For more than a decade, aquarium traders in the upper Amazon River Basin of Peru have caught the freshwater fish, whose name—Potamotrygon tigrina—is inspired by its orange-black coloration and banded tail.

Up to 31 inches (80 centimeters) wide, the species is distinct from other stingrays based on, among other features, its conspicuous colors and its tail spines, which are lower and not as closely grouped as those of its relatives.

(See related pictures: "Odd Stingless Stingrays Discovered in Amazon.")

"It's one of the prettiest species," said Marcelo de Carvalho, a zoologist at the University of São Paulo in Brazil who led a new study