Pike characins, Acestrorhynchus microlepis, are one of many characid species also referred to as freshwater barracudas. This specimen was collected by Max M. Ellis in 1910 while he led an exploration into the regions of the headwaters of the Amazon River under the financing of Indiana philanthropist Jake Gimbel. The Gimbel Expedition resulted in many important freshwater fish discoveries and followed along the brackish Demerara River in Guyana as well of some of its inland tributaries, such as Hubabu Creek. This particular specimen was
collected near Gluck Island, nearly one hundred miles from the northern coast of Guyana, opposite Rockstone. A search for freshwater eels was the driving force behind the expedition, and Ellis’ resulting 88-page monograph on The Gymnotid Eels of Tropical America corroborated the existence of the previously held myth of the “electric fish.” Therefore, this characid specimen represents a unique non-target species collected on the Gimbel Expedition.
The pike characin belongs to the “needle jaw” Acestrorhynchidae family. Its elongated body can reach up to 15 inches in length and is punctuated by a dark blotch at the base of the caudal (tail) fin. The pike charcin’s native range is the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers of South America, though now it is also a commercially available aquarium species. This species is an obligate piscivore, feeding strictly on a diet of fish with its sharply pointed cone-shaped teeth, capable of easily crushing bone.