Pseudobunocephalus is a genus of small banjo catfish in the family Aspredinidae, distributed across river drainages in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Argentina. The atlas covers 7 species ranging from about 1 in up to 2.5 in, and the genus takes its shared family nickname from a body plan that really does resemble the instrument: a broad, flattened head and forebody tapering abruptly into a long, thin tail. That shape, together with mottled, sand-toned camouflage, lets these catfish lie almost invisible on a riverbed of sand or leaf litter by day, emerging at night to forage over the substrate for small invertebrates.
Pseudobunocephalus turns up only occasionally in the aquarium trade, mostly through catfish specialists drawn to its odd, disc-and-tail silhouette rather than through general community-tank demand; species such as P. amazonicus and P. rugosus, both simply known as banjo catfish, are the ones most likely to appear. In the tank they behave as peaceful, cryptic bottom-dwellers that do best with a fine sand substrate to bury into. Roughly half the assessed species sit at Least Concern, with the rest split between Data Deficient and Not Evaluated, reflecting a genus that is widespread but not closely monitored.