- Animals
- ›Chordates
- ›Vertebrates
- ›Ray-finned Fishes
- ›Carps, Characins, Catfishes and Allies
- ›Characins
- ›Characoidei
- ›Piranhas, Pacus, and Silver Dollars
- ›Upland Pacus
- ›Myloplus

Moon Pacu
Myloplus levis
Myloplus levis, the Moon pacu, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Serrasalmidae, which includes the pacus and piranhas. This fish is found in southern South America.
From the article Myloplus levis on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
Myloplus levis has a maximum published standard length of 20 cm (7.9 in). It is dark brown in colour, lighter below the lateral line. The fins are translucent, apart from the dusky base of the dorsal fin and the black blotch on the margin of the anal fin.
Range & habitat
Myloplus levis occurs in the Paraguay-Paraná River drainage system, in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay. Pacus in the genus Myloplus are typically found in calm water close to banks in the main channels and in the vicinity of rapids.
Wikipedia: “Distribution and habitat”
In human culture
Myloplus levis is classified within the genus Myloplus. This taxon was originally proposed as a subgenus of Myletes, this being a name which has been suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature as a synonym of Alestes. The proposer of this genus, Theodore Gill, did not explain its etymology. It may be a combination of mylo-, a reference to the disk-shaped body, and a prefix used for similarly-shaped fishes in the same family, with plus, which means "more", i.e., another Myleus-like genus. The specific name, levis, means "smooth", "polished" or "bald", an allusion Eigenmann and McAtee did not explain, nor is it obvious why they chose this name.
Wikipedia: “Etymology”
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 Myloplus levis 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 624057.