Elephantfishes
Mormyridae
The Mormyridae, sometimes called elephantfish (more properly freshwater elephantfish), are a family of weakly electric fish in the order Osteoglossiformes native to Africa. It is by far the largest family in the order, with around 200 species. Members of the family can be popular, if challenging, aquarium species. These fish have a large brain size and unusually high intelligence.
They are not to be confused with the marine and brackish-water callorhinchid elephantfish (family Callorhinchidae) of Southern Hemisphere oceans.
21 branches of this family, most-observed first · about 230 known species
Bulldogs
genusMarcusenius
Petrocephalus
genusPetrocephalus
Mormyrus
genusMormyrus
Mormyrops
genusMormyrops
Gnathonemus
genusGnathonemus
Pollimyrus
genusPollimyrus
Paramormyrops
genusParamormyrops
Campylomormyrus
genusCampylomormyrus
Cyphomyrus
genusCyphomyrus
Brienomyrus
genusBrienomyrus
Hippopotamyrus
genusHippopotamyrus
Myomyrus
genusMyomyrus
Isichthys
genusIsichthys
Heteromormyrus
genusHeteromormyrus
Genyomyrus
genusGenyomyrus
Ivindomyrus
genusIvindomyrus
Brevimyrus
genusBrevimyrus
Hyperopisus
genusHyperopisus
Stomatorhinus
genusStomatorhinus
Boulengeromyrus
genusBoulengeromyrus
Cryptomyrus
genusCryptomyrus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Mormyridae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 85907.