The Chilodidae, or headstanders, are a small family of freshwater characiform fishes found in northern and central South America. This family is closely related to the family Anostomidae and is sometimes treated as a subfamily, Chilodinae, within Anostomidae.
This family was formerly referred to as "Chilodontidae". Due to issues of homonymy with two other family-rank names called "Chilodontidae", the fish family was required to change spelling to Chilodidae.Opinion 2502 (Case 3555) – Chilodontidae Bronn, 1859 (Ciliophora), Chilodontinae Eigenmann, 1910 (Pisces, Characiformes) and Chilodontinae Wenz, 1938 (Mollusca, Gastropoda): homonymy between family-group names resolved. The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 81(1): 133-136 (31 December 2024) doi:10.21805/bzn.v81.a025
Chilodids have colourful markings, making them popular in aquariums. They are small fish, all less than in adult length, and are distinguished by their habitual head-down postures.
Genera This family currently contains two genera:
Genus Caenotropus Günther, 1864 (4 species) Genus Chilodus Müller & Troschel, 1844 (4 species)
References