Genus · Knifefishes

Adontosternarchus

Adontosternarchus is a genus with 6 species in this atlas, catalogued in the Knifefishes section, recorded from Brazil, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador. Adult sizes run from 7.5 in to 12.5 in. Every species below links to a full researched profile.

Species in atlas
6
Adult sizes
7.5–12.5 in
IUCN assessed
6 of 6
Recorded from
4 countries

About the genus

Adontosternarchus is a genus of ghost knifefish in the family Apteronotidae, found in the Amazon and Orinoco basin drainages of Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador. The genus name reflects a real anatomical trait — these fish lack the teeth found in many of their apteronotid relatives — and like other ghost knifefish they are weakly electric, generating a continuous electric organ discharge that they use to navigate, sense their surroundings, and communicate in the dark, often turbid water of Amazonian river channels at night. The atlas covers 6 species, from about 7.5 in up to over 12.5 in as adults.

Common names in the atlas — the Marble knifefish (Adontosternarchus balaenops) and Clouded ghost knifefish (A. nebulosus) — describe two of the more recognisable species, but the genus as a whole is far less familiar to aquarists than its relative the black ghost knifefish, and is mostly of interest to researchers studying weakly electric fish and their electroreception. All six species assessed in the atlas carry a Least Concern rating, a comparatively clean conservation picture for a genus tied to the wide, still largely intact river channels of the Amazon and Orinoco systems.

IUCN Red List: Least Concern · 6

The 6 species

Every Adontosternarchus recorded in this atlas. Each card links to a full researched profile — distribution, water parameters, and aquarium care, cited to primary sources.

(Cope, 1878)

Marble knifefish

10 in TL · LC

Mago-Leccia, Lundberg & Baskin, 1985

8 in TL · LC

Mago-Leccia, Lundberg & Baskin, 1985

7.5 in TL · LC

de Santana & Vari, 2012

7.5 in TL · LC

Lundberg & Cox Fernandes, 2007

Clouded ghost knifefish, Ituí Fantasma

8.5 in TL · LC

(Peters, 1877)

12.5 in TL · LC

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How to cite

Aquarist Atlas (2026). Genus Adontosternarchus. Aquarist Atlas. https://www.aquaristatlas.com/adontosternarchus/

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