Chaetobranchus:Cichlid Genus

Introduction

Chaetobranchopsis is a small genus of South American fish from the family Cichlidae.
This Genus contain somewhat large fish Standard length 10".
They are specialized plankton feeders and their body is adapted for this behavior.

Fish belonging to this genus have following characterstics :

• Gill rakers on first gill are long, slender and close set (the size decreasing towards skull).
  Other rakers are shorter with more spaces but still relatively long and numerous.
• The mouth is large, jaw teeth are small, teeth are simple,pointed, positioned in n narrow bands in both jaws, running along entire upper jaw rim in adults.
• There is a narrow skin ridge above each ceratoranchial on the roof of branchial chamber.
• The lower pharyngeal tooth plate is long and slender, with deeply incised hind margin, and covered by numerous small pointed teeth.
• Both lip folds are continuous; the lower lip attaches to the hind edge of the upper lip fold well above distal tips of pre maxilla and maxilla.
• There are no gill rakers on the lower pharyngeal tooth plate, but there is a series of rudimentary microbranchiospines along the lateral edges.

Species

Species Name	Common Name	Image
Chaetobranchus flavescens	Combtail Basket Mouth
Chaetobranchus semifasciatus.php