''Isorineloricaria'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of catfish in the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Loricariidae Loricariidae is the largest family (biology), family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with over 90 genus, genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South A ...

from northwestern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. They live in rivers and streams, typically with slow to moderately running water, in the

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers approximately 1 million km2, with 65% of it in Venezuela and 35% in Colombia. It is the List of rivers by discharge, f ...

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

, Magdalena and Guayas basins (one species in each basin). The largest species in the genus reaches up to in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

Taxonomy

The

taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...

of this genus has been a matter of dispute, all having been placed in ''

Hypostomus ''Hypostomus'' is a genus of catfish in the family Loricariidae. They are native to tropical and subtropical South America. '' H. plecostomus'' is the popular freshwater aquarium fish formerly known as ''Plecostomus plecostomus''. The taxonomic s ...

'' in the past, and some occasionally placed in ''Squaliforma''. ''Squaliforma'' is now regarded as a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of '' Aphanotorulus'', but species west of the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

have been moved to ''Isorineloricaria''. There are currently 4 recognized species in this genus: * '' Isorineloricaria acuarius'' C. K. Ray & Armbruster, 2016 * '' Isorineloricaria spinosissima'' (

Steindachner Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner descri ...

, 1880) (Zucchini catfish) * '' Isorineloricaria tenuicauda'' (

, 1878) * '' Isorineloricaria villarsi'' ( Lütken, 1874)

References

Hypostominae Catfish of South America Freshwater fish of Ecuador Catfish genera Taxa named by Isaäc J. H. Isbrücker Freshwater fish genera {{Hypostominae-stub