''Rhabdolichops'' is a genus of

glass knifefish Glass knifefishes are fishes in the family Sternopygidae in the order Gymnotiformes. Species are also known as rattail knifefishes. These fishes inhabit freshwater streams and rivers in Panama and South America. Many species are specialized for ...

es found in

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

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 ...

and Maroni basins in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

South America. They live near the bottom in main

river channels In physical geography and hydrology, a channel is a landform on which a relatively narrow body of water is situated, such as a river, river delta or strait. While ''channel'' typically refers to a natural formation, the cognate term ''canal'' de ...

floodplains A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudie, ...

(including flooded forest like

igapó (, from Tupi language, Old Tupi: "root forest") is a word used in Brazil for Blackwater river, blackwater-flooded forests in the Amazon biome. These forests and similar swamp forests are seasonally inundated with freshwater. They typically occur ...

) and lagoons, and are typically found in relatively deep waters. ''Rhabdolichops'' are typically overall grayish, dusky or semi-translucent resulting in whitish/pinkish color. There are two species groups: One (including most species) where the

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s are relatively short and without conspicuous pigmentation, and another (including ''R. lundbergi'' and ''R. nigrimans'') where they are relatively long and all dark or dark at the tip. Depending on the exact species, they have a maximum total length of . They feed on small invertebrates such as aquatic insect larvae and

zooplankton Zooplankton are the heterotrophic component of the planktonic community (the " zoo-" prefix comes from ), having to consume other organisms to thrive. Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents. Consequent ...

Species

''Rhabdolichops'' contaisn the following valid species:

References

Eigenmanniinae Freshwater fish of South America Ray-finned fish genera Taxa named by Carl H. Eigenmann Taxa named by William Ray Allen {{Gymnotiformes-stub