freshwater hatchetfish
gasteropelecidae latin

The most obvious trait of the freshwater hatchetfish is their enormously enlarged sternal region.

Freshwater hatchetfish (possibly flying).

Freshwater hatchetfish have an extremely large sternal region that is fitted with a large amount of muscle that allows it to flap its pectoral fins.

The common hatchetfish or river hatchetfish, Gasteropelecus sternicla, is a tropical fish belonging to the freshwater hatchetfish family (Gasteropelecidae).

The freshwater hatchetfishes are a family, Gasteropelecidae, of ray-finned fish.

Freshwater hatchetfishes, tropical characins of the large family Gasteropelecidae.

They should not be confused with the freshwater hatchetfishes, which are not particularly closely related Teleostei in the characiform family Gasteropelecidae.

The silver hatchetfish, Gasteropelecus levis, is a member of the genus Gasteropelecus in the family Gasteropelecidae.

Other fish families that were formerly classified as members of the Characidae, but which were moved into separate families of their own during recent taxonomic revisions (post-1994) include Acestrorhynchidae, Anostomidae, Chilodontidae (fishes), Citharinidae, Ctenoluciidae, Curimatidae, Distichodontidae, Gasteropelecidae, Hemiodontidae, Hepsetidae, Parodontidae, and Prochilodontidae.