''Erythrinus erythrinus'', the red wolf fish, is a relatively small species of trahira (family

Erythrinidae The Erythrinidae are a family of fishes found in rivers and other freshwater habitats from Costa Rica south as far as Argentina. They are common and are caught with hooks by fishermen, partially because of their voracious behaviour. They are ...

) from freshwater habitats in South America.''Erythrinus erythrinus''
at www.fishbase.org.

Range and habitat

''E. erythrinus'' is a South American

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

that is native to the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wo ...

basins, as well as rivers in the

Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

. The species is also reported as native to the Paraná—

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

basin, including the

Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and po ...

, but the population in the lower Paraná basin and Iguazu basin may be an

undescribed species In taxonomy, an undescribed taxon is a taxon (for example, a species) that has been discovered, but not yet formally described and named. The various Nomenclature Codes specify the requirements for a new taxon to be validly described and name ...

.Casciotta, Almirón, Ciotek, Giorgis, Říčan, Piálek, Dragová, Croci, Montes Iwaszkiw, and Puentes (2016). Visibilizando lo invisible. Un relevamiento de la diversidad de peces del Parque Nacional Iguazú, Misiones, Argentina. Historia Natural, Tercera Serie, 6(2): 5—77. ''E. erythrinus'' has been introduced to the upper Paraná basin where not native. It mainly lives in creeks and marshes where the water has a pH of 5.6–7.8.

Appearance and behavior

''E. erythrinus'' can reach a maximum

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of , although other reports suggest it can reach about . It feeds primarily on small fish,

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, and

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s. Juveniles are

aggressive mimics Aggressive mimicry is a form of mimicry in which predators, parasites, or parasitoids share similar signals, using a harmless model, allowing them to avoid being correctly identified by their prey or host. Zoologists have repeatedly compared ...

of female

aplocheilid A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish (including families Aplocheilidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Profundulidae and Valenciidae). All together, there are 1,270 species of killifish, the biggest family b ...

killifish, notably ''

Laimosemion agilae ''Laimosemion'' is a genus of fish in the family Rivulidae from the Amazon basin and basins in the Guiana Shield in tropical South America. They mostly inhabit small streams, creeks, swamps and pools in lowlands, but locally occur to an altit ...

'', and they use this to catch male killifish that seek a mate. ''E. erythrinus'' is not of major interest to fisheries, but is sometimes used as a

bait fish 300px, Feeder Goldfish are common baitfish. Bait fish (or baitfish) are small-sized fish caught and used by anglers as bait to attract larger predatory fish, particularly game fish. Baitfish species are typically those that are common and br ...

and seen in the aquarium fish trade.

Taxonomy

It was described by

Marcus Elieser Bloch Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) was a German physician and naturalist who is best known for his contribution to ichthyology through his multi-volume catalog of plates illustrating the fishes of the world. Brought up in a Hebrew-speaking Jewish ...

and

Johann Gottlob Schneider Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (18 January 1750 – 12 January 1822) was a German classicist and naturalist. Biography Schneider was born at Collm in Saxony. In 1774, on the recommendation of Christian Gottlob Heine, he became secretary to ...

in 1801,Bloch, M. E. and J. G. Schneider 1801 ef. 471''M. E. Blochii, Systema Ichthyologiae iconibus cx illustratum. Post obitum auctoris opus inchoatum absolvit, correxit, interpolavit Jo. Gottlob Schneider, Saxo. Berolini.'' Sumtibus Auctoris Impressum et Bibliopolio Sanderiano Commissum. M. E. Blochii, Systema Ichthyologiae.: i-lx + 1-584, Pls. 1-110. originally under the

lizardfish The Synodontidae or lizardfishes(or typical lizardfish to distinguish them from the Bathysauridae and Pseudotrichonotidae) are benthic (bottom-dwelling) marine and estuarine bony fishes that belong to the aulopiform fish order, a diverse grou ...

genus ''

Synodus ''Synodus'' is a genus of fish in the family Synodontidae found in Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Species Currently, 46 species in this genus are recognized: * '' Synodus binotatus'' L. P. Schultz, 1953 (two-spot lizardfish) * '' Synod ...

''. The species was first placed in ''

Erythrinus ''Erythrinus'' is a genus of relatively small trahiras, freshwater fish from tropical South America. Species There are currently two recognized species in this genus, but a possibly undescribed species is known from the lower Paraná basin and ...

'' in 1854 by

Gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed ...

(under the name ''Erythrinus salmoneus'', a junior synonym of ''Erythrinus erythrinus''), and this treatment has been recognized by recent authorities such as

Osvaldo Takeshi Oyakawa Osvaldo may refer to the following people: Given name * Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban football player * Osvaldo Ardiles (born 1952), an Argentine football player and coach * Osvaldo Bagnoli, an Italian football coach * Osvaldo Brandão, a Brazilian footba ...

in 2003.Oyakawa, O. T. 2003 Erythrinidae (Trahiras). p. 238-240. In R. E. Reis, S. O. Kullander and C. J. Ferraris, Jr. (eds.) Checklist of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, Brasil.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q882690 Erythrinidae Taxa named by Marcus Elieser Bloch Taxa named by Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider Fish described in 1801