Pareiodon

Pareiodon is a monospecific genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Trichomycteridae, the pencil and parasitic catfishes, and the subfamily Stegophilinae, the parasitic catfishes.^[2] The only species in the genus is Pareiodon microps.^[4] This catfish occurs in the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Colombia and Peru.^[1][5]

Pareiodon
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Siluriformes
Family:	Trichomycteridae
Subfamily:	Stegophilinae
Genus:	Pareiodon Kner, 1855[2]
Species:	P. microps
Binomial name
Pareiodon microps Kner, 1855[2]
Synonyms[2][3]
Of Pareiodon Centrophorus Kner, 1859 Astemomycterus Guichenot, 1860 Of Pareiodon microps Trichomycterus pusillus Castelnau, 1855

Like its stegophiline relatives, they possess a sucking, disk-like mouth, along with inter- and opercular spines which facilitates adhesion to its food items, though this species is a scavenger, unlike its ectoparasitic relatives. During feeding events involving vertebrate carcasses, P. microps may be associated with other species of scavengers; the whale candirus, Cetopsis candiru and Ce. coecutiens, are not closely related to P. microps despite also being considered "candiru"; the vulture catfish Calophysus macropterus is a much larger scavenger that may also join the candirus at the carcass.^[6]