Creagrutus is a species-rich genus of small South American tetras, distributed broadly across Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina, with a particular concentration of species in Andean foothill and piedmont streams. The 72 species in the atlas range from about 1–4.5 in and, like their relatives among the small characids, are schooling fish of clear-water and turbid-water streams and rivers, feeding on small invertebrates and plant material.
Creagrutus is mostly of scientific rather than aquarium interest; very few species have local common names recorded, and those that do, the Anary Tetra, Goldstripe Characin, and the generic Spanish mojarita, reflect its low profile in the hobby rather than any particular rarity in the wild. The genus is taxonomically active, with new species still being described from Andean and Amazonian stream surveys as those regions are explored more thoroughly.
Most assessed Creagrutus species come back Least Concern, and the genus overall carries a lighter conservation footprint than many of its South American tetra relatives, though a modest number of Vulnerable and Data Deficient species point to pockets of Andean stream habitat under localized pressure.