Leptodoras is a genus of thorny catfish in the family Doradidae, found across the Amazon and Orinoco river systems of South America, with atlas records from Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, and Peru. The 12 species covered here range from about 3–11.5 in and share the doradid body plan: an elongated, laterally compressed body armored along the flanks with a row of bony, often serrated scutes. Like other members of the family, Leptodoras are nocturnal bottom-dwellers that shelter by day among submerged wood, roots, and leaf litter, emerging at night to forage over sand and silt.
Doradids are widely known as talking catfish because many species can produce audible sounds, either by grinding their pectoral-spine base against the shoulder girdle or by vibrating the swim bladder, a trait well documented across the family though not necessarily confirmed in every one of these 12 species individually. Leptodoras is mostly of scientific and ecological interest rather than a mainstay of the aquarium trade; only Leptodoras acipenserinus, the Peruvian sturgeon catfish, carries a widely used common name in the atlas, and most species are known chiefly from ichthyological surveys. Conservation data remain thin: 6 of the 12 species are still Not Evaluated, 5 are Least Concern, and one is Near Threatened.