Hepsetus is a genus of African pike characins - elongated, pike-shaped predatory characiforms in family Hepsetidae - found across a wide belt of sub-Saharan Africa, with atlas records from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, and Angola. Atlas species run 11–18.5 in, sizable ambush predators with a long body, a dorsal fin set far back near the tail, and a large mouth full of sharp teeth - the same body plan true pike and pike-cichlids converge on independently for lurking, sit-and-wait predation among vegetation.
For a long stretch of the twentieth century most of this range was treated as home to a single widespread species, H. odoe; genetic and morphological work since has split that broad population into several geographically distinct species, several of which appear in this atlas under separate names. Hepsetus is essentially a fish of scientific and biotope interest rather than the mainstream aquarium trade - a large, strictly piscivorous predator unsuited to anything but a specialist setup. Conservation status leans reassuring where assessed, with four of six species Least Concern and two Not Evaluated.