Curimata is a genus of curimatid characins (family Curimatidae) native to South American rivers, with the atlas's species drawn from Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Ecuador, and French Guiana. Like other curimatids, its members are toothless as adults, with soft, protrusible lips adapted for grazing algae, detritus, and organic sediment off submerged surfaces and the riverbed rather than hunting prey. Their bodies are deep, laterally compressed, and silvery, built for schooling in open water and floodplain channels, and several curimatids undertake seasonal migrations tied to the flood pulse of their home rivers. The atlas covers 13 species in the genus.
Curimata is not really an aquarium genus. Its members grow to a substantial 4.5–14 in, more suited to large public or research aquaria than home tanks, and most hobbyist interest in curimatids centers on other genera. In much of their native range, though, Curimata species such as the boquiche (Curimata aspera) and vizcaína (Curimata mivartii) matter as food and subsistence fish, caught in river and floodplain fisheries. Conservation-wise the genus is in reasonable shape: the atlas's tally is overwhelmingly least concern, though as with many characins that rely on intact floodplain habitat, dam construction and wetland loss remain longer-term concerns for the group.