Anablepidae

Anablepidae
Four-eyed fish, Anableps sp.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Cyprinodontiformes
Family:	Anablepidae Garman, 1895
Subfamilies
Anablepinae Anableps Jenynsia Oxyzygonectinae Oxyzygonectes

Anablepidae is a family of freshwater and brackish water fishes living on river estuaries from southern Mexico to southern South America. There are three genera with sixteen species: the four-eyed fishes (genus Anableps), the onesided livebearers (genus Jenynsia) and the white-eye, Oxyzygonectes dovii. Fish of this family eat mostly insects and other invertebrates.

Reproduction

Fish in the subfamily Anablepinae are ovoviviparous. Curiously, they only mate on one side, right-"handed" males with left-"handed" females and vice versa. The male of most species in the family has specialized anal rays which are greatly elongated and fused into a tube called a gonopodium associated with the sperm duct which he uses as an intromittent organ to deliver sperm to the female.

Classification

The Anablepidae contains seventeen species, grouped into three genera, as follows:

Family Anablepidae

• Subfamily Anablepinae
  • Genus Anableps
    • Anableps anableps - Largescale foureyes
    • Anableps dowei - Pacific foureyed fish
    • Anableps microlepis - Foureyes
  • Genus Jenynsia
    • Jenynsia alternimaculata
    • Jenynsia diphyes
    • Jenynsia eigenmanni
    • Jenynsia eirmostigma
    • Jenynsia lineata
    • Jenynsia maculata
    • Jenynsia multidentata
    • Jenynsia onca
    • Jenynsia pygogramma
    • Jenynsia sanctaecatarinae
    • Jenynsia tucumana
    • Jenynsia unitaenia
    • Jenynsia weitzmani
• Subfamily Oxyxygonectinae
  • Genus Oxyzygonectes
    • Oxyzygonectes dovii - White-eye

References

Other References

• Berra, Tim M. (2001). Freshwater Fish Distribution. San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-093156-7

External links

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2006). "Anablepidae" in FishBase. May 2006 version.
• Anableps anableps