiinae · Oxyzygonectinae
- Genus (3): Anableps · Jenynsia · Oxyzygonectes
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 27 species and subspecies in the Family Anablepidae.
Genera
Anableps
The four-eyed fishes are a genus, Anableps, of in the family Anablepidae. They have eyes raised above the top of the head and divided in two different parts, so that they can see below and above the water surface at the same time. Like their relatives, the onesided livebearers, four eyed fishes only mate on one side, right-"handed" males with left-"handed" females and vice versa. These fish inhabitat freshwater and brackishwater and are only rarely coastal marine. They originate from lowlands in southern Mexico to Honduras and northern South America. [more]
Jenynsia
Jenynsia is a of freshwater fishes in the family Anablepidae. Like Anableps species, they are onesided livebearers: they only mate on one side, right-"handed" males with left-"handed" females and vice versa. These fish are viviparous. [more]
Oxyzygonectes
The white-eye, Oxyzygonectes dovii, is a of killifish of the family Anablepidae. This species is the only member of its genus Oxyzygonectes and the subfamily Oxyzygonectinae. [more]
More info about the Genus Oxyzygonectes may be found here.
References
- ^ Nelson, Joseph, S. (2006). Fishes of the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. ISBN 0471250317.
- ^ "Four Eyes and More, th e Family Anablepidae". WetWebMedia.com. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/anableps.htm. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
- ^ "Anablepidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. November 2008 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2008.
Sources
- The text on this page is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It includes material from Wikipedia retrieved Thursday, August 13, 2009.
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