Brycon is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Bryconidae, and order Characiformes. The fishes in this genus are found in Central and South America, ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. Despite not being closely related to true trout, they are sometimes called South American trout. Members of the genus may be referred to by a number of other different common names in various languages. They reach a maximum length of , depending on the species involved. Some species perform seasonal breeding migrations.

They feed heavily on fruits and seeds, but also take other plant material, invertebrates, and small fish. Their food is typically taken from the water, but they are able to jump out of the water to "pluck" low-hanging seeds and fruits directly from trees. Some seeds are crushed when eaten, but may also pass undamaged through the fish, making them seed dispersers.

Brycon support important fisheries, and, based on a review by IBAMA, they are the fifth most caught fish by weight in the Brazilian Amazon.

One fossil member of this genus is known in Brycon avus (Woodward, 1898) from the Oligocene-aged Tremembé Formation of Brazil. A slightly older potential specimen of B. avus is also known from the Late Eocene/Early Oligocene of the Aiuruoca Basin.

Taxonomy: Cladistically, Brycon is a non-monophyletic genus; some of the species in this genus are actually genetically and morphologically closer to Chilobrycon and Henochilus than to the type species, Brycon falcatus. Thus, phylogenetic analyses using cladistics have rendered Brycon to be paraphyletic or even polyphyletic, and have recommended taxonomic review of the genus. The clades within Brycon are grouped based on biogeographic evidence: in prehistory, vicariance lead to the speciation of a trans-Andean "Pacific clade" which also inhabits Central America; the other major clade is the cis-Andean + Magdalena-Cauca Basin clade which includes Brycon falcatus. The latter clades with species of Salminus and thus are closer to them than they are to the other Brycon clade.

Species: Brycon contains the following valid species:

Cladogram: The following cladogram based on a 2014 maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of Bryconidae. It recovers the consensus that Brycon is not monophyletic as the genus encompasses multiple lineages: