Hydrolycus tatauaia Toledo-Piza, Menezes & Santos, 1999

Open encyclopedia reference

Hydrolycus tatauaia, the orange-tail payara, is a species of dogtooth characin found in the Amazon, Orinoco and Essequibo basins in tropical South America. Adults mainly occur in deep and/or fast-flowing rivers. It is migratory, moving upstream to breed in November–April.

Like other Hydrolycus species, H. tatauaia has long pointed canine teeth that are used to spear their prey, generally smaller fish. The body and head are silvery, and there is a vertically elongated dark spot behind the opercle. The tail is reddish to orange. The species name tatauaia is of Tupi origin and means "fire tail". It reaches up to 59 cm (1 ft 11 in) in total length and 2.7 kg (5 lb 15 oz) in weight.

This predatory fish occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade, but it requires a very large tank.

Wikipedia contributors, Hydrolycus tatauaia; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T22:50:26.546995+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Hydrolycus tatauaia Toledo-Piza, Menezes & Santos, 1999

Name authority

Toledo-Piza, Menezes & Santos, 1999

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Characiformes

Family

Cynodontidae

Genus

Hydrolycus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderCharaciformes
11. suborderCharacoidei
12. familyCynodontidae Eigenmann, 1903
13. subfamilyCynodontinae Eigenmann, 1903
14. genusHydrolycus Müller & Troschel, 1844
15. speciesHydrolycus tatauaia Toledo-Piza, Menezes & Santos, 1999

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Hydrolycus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 7 records assigned to Cynodontidae.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. Toledo-Piza, M., Menezes, N. A., & dos Santos, G. M. (1999). Revision of the neotropical fish genus Hydrolycus (Ostariophysi: Cynodontinae) with the description of two new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 10 (3): 255–280. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3N7HV. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.