Species Accounts - Cyprinidae - Barbus
Genus Barbus
Cuvier and Cloquet, 1816
The barbels, genus Barbus sensu lato, are found in Europe, Southwest Asia and Africa and comprise about 800 species with 15 in Iran.
This genus includes a wide variety of species and is something of a catchall, serving to cover groups of species which have not been satisfactorily defined as distinct genera to general acceptance. Some authors recognise genera not recognised by others or regard these genera as subgenera - this necessarily affects the species count above. Characters in Southwest Asian species include a rounded or compressed body of moderate to very large size, large to very small scales (lateral line scale count range is at least 26-103), no scale sheath around the anal fin, scales have moderate to high numbers of radii and numerous fine circuli, the presence of barbels in most species, usually 2 pairs, often 1 pair and sometimes none (and individually variable within species), lips variably developed from thin to thick and fleshy, the lower lip sometimes with a well-developed median lobe (and lip development individually variable within species), the last unbranched ray in the short dorsal fin (usually 7-8 branched rays but sometimes more) is thickened and spine-like and may bear teeth or be smooth, a short anal fin, usually with 5 branched rays (but some have 6), pharyngeal teeth in 3 rows with hooked or spoon-shaped tips but sometimes heavy and massive or molariform, gut short, peritoneum white to brown or black, and colour usually brown without distinctive markings in the form of stripes, bands or spots (Barbus subquincunciatus is an exception).
Bănărescu and Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) restrict Barbus to tetraploid species with scales having divergent striae. These species have 7-8, occasionally 9, branched dorsal fin rays, 5 branched anal fin rays, papillose lips and two pairs of barbels. This then excludes species placed in Carasobarbus, Kosswigobarbus, Mesopotamichthys and Tor (see below). For the moment, I am using Barbus as a catch-all genus and not separating out these proposed genera; the genus is clearly in need of a revision using molecular methods to complement data in morphology. Barbus under this restricted definition, ranges from England to the Urals, in northwest Africa, the basins of the Black, Caspian and Aral seas, Anatolia, the Levant, the Tigris-Euphrates basin and adjacent parts of Iran. African species do not belong to this genus. Two groups of species can be distinguished in this restricted Barbus according to Bănărescu and Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003), namely those with 5 pharyngeal teeth in the main row and a papillose lower lip separated from the chin by a groove and those with 4 pharyngeal teeth in the main row and a lower lip without papillae and continuous with the chin, this latter group being formerly recognised as the genus Luciobarbus Heckel, 1843 (and see below). The European/Caucasian member(s) of Barbus s. str. in Iran is lacerta and of Luciobarbus (treated as a subgenus in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003)) are brachycephalus and capito.
Berrebi and Tsigenopoulos in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) and Tsigenopoulos et al. (2003) review Barbus using molecular markers. They include Barbus cyri (a subspecies of B. lacerta according to some authors) and B. lacerta in the subgenus Barbus, their Northern Mediterranean Group, and B. brachycephalus, capito, esocinus, longiceps, mursa, mystaceus, pectoralis, rajanourum, subquincunciatus, xanthopterus and probably barbulus, kersin, sheich and scincus in the subgenus Luciobarbus, their Southern Group. Levin (2004) studied phenetic relationships of 7 Caucasian taxa and concurred with the division into Barbus and Luciobarbus. See under the species Barbus kosswigi for a discussion about the genus/subgenus Kosswigobarbus.
The genus Barbus Cuvier and Cloquet, 1816 has been split into a number of genera which have not met with general acceptance as noted above. Names used in Southwest Asia include Tor Gray, 1834 sensu Karaman, 1971, Labeobarbus Rüppell, 1836, Systomus McClelland, 1838, Luciobarbus Heckel, 1843, Barynotus Günther, 1868 (preoccupied), Aspiobarbus Berg, 1932, Bertinius Fang, 1943 (and Bertinus Banister, 1980, a misspelling), Bertinichthys Whitley, 1953 (an unneeded replacement of Bertinius), Mesopotamichthys Karaman, 1971, Carasobarbus Karaman, 1971 and Kosswigobarbus Karaman, 1971. Labeobarbus is generally considered to be a synonym of Tor, species of which are found mostly in the Oriental Realm, with perhaps only Barbus grypus in Iran being a member of the genus Tor (Karaman, 1971; Ekmekçi and Banarescu, 1998). Bertinius is regarded as a synonym of Luciobarbus in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003). A summary table of generic and/or subgeneric names is given below:-
| Species | Original genus | Proposed genus or subgenus |
| barbulus | Barbus | Luciobarbus |
| brachycephalus | Barbus | Luciobarbus |
| capito | Cyprinus | Luciobarbus |
| esocinus | Luciobarbus | Luciobarbus |
| grypus | Barbus | Tor |
| kersin | Barbus | Luciobarbus |
| kosswigi | Cyclocheilichthys | Kosswigobarbus |
| lacerta | Barbus | Barbus |
| luteus | Systomus | Carasobarbus |
| mursa | Cyprinus | Luciobarbus |
| pectoralis | Barbus | Luciobarbus |
| sharpeyi | Barbus | Mesopotamichthys |
| sublimus | Barbus | Kosswigobarbus |
| subquincunciatus | Barbus | Luciobarbus |
| xanthopterus | Luciobarbus | Luciobarbus |
Since the status of Middle Eastern Barbus s.l. species are still undergoing revision, all species are retained here under the catchall genus Barbus as the most familiar genus until a more final resolution is obtained.
There are also conflicting views on the validity and synonymy of several nominal Barbus species. An extensive comparison of these views is not given here (see, for example, Myers (1960), Karaman (1971), Almaça (1983, 1984a, 1984b, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994), Krupp (1985c), Howes (1987), Doadrio (1990), Eschmeyer (1990), Berrebi (1995), Berrebi et al. (1996), Tsigenopoulos and Berrebi (2000)). Karaman's studies have not found general acceptance. Author's views conflict, even when examining the same material. Problems include:- the low number of specimens examined (Almaça (1984a; 1986) for example, examined 11 nominal taxa relevant to Iran in detail but averaged only about 6 specimens per taxon, often from a single locality or outside Iranian waters); a wide range in size of individuals of species being compared making age related changes difficult to assess (denticles in the dorsal fin are often lost with age, barbels are shorter, body shape changes, etc); the possibility of sexual dimorphism; possible variation between populations; ecomorphs being recognised as genera (e.g. Luciobarbus was recognised by having 4, as opposed to 5, teeth in the outer pharyngeal tooth row; Bertinius is founded on this condition and development of molar teeth for crushing molluscs - but this may have risen independently in response to an ecological opportunity (see Krupp (1985c)); paedomorphosis and independent origins from a generalised form in different sites (Mina et al., 2001), and the lack of a wide range of new material. An adequate resolution of the systematics of the Barbus sensu lato species in the Tigris-Euphrates basin in particular would require extensive collections of new material from type localities and from the whole basin and comparison of this material with the extant types. Not all types are extant and some that do exist are in poor condition. If this were not complication enough, Barbus species are prone to hybridisation with other Barbus species and even other genera, further confusing the resolution of the issue. Almaça (1990) cites a hybridization rate of 5.5-6.0% in Barbus of the Iberian Peninsula, higher under changed ecological conditions such as the building of dams.
The status of Bertinius longiceps persicus Karaman, 1971 described from the "Karun b. Ahvaz, Persien" (= Karun River at Ahvaz, Khuzestan) on a single specimen is uncertain (lateral line 56-58, gill rakers 22, subterminal mouth, very short barbels, head somewhat higher and suddenly narrowing compared to the type subspecies of the Jordan and Orontes basins, acuminate snout, dorsal fin margin concave). It is not Barbus longiceps (F. Krupp, in litt., 1986). The holotype is in the Zoologischen Instituts und Zoologischen Museums der Universität Hamburg (ZMH H2509).
The roe or eggs of species in this genus have been implicated in poisoning (Halstead, 1967-1970) and should be avoided (see under the genus Schizothorax for more information on egg poisoning). Fish should be carefully cleaned in the spawning season to remove the eggs and ensure against contamination of flesh. Severe cases of egg poisoning in other species have resulted in death. Sykes (1927) however, in his account of the travels of Sir John Chardin in Persia (first published in 1686) quotes "Barbel.... the Spawn of them especially is dangerous, being a certain and a violent Vomit, by Reason that the Sun never shines on that Fish, and that it breeds in raw Waters; or because they take it with the Nux Vomica or the Vomiting Nut". Najafpour and Coad (2002) report a case of roe poisoning from eggs of B. luteus.
Barbels are found in running water of streams and rivers although some may inhabit ponds, springs and lakes. Most show migrations for spawning. A species called soleymani, possibly a Barbus species, was considered to be on the verge of extinction in the Gav Masiab River of the Tigris River basin, through pollution, overfishing, dam building, aquaculture, and introduction of exotics (IranMania.com, 29 December 2006). Barbus species in Khuzestan are thought to be the intermediate hosts of Heterophyidae flukes found in humans and carnivores (Massoud et al., 1981).
Kazeraani (1994) gives a short account of Iranian Barbus species in Farsi. The common names in Farsi for these fishes generally are سس ماهي (= sos, ses or sas mahi, meaning unknown) and زرده پر (= zardehpar), zardek or zardak and ourange or ourenge (in reference to yellow or orange colorations, probably of the fins).
The origin and movements of "palaearctic" or Euro-Mediterranean Barbus species in Southwest Asia have been examined by Banarescu (1976; 1977) and Almaça (1984b; 1988; 1990) and these works should be consulted for further details. These works are not cladistic analyses but groupings of species based on morphological similarities and may be subject to criticism on this account.
The origin of the genus Barbus according to these authors lies in East Asia and reached the Euro-Mediterranean region by a Siberian route. Barbus became extinct in northern East Asia, Siberia and northern Europe when the climate cooled during either the Pliocene or the Quaternary. Europe was colonised during the Oligocene and it is from Europe through Anatolia that Southwest Asia received many of its "palaearctic" Barbus. This route of entry probably did not occur before the Pliocene because the Syrian-Iranian Sea, the last connection between the Tethys Sea and the Indian Ocean, blocked passage of primary freshwater fishes into what is now Iran and adjacent regions although a connection between a Balkan-Aegean-Anatolian landmass and Iran was possible during the early Miocene (20-17 MYA). A marine transgression 16.8-11.8 MYA flooding the eastern Paratethys and the rise of mountain barriers led to independent evolution of Barbus in the Balkan-Aegean-Anatolian landmass and in the Iranian Plateau. During the late Miocene the eastern marine connection of Paratethys closed (11.8-10.5 MYA) allowing an exchange of Barbus between Iran and Anatolia, continuous from that time. The Paratethys became an intracontinental sea, the Sarmatian Sea, with a basin encompassing the present Black, Caspian and Aral seas and neighbouring low-lying areas (Bianco, 1990). The Sarmatian Sea freshened as large rivers entered it during the late Miocene and Pliocene, facilitating dispersal of freshwater fishes. A second route of entry for Barbus to northern Iran was via southwestern Siberia and the Aral Sea basin during the early to middle Oligocene. Bănărescu and Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) agree on an east Asian origin for Barbus, dispersing across Siberia and western Asia. The group split into two branches, one forming Barbus sensu stricto and using a dispersal route north of the Ponto-Caspian basin and reaching western Europe and another (Luciobarbus) dispersing across the present-day Mediterranean Sea (see above in discussion of Berrebi and Tsigenopoulos in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) and Tsigenopoulos et al. (2003) for listing of nominal taxa relevant to Iran in these branches or groups).
A recent overview of Barbus systematics restricts the genus to Europe, Southwest Asia and Northwest Africa (Berrebi et al., 1996). Barbus sensu stricto is recognised as a lineage which shares morphological characters, has an ancestral tetraploid origin of 2n=100, and has similar karyotypes, biochemical markers and parasites. Genetic studies indicate four groups of species, namely West European and Ponto-Caspian, Iberian, Northwest African and Levantine. Iberian barbels are found in Spain and Portugal and along within the Northwest African barbels share no species with Iran. The West European and Ponto-Caspian barbels include B. brachycephalus, B. capito and B. mursa, and the Levantine barbels include B. barbulus, B. cyri, B. esocinus, B. lacerta, B. pectoralis, B. rajanorum, B. scincus, B. subquincunciatus and B. xanthopterus. The authors make no comments on the validity of these nominal species and only B. brachycephalus has been examined in detail for karyotypes and/or nuclear markers. This work is continuing and the authors advocate various methods. They note that accurate descriptions of many taxa are lacking and that morphology is still the fastest and most cost-efficient way to identify species. Accurate identification is the foundation for all other studies.
Machordom and Doadrio (2001), using ATPase 6 and 8 and cytochrome b, found differentiation in Barbus capito and B. brachycephalus in the Plio-Pleistocene. A clade of the subgenus Luciobarbus was found for species from the Caucasus (as above), Greece and North Africa compared to the Iberian Peninsula, isolation having occurred after the Messinian salinity crisis 5.5 MY ago when the Iberian Peninsula broke away from Africa.
Berrebi et al. (1996) recommend that Barbus-like species which cannot be allocated to a clearly defined genus should be placed in a genus called `Barbus', surrounded by single quotation marks, until the systematic position is elucidated.
Barbus barbulus
Heckel, 1849
Common names
lab pahn (= broad lip), برزم (berzem or barzam); berzem lab pahn in Khuzestan and Iraq to distinguish it from B. pectoralis; boz mahi (= goat fish) or سس ماهي (= sos or sas mahi in the Dalaki and Shapur river basins); dolenj.
[abu-barattum (= owner or father of lips), abu baratem, abu bratum or nabbash in Arabic; Orontes barbel].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species in Barbus sensu stricto. Karaman (1971) places this species in the synonymy of Barbus rajanorum but other authorities consider it to be Barbus pectoralis (q.v.). Almaça (1983) placed this species as a subspecies of Barbus mystaceus but later (1984a, 1984b, 1986, 1991) retained barbulus as a full species, known only from the Levant, despite Heckel's record from both the Qarah Aqaj (= Mand) of Fars, Iran and the Quwayq (= Kueik) River of the Levant. I retain it as a species under Heckel's name for this taxon until the systematics of this and related species can be worked out as indicated above. It is separated from mystaceus according to Almaça (1983) by having thinner lips, shorter barbels, the last unbranched dorsal ray weaker and shorter, more dense denticles spread over a shorter length of ray, higher anal fin, gill rakers less numerous and the upper dorsal profile is rectilinear and oblique to the back.
The type locality of Barbus Barbulus is the "Fluss Kara-Agatsch....bei dem Dorfe Geré" (= Qarah Aqaj or Mand River, Fars; possibly near Kereft, 29°01'N, 52°52'E) and presumably the "Kueik bei Aleppo" (Heckel, 1846-1849b). J. Valiallahi, pers. comm., 2001 and Edmondson and Lack (2006) suggest Jereh at 29°15'N, 51°58'E but this is in the Hilleh River drainage, a Dalaki River tributary. In addition, "Geré" takes a hard G in German, not a J. There may be some confusion of names and rivers here.
A possible syntype of barbulus from the Qarah Aqaj was located by Almaça (1983, 1986) in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NMW 53957) and seen by me but is in too poor condition to be of much value, being mostly bones. Another syntype is listed as NMW 6596 and measures 119.3 mm standard length. In 1997, this was the only syntype recognised and is possibly the same as NMW 53957 re-numbered as the latter was not located in 2002. The catalogue in Vienna lists only 1 fish, while Heckel's description refers to several fish. NMW 6596 is mostly bones and is dried. The fleshy lip fold of the original description could not be discerned, teeth are missing and the dorsal fin is broken off short.
"Syntypes" of mystaceus are in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien from Mosul on the Tigris River (NMW 16472 (1 specimen), NMW 50394 (2), NMW 54384 (2)) and NMW 54385 (2) but note that authors such as Karaman (1971) and Almaça (1983, 1991) refer the species description to Heckel (1843) in error. These were not marked as being syntypes as observed on a 1997 visit to Vienna.
Key characters
This species is characterised by having two pairs of barbels, a serrated and very strong dorsal fin spine similar to that in Capoeta trutta in its proportions relative to the body, usually 8 dorsal fin rays (never 10), fleshy lips, and 47 or more lateral line scales.
Morphology
The inferior mouth is moderate in size, with moderate to thick lips and with or without a median lower lip lobe. Some fish have very thick lips so a central lobe is apparent. Some show such a degree of lip development as to appear almost abnormal while fish of similar size or larger lack this hypertrophy. In the latter case, the anterior head may be bluntly rounded and foreshortened rather than having an almost straight upper margin tapering to a pointed end. Barbels are relatively thin, occasionally quite thick. The anterior barbel does not extend past the anterior eye margin level and the posterior one not past the posterior eye margin in all sizes of fish. Rarely the anterior barbel extends to mid-eye level and the posterior one almost to the anterior operculum margin.
Dorsal fin with 4 unbranched and 8-9, usually 8, branched rays, anal fin with 3 unbranched and 5 branched rays. The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is usually very strong with a moderate density of denticles extending along much of the ray but its strength is variably developed. Pectoral fin branched rays 17-19, pelvic fin branched rays 8-9, usually 8. Lateral line scales 47-59. Scale focus subcentral anterior, many fine circuli, and numerous radii on all fields, curved in the lateral fields. A pelvic axillary scale is present but not strongly developed or apparent. Gill rakers 14-24, reaching the second raker when appressed. The interior raker surface may be covered with spinules, the internal base is heavily tubercular and the tips may become club-shaped. Pharyngeal teeth 1 or 2,3,4 or 5-5 or 4,3,2 or 1, hooked at the tip but spoon-like below with the fourth tooth of the inner row molariform, with or without a blunt projection (hooked in small fish) and much larger than the third, and the fifth tooth very small and rounded and sometimes absent apparently independent of size. The gut is elongate and complexly coiled with one anterior and 3 posterior loops. Total vertebrae 44 (Howes, 1987).
Meristics in Iranian fish are as follows: dorsal fin branched rays 8(26); anal fin branched rays 5(26); pectoral fin branched rays 17(6), 18(15), or 19(5); pelvic fin branched rays 8(25) or 9(1); lateral line scales 47(1), 48(3), 49(4), 50(4), 51(2), 52(5), 53(4), 54(1), 56(1) or 57(1); total gill rakers 15(1), 17(1), 18(4), 19(3), 20(6), 21(5), 22(2), 23(3) or 24(1); pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(18), 2,3,5-4,3,2(3), 2,3,4-5,3,2(3), 2,3,5-5,3,1(1) or 2,3,4-4,3,2(1); total vertebrae ?.
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
The back and upper flank are brownish, the lower flank yellowish and the belly whitish. Upper flank scales are outlined with pigment, and the anterior edge of the dorsal fin and the caudal fin margin are black in preserved fish. Small fish have a few spots on the upper to mid-flank or may be profusely speckled in preservative.
Small live fish are silvery overall and have anal and caudal fins orange to bright red, especially the lower caudal fin lobe. The dorsal fin is grey and the pectoral and pelvic fins yellowish. The operculum is greenish. The lower flank is greenish-golden and the upper flank brown to grey. Large specimens are silvery with clear fins. The belly in small and large fish is white and the back grey or green to brown. The iris is silvery. The peritoneum is black.
Size
Reaches 62 cm total length (Atabak Mahjoor Azad, pers. comm., 16 June 2008); J. Valiallahi (pers. comm., 2001) believes this species reaches 1.5 m and 90 kg in the Zagros rivers of western Iran.
Distribution
Found in the Tigris-Euphrates basin, the Orontes River and the Quwayq River. In Iran it is found in the Tigris River basin (Abdoli, 2000; Ghorbani Chafi, 2000), in the Gulf basin from the Zohreh River and from the Shapur and Dalaki rivers (Gh. Izadpanahi, pers. comm., 1995), the lower Mand River (M. Rabbaniha, pers. comm., 1995), the Helleh, Dozgah, Dasht-e Palang (and its tributary the Shur) (Abdoli, 2000), in the Kor River basin (Abdoli, 2000), although not confirmed by specimens seen by me, and possibly in the Hormozgan basin.
Zoogeography
Almaça (1991) believes that this species originated from a colonisation wave from South Europe.
Habitat
van den Eelaart (1954) records this species from rivers in Iraq, moving into lakes and marshes on the floods but never far from rivers.
Age and growth
Unknown.
Food
Diet is benthic organisms including insects. Large plant remains and detritus are also present in gut contents of Iranian fish.
Reproduction
Al-Habbib et al. (1986) report spawning during July and August in fish from the Tigris River at Mosul, Iraq. Reproduction in Iran has not been studied.
Parasites and predators
None reported from Iran.
Economic importance
This species is a preferred catch of anglers at Ahvaz in Khuzestan, second only to shirbot (Barbus grypus).
Conservation
The population numbers of this species have not been well-studied nor has its distribution been well-documented. Since it does appear on fish markets in Khuzestan, is a large species and its habitats are under threat, it may require protection. Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
The biology, distribution and population numbers of this species need investigation in Iranian waters.
Sources
Type material: See above, Barbus barbulus (NMW 6596), and note comments.
Iranian material: CMNFI 1979-0024, 1, 128.7 mm standard length, Fars, neighbourhood of Shiraz (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0109, 2, 91.1-91.6 mm standard length, Fars, Mand River at Shahr-e Khafr (28º56'N, 53º14'E); CMNFI 1979-0135, 1, 215.4 mm standard length, Fars, tributary to Mand River (28º08'N, 53º10'E); CMNFI 1979-0271, 1, 61.8 mm standard length, Lorestan, Kashkan River drainage (33º39'N, 48º32'30"E); CMNFI 1979-0290, 1, 139.1 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Diyala River drainage in Qasr-e Shirin (34º31'N, 45º35'E); CMNFI 1979-0293, 1, 210.8 mm standard length, Fars, Mand River at Kavar (29º11'N, 52º41'E); CMNFI 1979-0349, 1, 126.0 mm standard length, Fars, Mand River at Kavar (29º11'N, 52º41'E); CMNFI 1979-0393, 1, 112.1 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Jarrahi River drainage (31º18'N, 49º37'E); CMNFI 1979-0497, 2, 117.4-134.4 mm standard length, Fars, Mand River at Band-e Bahman (29º11'N, 52º40'E); CMNFI 1980-0907, 1, ? mm standard length, Iran (no other locality data); CMNFI 1991-0153, 1, 230.0 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Zohreh River (no other locality data); CMNFI 2007-0109, 3, 85.1-138.7 mm standard length, Kordestan, Qeshlaq River basin south of Sanandaj (ca. 35º16'N, ca. 47º01'E); CMNFI 2007-0110, 1, 191.1 mm standard length, Kordestan, Yuzidar River basin (ca. 35º05'N, ca. 46º56'E); CMNFI 2007-0111, 1, 153.0 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Alvand River near Sar-e Pol-e Zahab (ca. 34º36'N, ca. 45º56'E); CMNFI 2007-0113, 2, 123.9-139.6 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Qareh Su tributary northwest of Kermanshah (ca. 34º25'N, ca. 47º01'E); CMNFI 2007-0117, 4, 43.4-155.5 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Gav Masiab near Sahneh (ca. 34º24'N, ca. 47º40'E); uncatalogued, 1, 60.2 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Rud Zard at Rud Zard (31º22'N, 49º43'E).
Comparative material: BM(NH) 1920.3.3:23-30, 9, 80.2-98.9 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1931.12.21:4, 172.5 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1971.4.2:5, 1, 140.3 mm standard length, Iraq, Tigris near Mosul (36º20'N, 43º08'E); BM(NH) 1972.3.16:2, 69.4 mm standard length, Iraq, 10 km northwest Qala Dize (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1270, 174.6 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1271-1272, 2, 91.9-210.2 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1273-1274, 58.4-62.0 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1275-1277, 3, 182.4-201.0 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1278, 81.9 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1289, 173.3 mm standard length, ();
Barbus brachycephalus
Kessler, 1872
Common names
zardek, زرده پر (= zardehpar), سس ماهي (= sos or sas mahi), سس ماهي خزري (sas mahi khazari), sassmahi-ye Daryaye-Khazar.
[xazar sirbiti or shirbit in Azerbaijan; Kaspiiskii usach or Caspian barbel and korotkogolovyi ustach or short-headed barbel in Russian; Aral barbel; short-headed barbel].
Systematics
Barbus brachycephalus was originally described from the Syr Darya in Uzbekistan.
Howes (1987) considers the generic placement of this species to be problematical. It has slender barbels, 7 branched dorsal fin rays and the cranium is broad and flat, all characters at odds with Barbus sensu stricto. Doadrio (1990) places it in the subgenus Luciobarbus Heckel, 1843 based on a series of 4 synapomorphic osteological characters, namely the exoccipital contacts the pterotic "largely" (sic, probably broadly), high medial process of the urohyal, narrow exoccipital apophysis of the pterotic, and wide 4th and 5th infraorbitals.
Barbus obtusirostris (non Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1842) Jakovlev, 1870 (nomen praeoccupatum), described from the Volga River delta, Russia, is a synonym.
A possible syntype of B. brachycephalus from the Aral Sea is in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NMW 53971) (Almaça, 1986). The NMW card index lists this fish plus 2 fish in NMW 53972 and 1 fish in NMW 53973 as syntypes. Syntypes in St. Petersburg, Russia are lost (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Syntypes of Barbus brachycephalus caspius are in the Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg under 2892 (8 fish), Transcaucasia, 3895 (8), Lenkoran, 9076 (22), 9085 (10), 9109(2), 9117(11), 9118(1), 9124(8), 9128(9), all from the lower Aras River and Lenkoran, 17042(2), 17043(1), 17044(1), all from the Bank Fishery along the lower Kura River. Syntypes under 10619 are apparently lost and a fish under 9108 is actually a Barbus capito (Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
The Caspian Sea basin subspecies is Barbus brachycephalus caspius Berg, 1914, described originally from the Caspian Sea basin (Eschmeyer et al., 1996). Karaman (1971), however, considers differences with the type subspecies of the Aral Sea basin to be minor and not worthy of subspecific recognition. Differences are in body proportions and the Caspian barbel has a smaller eye, lower dorsal fin, less deep body and head, longer pectoral-pelvic distance, shorter pelvic-anal distance, and dorsal fin further back than in the Aral barbel (Berg, 1948-1949). Fricke et al. (2007) list this taxon as a full species but also have brachycephalus in the same system in Turkey (Kura-Aras).
Key characters
The 7 branched dorsal fin rays and the predorsal distance shorter than the postdorsal distance distinguishes this species from B. capito, and colour pattern distinguishes it from B. lacerta, the other Caspian Sea barbels.
Morphology
The mouth is moderate in size and subterminal. Lips are thin to moderate, without a median lobe on the lower lip, and barbels are of moderate thickness. The anterior barbels can reach the level of the posterior eye margin and the posterior barbels reach or pass the preopercle level but barbel lengths show marked individual variation.
Dorsal fin with 3-5, usually 4, unbranched and 6-8, usually 7, branched rays, anal fin with 2-3, usually 3, unbranched and 5-6, usually 5, branched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 14-17 and pelvic fin branched rays 7-8, usually 8. The dorsal fin denticles on the last unbranched ray are usually moderate in number, but may be lost in very large adults, are usually well-developed and extend along four-fifths of the ray (Karaman, 1971). This ray is very strong. Lateral line scales 62-90, commonly 65-77. Scales are elongate with a central focus and few anterior and posterior radii in young fish. There is a pelvic axillary scale. Gill rakers 16-25, short and reaching the one below when appressed. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2, hooked at the tip with the fourth tooth of the inner row large and blunt and the first three spatulate, rarely 2,3,4-5,3,2 or 2,3,4-4,3,2. Total vertebrae 45-50, usually 46-49, mode 48. The gut is coiled anteriorly. The chromosome number is 2n=100 (Klinkhardt et al., 1995).
Iranian specimens have the following meristics: branched dorsal fin rays 7(3), branched anal rays 5(3), branched pectoral fin rays 16(1) or 17(2), and branched pelvic fin rays 8(3). Lateral line scales 69(2) or 71(1). Total gill rakers 18(1) or 19(2). Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(2) or 2,3,4-5,3,2(1). Total vertebrae ?.
Sexual dimorphism
Abdurakhmanov (1962) reports on fish from the Kura River basin where males have a longer dorsal fin base and females have a greater maximum body depth, width and girth. Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) report that males have a shorter head and longer unpaired fins; nuptial tubercles and colouration are absent.
Colour
The back is dark green, flanks and belly lighter, and the two areas may contrast as in Barbus capito. No dark spots on the body. Fins greyish. Peritoneum brown.
Size
Reaches 22.5 kg (Robins et al., 1991) and 1.2 m.
Distribution
Found in the Caspian and Aral seas and their tributaries. In Iran, it was formerly known from the Anzali Mordab but is probably no longer present (Holčík and Oláh, 1992; but see below) and it was listed as rare in the Safid Rud (Derzhavin, 1934). Nedoshivin and Il'in (1929) and Nevraev (1929) recorded it from the Gorgan, Astrabad and Enzeli (= Anzali) regions. Recent works place it in rivers from the Astara to the Neka and Gorgan Bay peninsula, in the Anzali Mordab, and along the whole Caspian Sea coast but these are summaries of past and present distributions (Riazi, 1996; Abbasi et al., 1999; Kiabi et al., 1999; Abdoli, 2000). This species is now very rare in the Caspian Sea basin of Iran, with only a couple of specimens found in a recent survey (M. Ramin, pers. comm., 2000).
This species is also recorded from the Karakum Canal and Kopetdag Reservoir in Turkmenistan (Shakirova and Sukhanova, 1994; Sal'nikov, 1995) and may eventually reach Iranian waters in the Tedzhen (= Hari) River basin.
Zoogeography
Almaça (1984b) considers this species to be a Sarmatian Sea remnant, a Neogene brackish-water basin.
Habitat
Enters rivers to spawn but does not ascend as high as Barbus capito. It prefers deep sections of rivers with stony and gravel bottoms. In the Caspian Sea it may be found at 13-25 m depth. On the Kura River in Azerbaijan there is a spring run and one in August-September. The spring run begins in March and lasts about 50 days; the summer run starts after a short interruption and lasts about 190 days. The water temperature at the start of the spring run is 6.7-11.0°C but the most intensive migration is in summer at 25.2-27.2°C (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Spring run fish spawn in the same year. This species has been recorded at depths of 11.0-11.9 m in the Iranian Caspian Sea (Knipovich, 1921). Riazi (1996) reports that this species migrates into the Siah-Keshim Protected Region of the Anzali Mordab. Jolodar and Abdoli (2004) state that it is more abundant in Gilan than in Mazandaran coastal waters.
Young females usually enter the sea immediately but males may remain in fresh water for 3-5 years. Spawners return to the sea.
Age and growth
Most fish examined by Razivi et al. (1972) from commercial catches in Iran were 2-7 years old, 38.0-69.0 cm long and weighed 698-4658 g. Low recruitment is attributed to poor spawning success, a result of water abstraction during its spawning season. Sexual maturity is attained at 6-8 years. Holčík and Oláh (1992) note that the Anzali region catches are dominated by 3-5 year old fish, 38-71 cm fork length, with rapid growth and a weight of 2 kg attained during the fifth year of life. Abdurakhmanov (1962) gives a maximum life span of 13 years in Azerbaijan. Females live longer than males which only reach 10 years (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Food
No detailed literature reports but gut contents of small specimens from Iran contain crustaceans, and insects such as, curiously, ants, thrips and mosquitos. This fish evidently feeds on insects taken at the surface and is reported as leaping out of the water to take flying insects (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Mayflies and caddisflies are also taken and gut contents includes detritus. Crustaceans are the main food taken in the Caspian Sea (Abdurakhmanov, 1962) but molluscs are also recorded as well as small fish.
Reproduction
This barbel spawns in swift streams over pebbles or sand during July and August in Iran and the eggs attach to rocks (Razivi et al., 1972). Holčík and Oláh (1992) and Makeeva and Pavlov (2000) state that eggs are semipelagic, hatching as they drift downstream over 2 days at 25°C. Fry are carried downstream. Up to 1,259,000 bright-yellow eggs are produced of 1.4 mm diameter and the spawning season on the Kura River begins at the end of April, peaks in June and ends at the end of August. Favoured temperatures are 20-23°C (Abdurakhmanov, 1962). First spawning is at 5-7 years of age with females taking a year longer to mature than males (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Parasites and predators
Molnár and Jalali (1992) record the monogenean Dactylogyrus affinis from this species in the Safid River.
Economic importance
This species is caught as a food fish in Iran. Nevraev (1929) records catches of 37 to 962 individuals from the Anzali region for the years 1914-1915 to 1917-1918. It was abundant in the Anzali Mordab with total catches for Iran of 54.6 t and 32.9 t in 1969/70 and 1970/71 (28.7 t and 14.4 t for the Anzali region alone) but few fish are captured now (Holčík and Oláh, 1992) (note that these figures were taken from Appendix 11, on page 10 they are reversed). They are caught in rogas (outflowing rivers from the Anzali Mordab) and inflowing rivers of the mordab (lagoon) in late winter and early spring. On the Kura River of Azerbaijan average weight in catches was 5.6 kg for females and 3.5 kg for males and the catch from 1920-1944 varied from 0.2 to 3.6 thousand centners.
Robins et al. (1991) list this species as important to North Americans. Importance is based on its use as food and in aquaria.
Conservation
Vulnerable in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007). Stocks of this species have declined because of poor habitat for spawning and the construction of dams and weirs which restricted access to spawning grounds. Water abstraction for irrigation during the summer spawning season would have to be balanced against the requirements of the fish. Larvae of spring spawners are lost when they enter irrigation channels and become stranded in fields (Razivi et al., 1972).
Once known from the Anzali Mordab, it is now absent to rare there and apparently replaced by Barbus capito (Holčík and Oláh, 1992). Kiabi et al. (1999) consider this species to be critically endangered in the south Caspian Sea basin according to IUCN criteria. Criteria include commercial fishing, sport fishing, few in number, habitat destruction, limited range (less than 25% of water bodies), absent in other water bodies in Iran, and absent outside the Caspian sea basin.
This species is regarded as critically endangered through illegal overfishing, pollutants and the destruction of breeding and nursery grounds. Only 2 specimens were caught in the 3 years prior to 2000 during a study of Barbus species in Iran. Additionally, during the 6 month beach seine fishing season (October to April) for the years 1998 and 1999 along the Caspian shore, no specimens were caught in 138 beach seines used 51,000 times (M. Ramin, pers comm., 2000).
Further work
Detailed surveys, perhaps returning captures alive, need to be carried out to monitor the status of this species in Iran.
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material: CMNFI 1970-0553, 2, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Sowsar Roga (37º27'N, 49º30'E); CMNFI 1980-0120, 1, 115.3 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Babol River at Babol Sar (36º43'N, 52º39'E);
Barbus capito
(Güldenstaedt, 1773)
B. capito (above) and B. mursa (below) Aras River, 2 October 1994
Courtesy of Asghar Abdoli
Common names
usach bulatmai, usach chanari; zardi, zardek, zardak, زرده پر (= zardehpar), zard pareh, اورنج (oranj, orenj, orenge or ourange, possibly from the yellowish fin colour)سس ماهي (= sos, sas or sass mahi), pulad mahi (= steel fish from body colour), ses mahi bozorg (= big ? fish, ses being a word of unknown meaning).
[zardapar, shirbit, yastibas zardapar for natio platycephalus, all in Azerbaijan; tchanari in Georgian; bulatmai in Turkish; usach (or usatch) bulatmai and usach chanari in Russian]. Bulatmai is derived from Farsi, bulat = pulad or steel, mai = mahi or fish in reference to the colour on the upper flank].
Systematics
Cyprinus capito was originally described from the Kura River, Transcaucasia. No types are extant.
Howes (1987) places this species in Barbus sensu stricto. Doadrio (1990) places it in the subgenus Luciobarbus Heckel, 1843 based on a series of osteological characters (listed under Barbus brachycephalus).
Cyprinus bulatmai Hablizl, 1783 (after Berg (1948-1949; Rainboth (1981) has Gmelin, 1774 as the author while Eschmeyer et al. (1996) have Gmelin, 1784 (originally described from Anzali, Iran), Cyprinus chalybatus Pallas, 1814 (originally described from Anzali, Iran), Cyprinus mystaceus Pallas, 1814 (partim, from Tiflis), Barbus conocephalus Kessler, 1872 described from the Zeravshan River, Uzbekistan, Barbus lacertoides Kessler, 1872 described from the Syr-Darya in the neighbourhood of Khodzhent (= Leninabad), Tajikistan, Barbus capito var. tiflissica Kamenskii, 1899 described from the Kura River at Tiflis (= Tbilisi), Georgia, and Barbus bilkewitschi Bulgakov, 1923 (originally described from the "Atrek", i.e. the Atrak River in Turkmenistan on the northeastern border of Iran; also spelt bilkewitchi on page 236 in Bulgakov but bilkewitschi on the plate), are synonyms. Barbus capito serratus Sokolinskii, 1927 is a subspecies from the southern Caspian Sea and Barbus capito platycephalus Abdurakhmanov, 1960 is a subspecies or a natio in the lower Kura River basin (see Abdurakhmanov (1962) for further details). Berg (1948-1949) and Karaman (1971) consider Barbus capito serratus to be a synonym of B. c. capito.
Bianco and Banarescu (1982) record this species from the Hablehrud and the Kul River basin at Darab in Persian Gulf drainages. The 2 specimens have 52 lateral line scales, 8 branched dorsal fin rays and 18-19 gill rakers. They acknowledge that these 2 fish have fewer scales than B. capito from the Caspian Sea basin but believe they may represent a new subspecies. These fish are presumed to be misidentifications as B. capito is restricted to the Caspian Sea basin.
Laloei et al. (2003) using the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene found no separable populations of this species in 60 samples from the Iranian Caspian Sea coast and rivers.
Key characters
The 8 branched dorsal fin rays and the predorsal distance considerably longer than the postdorsal distance distinguishes this species from B. brachycephalus, and colour pattern distinguishes it from B. lacerta, the other Caspian Sea barbels.
Morphology
There is a rounded keel on the back in front of the dorsal fin. The mouth is moderate in size, inferior and horseshoe-shaped. Lips are fleshy and well-developed with tubercles but there is no free median lobe on the lower lip. Barbels can be the most developed in thickness in this species among the Barbus considered here but this can vary. The anterior barbel extends back between the anterior eye margin level and its middle and the posterior barbel extends to the posterior eye margin level or almost to the preopercle in young and some adults.
Dorsal fin with 3-5, usually 4-5, unbranched rays followed by 7-9, usually 8, branched rays and anal fin with 2-4, usually 3, unbranched and 5-6, usually 5, branched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 15-19 and pelvic fin branched rays 7-9. The dorsal fin denticles on the last unbranched ray may be lost in very large adults but are evident for two-thirds or more of the spine length in most fish (Karaman, 1971; Almaça, 1981). The last unbranched ray is moderately strong and the denticles are of moderate density along it. Lateral line scales 51-72, usually 60-66 (Karaman (1971) gives 36-70 but he includes 8 subspecies over a wide range within his definition of the species). There is no obvious pelvic axillary scale although scales in this region are elongate. The scale focus is slightly subcentral anterior, there are numerous fine circuli, and there are radii on all fields with those on the lateral fields few and often curved. Gill rakers 12-19, rarely to 22, increasing in number with the size of the fish, reaching the one below or slightly further when appressed, rounded and knobbed tip, and a large internal rounded extension. Pharyngeal teeth usually 2,3,5-5,3,2 with minor variants, hooked and spoon-like below with the depression below the crown filled in, the fourth one in the inner row the largest and pointed or blunt and rounded, the fifth smaller and blunt. The gut is long and complexly coiled with several anterior and posterior loops. Total vertebrae 42-45 (Howes, 1987), 45-47 (Elanidze, 1983), 43-49 (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Chromosome number 2n=100, NF=172 (Pourali Darestani et al., 2006).
Iranian fish have the following meristics: branched dorsal fin rays 7(1) or 8(49), anal fin branched rays 5(50), pectoral fin branched rays 16(3), 17(27), 18(18) or 19(2), pelvic fin rays 7(2) or 8(48); lateral line scales 53(3), 54(4), 55(7), 56(10), 57(6), 58(7), 59(7), 60(5) or 61(1); total gill rakers 13(3), 14(15), 15(18), 16(9), 17(4) or 18(1); pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(33), 2,3,5-5,3,1(1), 2,3,4-5,3,2(2), 2,3,5-4,3,2(1), 2,3,5-5,2,1(1), 2,2,5-5,3,2(1); and total vertebrae ?
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown, apparently no spawning colouration or breeding tubercles.
Colour
The upper flank and head are steel-grey (hence bulat mahi) and the lower flank and belly are a strongly contrasting pale yellow or pearly-white. Occasionally fish with a uniform coloration are found and preserved material may be uniform. The steel-grey upper flank may be comprised of dark scale margins surrounding a silvery-grey scale centre. The lateral line may be darkly pigmented. Spots may occur individually on the body. The iris is silvery with a grey exterior ring and a very narrow interior golden ring. Barbels are white with grey on the inner surface. The dorsal fin is greyish and may have some dark grey spots. The caudal fin has a greyish or yellowish or slightly orange upper lobe, sometimes with faint dark grey spots, a more strongly coloured and larger yellow-orange to canary-yellow lower lobe and pink margins. The pectoral fin is whitish with a little or considerable amount of pink or yellow. The pelvic and anal fins are canary-yellow to orange with a white margin. Young fish may be darkly speckled and mottled on the mid and upper flank rather like Barbus lacerta. Peritoneum dark brown.
Size
Reaches 1.05 m and 15 kg in literature reports. A specimen from the Sardabrud was 85 cm and 5.5 kg (A. Abdoli, pers. comm., 1995).
Distribution
Found in the basins of the Black, Caspian and Aral seas. Karaman (1971) gives a distribution from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to Southwest Asia but he includes 8 subspecies within his definition of Barbus capito.
In Iran, this species is found in the Caspian Sea basin, in rivers from the Aras to the Atrak and the Anzali Mordab, the Qezel Owzan and Shahrud in the upper Safid River basin, and the along the sea coast (Derzhavin, 1934; Bianco and Banarescu, 1982; Almaca 1984a; Aliev et al., 1988; Holčík and Oláh, 1992; Kiabi et al., 1994; Abbasi et al., 1999; Kiabi et al., 1999; Abdoli, 2000).
Barbus capito conocephalus Kessler, 1872 is reported from the Karakum Canal, Kopetdag Reservoir and Uzboi lakes in Turkmenistan (Shakirova and Sukhanova, 1994; Sal'nikov, 1995) and may eventually be recorded from the Tedzhen River and Caspian Sea basins in Iran.
Zoogeography
Almaça (1984b) considers this species to be a Sarmatian Sea remnant, a Neogene brackish-water basin, and related to Euro-Mediterranean Barbus.
Habitat
This species avoids muddy bottoms (Solak, 1977) although Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) report that it prefers warm, deep, slowly-flowing water above gravel, sand or mud and can be found in lacustrine habitats. Spawning migrations in the Kura River of Azerbaijan go as far up as Aragva and generally it ascends to the uppermost tributaries of rivers it enters. The spawning run in the Kura lasts almost the whole year except for the two coldest months. However the main spawning runs are in September-October and April (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). The Caspian Sea form is anadromous but there are also resident forms in the rivers there. Knipovich (1921) reports this species at depths of 9.15-14.2 m, possibly deeper, in the Iranian Caspian Sea. There are both resident and andromous populations in the Anzali lagoon (Karimpour, 1998).
Age and growth
Solak (1989c) examined a population of this species in the Aras River in Turkey and found a life span of over 4 years, but over 6 years in the Çoruh River of the Black Sea basin of Turkey. In the Caspian Sea basin fish may live up to 8 years (Abdurakhmanov, 1962). Anadromous fish are heavier than fish of the same length that are river residents. Maturity is attained at 3-5 years with females mature one year later than males. Spring migrants spawn that summer while summer or autumn migrants overwinter to spawn the following spring or summer (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Shajiee et al. (2002) found a sex ratio of 3:1 for male:female fish in the Caspian Sea off Gilan and a life span of 8 years. Gonadosomatic and hepatosomatic indices, length-weight relationships and other growth and fecundity indices were given.
Food
Stomach contents consist of insects, crustaceans and worms, and filamentous algae and other plant material with associated invertebrates. Terrestrial insects, small fishes and frogs are also taken. Abdoli (2000) reports Ephemeroptera, Trichoptera and Chironomidae. One specimen from Iran had fish remains, possibly a small Barbus capito. Abdurakhmanov (1962) reports grasshoppers and ants, presumably taken at the surface.
Reproduction
Eggs number up to 193,600 and diameters up to 1.8 mm in Azerbaijan (Abdurakhmanov, 1962). A fish with well-developed testes was caught in the Gorgan River on 7 July, suggesting a spawning season of late spring and summer, agreeing with egg diameters of fish from Azerbaijan which are largest in June.
Parasites and predators
Molnár and Jalali (1992) record the monogenean Dactylogyrus linstowi from this species in the Safid Rud. Masoumian and Pazooki (1998) surveyed myxosporeans in this species in Gilan and Mazandaran provinces, finding Myxobolus musculi. Masoumian et al. (2005) recorded the protozoan parasites Ichthyophthirius multifilis and Trichodina perforata from this species in water bodies in West Azarbayjan. Masoumian et al. (2003) record Myxobolus musculi while Pazooki et al. (2003) and Pazooki (2006) record Rhabdochona hellichi, Paradiplozoon homoion and Pseudocapillaria tomentosa, all reports from fishes captured in the Tajan and Zarem rivers of Mazandaran. Sattari et al. (2002) and Sattari (2004) records the presence of the nematode, Eustrongylides excisus, in the body cavity. This parasite can damage muscles in commercial species and render them unsuitable for sale. Sattari et al. (2004, 2005) surveyed this species in the inshore area of the Caspian Sea, recording Eustrongyloides excisus and Anisakis sp. Pazooki et al. (2007) recorded various parasites from localities in West Azarbayjan Province, including Neoechinorhynchus rutili from this species. Miar et al. (2008) examined fish in Valasht Lake and the Chalus River, Mazandaran and found the metazoan Bothriocephalus gowkongensis.
Economic importance
Holčík and Oláh (1992) report a catch of only 9 kg in the Anzali Mordab for 1990. This species had a catch of 17 tonnes in 1997, 28 t in 1998 and 7 t in 1999 during the 6 month beach seine fishing season (October to April). For the years 1998 and 1999, 138 beach seines were used 51,000 times (M. Ramin, pers. comm., 2000). This species was of minor importance commercially in the former U.S.S.R. and is a sport fish in Georgia (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). In East Azarbayjan it reaches sizes large enough for sport fishing and as a commercial species (Ghasemi, 2002).
Conservation
Kiabi et al. (1999) consider this species to be conservation dependent in the south Caspian Sea basin according to IUCN criteria. Criteria include commercial fishing, sport fishing, medium in numbers, habitat destruction, widespread range (75% of water bodies), absent in other water bodies in Iran, and present outside the Caspian Sea basin. Mostafavi (2007) lists it as conservation dependent in the Talar River, Mazandaran. Vulnerable in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
Biology and numbers of this species needs investigation.
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material: CMNFI 1970-0521, 7, ?-102.5 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River near Lulaman (no other locality data); CMNFI 1970-0525, 5, 111.9-133.4 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River near Mohsenabad (no other locality data); CMNFI 1970-0526, 19, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River 6 km below Astaneh Bridge (37º19'N, 49º57'30"E); CMNFI 1970-0531, 1, 157.3 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Larim River (36º46'N, 52º58'E); CMNFI 1970-0536, 1, 194.4 mm standard length, Gilan, Siah River estuary near Rudbar (36º53'N, 49º32'E); CMNFI 1970-0538, 10, 36.7-188.5 mm standard length, Gilan, Qezel Owzan River near Manjil (36º44'N, 49º24'E); CMNFI 1970-0543A, 1, 170.4 mm standard length, Gilan, Caspian Sea at Hasan Kiadeh (37º24'N, 49º58'E); CMNFI 1970-0546, 10, 39.3-61.8 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River canal (no other locality data); CMNFI 1970-0553, 1, 58.1 mm standard length, Gilan, Sowsar Roga (37º27'N, 49º30'E); CMNFI 1970-0563, 1, 70.1 mm standard length, Gilan, Caspian Sea at Kazian Beach (ca. 37º29'N, ca. 49º29'E); CMNFI 1970-0568, 8, 62.5-132.0 mm standard length, Gilan, Caspian Sea at Kazian Beach (ca. 37º29'N, ca. 49º29'E); CMNFI 1970-0581, 6, 41.3-65.5 mm standard length, Gilan, Caspian Sea near Hasan Kiadeh (37º24'N, 49º58'E); CMNFI 1970-0587, 3, 69.0-91.4 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Babol River at Babol Sar (36º43'N, 52º39'E); CMNFI 1979-0431, 2, 240.9-265.5 mm standard length, Mazandaran, bazaar at Now Shahr (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0437, 1, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River 2 km west of Astaneh (37º16'30"N, 49º56'E): CMNFI 1979-0452, 2, 53.5-56.5 mm standard length, Azarbaijan-e Khavari, Qezel Owzan River 6 km from Mianeh (37º23'N, 47º45'E); CMNFI 1979-0486, 2, 69.2-78.8 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Atrak River draiange (37º44'N, 56º18'E); CMNFI 1979-0488, 1, 95.8 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Atrak River at Maraveh Tappeh (37º55'N, 55º57'30'E); CMNFI 1979-0491, 1, 191.5 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Gorgan River 15 km northeast of Kalaleh (ca. 37º33'N, ca. 55º44'E); CMNFI 1979-0686, 19, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River (37º24'N, 49º58'E): CMNFI 1979-0695, 4, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River at Manjil Bridge (36º46'N, 49º24'E): CMNFI 1979-0788, 2, 152.0-202.4 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Gorgan River at Khadje Nafas (37º00'N, 54º07'E); CMNFI 1980-0116, 8, ?-62.4 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River at Astaneh Bridge (37º16'30"N, 49º56'E); CMNFI 1980-0123, 8, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River (ca. 37º22'N, ca. 49º57'E): CMNFI 1980-0127, 1, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Caspian Sea near Hasan Kiadeh (37º24'N, 49º58'E): CMNFI 1980-0132, 8, ? mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River at Kisom (37º12'N, 49º54'E); CMNFI 1980-0138, 2, 132.5-137.6 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River estuary (ca. 37º28'N, ca. 49º54'E); CMNFI 1980-0905, 1, 188.9 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Gorgan River at Khadje Nafas (37º00'N, 54º07'E); CMNFI 1980-0908, 3, 67.2-91.3 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River estuary (ca. 37º28'N, ca. 49º54'E); uncatalogued, 2, 245.7-272.8 mm standard length, Markazi, Shah River (no other locality data);
Barbus esocinus
(Heckel, 1843)
Darreshahr, Simarreh River, April 1987,
photo by N. Atarody; courtesy of B. Kiabi
Kermanshah, Simarreh River,
courtesy of B. Kiabi
more photos
Common names
سونگ (= soong) or بچ ( = bach) in northern Khuzestan and Lorestan, anzeh, anzah, narbach, and anzeh-bach at Ahvaz and in southern Khuzestan (meanings unknown); بل زرد (= balzard).
[bizz (in Iraq), farkh-el-biz (= cheerful one (Heckel, 1843b) or baby of bizz), farch or mangar in Arabic; "Tigris salmon", "Euphrates salmon", pike barb, pike barbel].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species in Barbus sensu stricto. Labeobarbus Euphrati Sauvage, 1882 described from "Biredjik (Euphrates)", Turkey (not "Irak" as in Bertin and Estève (1948)) is a synonym.
Karaman (1971) places this species in the synonymy of Barbus xanthopterus as he considered the only difference to be scale count and the range of variation for these species is unknown. Almaça (1983, 1986) agrees that several meristic characters are similar while the main differences are a shorter head and barbels in esocinus and dotted coloration in esocinus as opposed to uniform in xanthopterus (isn't the reverse true?). He maintains them as separate species because information on variability in characters is lacking.
Examination of the types of B. esocinus (NMW 54088, 2, 58.5-61.5 mm standard length, 54091, 372.4 mm, 54092, 321.3 mm) and B. xanthopterus (NMW 54841a (a syntype), 216.5 mm, 54786 (not a type), 292.8 mm) in Vienna showed the following differences. Head size differs in the two taxa in that esocinus postorbital length is very elongate and the head tapers anteriorly in a distinctive fashion. Head length in standard length is 3.2-3.6, mean 3.4 for esocinus and 4.0-4.2, mean 4.1 for xanthopterus and postorbital length in standard length is 5.9-7.2, mean 6.5 for esocinus and 7.7-7.8, mean 7.8 for xanthopterus with the higher values for esocinus based on smaller fish which tend to have proportionately larger heads. Total gill raker counts are 8-10, mean 9.3 for esocinus and 12-13, mean 12.5 for xanthopterus. Larger esocinus appear to lose anterior rakers with age but still have fewer than xanthopterus of similar size. Lateral line scale counts are 63-70, mean 67.3 in esocinus and 57-60, mean 58.5 in xanthopterus. On this limited basis I am maintaining the two species as distinct. An Iranian specimen, 284.3 mm standard length (ZSM 21830 from the Dez River), falls within the ranges given above. see xanthopterus?
Almaça (1986) records syntypes of Luciobarbus esocinus in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien from the type locality as given by (Heckel, 1843b) "bei Mossul in Tigris", Iraq (NMW 54088 (2 specimens), NMW 54091 (1), and NMW 54092 (1) but Heckel (1843b) does not specify the number of types). A syntype is in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt (SMF 454, formerly NMW; 281.2 mm standard length) and another syntype is also there but dried (SMF 6785, formerly NMW) (F. Krupp, pers. comm., 1985). The catalogue in Vienna lists 2 fish in spirits and 2 fish stuffed.
The mounted holotype of Labeobarbus euphrati is in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN A.6961) and measures 1650 mm total length (Bertin and Estève, 1948). Eschmeyer et al. (1996) indicate that the catalogue number may be A.6971.
Key characters
This species is characterised by large size, a long, tapering and depressed head (rather pike-like in shape), two pairs of barbels, a serrated dorsal fin spine, lateral line scale count high (63-78), moderately developed lips, and no large flank spots. Head length in standard length 3.1-3.7, mean ? and postorbital length in standard length 5.9-7.2, mean ? for ? specimens ?-? mm standard length including the types listed above. (includes SMF454 281.2 mm SL, HL 75.6, postorb 44.1, snout 21.5
Morphology
Dorsal fin with 4 unbranched and 8 branched rays, anal fin with 3 unbranched and 5 branched rays, pectoral fin with 16-18 branched rays and pelvic fin with 8 branched rays. Lateral line scales 62-78. Scales are regularly arranged, the smallest being on the isthmus anterior to the pectoral fin bases. There is a pelvic axillary scale. Scales have a central focus, numerous fine circuli, a wavy or rounded anterior margin, and radii on the anterior and posterior fields with a few widely spaced ones on the lateral fields. Gill rakers 8-12, well spaced and just touching the one below when appressed. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2, hooked with the third tooth of the inner row slightly larger than the fourth and the fifth smaller. Heckel (1843b) gives 2,3,4-4,3,2, and teeth from large specimens seen at Ahvaz in 1995 by me had 2,3,4-4,3,2 and 2,3,5-4,3,2, the anteriormost tooth being small or absent. Even small specimens (85.7 mm standard length) may have the anteriormost tooth absent. Total vertebrae 48 (Howes, 1987) or 48-50 based on comparative materials listed below. The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is very strong, with a low density of denticles but with fine denticles extending over much of the ray. The mouth is large, terminal and almost horizontal and extends back to the anterior eye margin. Lips are thin to moderate without a median lobe to the interrupted lower lip, and barbels are thin to very thin. The anterior barbel does not reach past the nostril level and the posterior barbel does not pass the mid-eye to rear eye level. The nostril is elongate and closer to the eye than the snout tip. The cephalic canals on the suborbital series have numerous branches. The gut is an elongate s-shape with several anterior loops.
Meristics for an Iranian specimen:- dorsal fin branched rays 8; anal fin branched rays 5; pectoral fin branched rays 17; pelvic fin branched rays 8; lateral line scales 69; and total gill rakers 9.
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
The back has numerous scattered, black spots on an olivaceous background, the spots extending onto the base of the dorsal fin. Spots may be weak or absent but this is comparatively rare. Overall colour is silvery with the anal and caudal fins dark red. The flanks and belly are lighter. The eye is yellowish in colour. Young fish have a yellow tinge or sulphur yellow colour to the fins.
Size
Frequently up to 3 hundredweights (= 152.4 kg) in the Zab River of Iraq southeast of Mosul (Heckel, 1846-1849a); a fish 6'4" (1.93 m) long with a girth of 3'10" (1.17 m) and a weight of 215 lbs (97.6 kg) from the Euphrates River at Hakika (Light, 1917; wrongly identified as Barbus scheich according to the editors in an article by Gudger (1945a)); 69 inches (1.75 m) measured over the curve of a back with a 38 inch (0.97 m) girth and a weight of 123 lbs (55.8 kg) caught in the Diyala River, Iraq on a light 14-foot rod taking 1½ hours to land (Bagnall, 1919); 96 lb (43.6 kg) fish caught near Kizil Robat (= As Sa`diyah) in the Diyala River on a lump of atta (a ball of dough)(MacKay, 1919)(Bagnall, a Major, out-doing MacKay, a Brigadier-General); 140 lbs (63.6 kg) Tigris salmon caught on a 2" spoon at Samarra (Lane, 1920); hundreds of good weight up to 112 lbs (50.8 kg), one caught on a hand-line at 170 lbs (77.2 kg), one netted at 252 lbs (114.4 kg), and reputedly over 300 lbs (136 kg)(Radcliffe, 1926); up to two yards (1.83 m) as evidenced by a photograph of a specimen draped over a donkey in Iraqi Kurdistan (Hamilton, 1937); 2 m and 150 kg in Iraq (van den Eelaart, 1954; Herzog, 1967); a 167 lb (75.8 kg) Tigris specimen and a 213 lb (96.7 kg) specimen at Nassiriyah on the Euphrates, called both gattan and "Euphrates salmon" but it was presumably the latter (Vesey-Fitzgerald and Lamonte (no date)); weights up to 300 lbs (136 kg) and the largest taken on rod-and-line as 220 lb (100 kg) and 7 feet (2.1 m), baits used included atta and dates, and chicken or sheep liver (Mahdi, 1962). Beck (pers. comm., 2000) reports the largest fish seen in the 1990s along the Syrian Euphrates and its tributaries weighed 198 kg. A fish caught in 2001 on the Euphrates River near Birecik in Turkey with a net weighed 111 kg and was 2.4 m long (www.fishing-worldrecords.com, downloaded 16 February 2007).
Iranian records of large specimens include one by Mr. Chabok-Savar, a Game Warden or biologist of the Department of the Environment who caught a specimen about 80 kg in the Simareh River in 1973 and N. Atarody, also a Game Warden or biologist, caught two large specimens in April 1987 from "Tang-e Gheer" on the Simareh near Darreh Shahr (Abzeeyan, Tehran, 3 (August-September):19, 1992). A 1.65 m and 75 kg specimen is reported from the Dez River and a 2.1 m specimen is reported from the market at Ahvaz in 1993 (this last fish may have weighed 150 kg, original report not seen; J. Valiallahi, pers. comm., 2001). The Gav Masiab, a river in Kordestan, is reputedly named for these large fishes ("river with fishes as large as a cow")(J. Valiallahi, www.modares.ac.ir, downloaded 4 July 2000). Floor (2003) gives a photograph of a large specimen from the Karun River.
Distribution
This species is found in the Tigris-Euphrates basin including its Iranian portion and the adjacent northern Gulf basin (Marammzai, 1995; Abdoli, 2000). It is reported as common in the Dez Dam (Gh. Eskandary, pers comm., 2000).
Zoogeography
Almaça (1984b, 1991) considers that the origin of this species lies with a group that migrated southwards in the late Pliocene from the Dacian Lake of the Sarmatian Sea and speciated in Mesopotamia.
Habitat
Found in large rivers and dams but also the more limited environment of palace ponds at Baghdad. Details of environmental requirements unknown.
Age and growth
Life span is at least 10 years (Ahmed, 1982). Fish in Khuzestan were found to have a sex ratio of 4.2:1.0 male:female (Gh. Eskandary, pers. comm., 2000; Eskandari et al., 2004). In the Dez Dam of northern Khuzestan females had a length range of 156-1350 mm and a weight range of 31.7-26,500 g while for males figures were 183-1065 mm and 48-12,208 g. Males matured faster than females, annual growth is slow and asymptotic length is more than 2 m. It appears to have a longer reproductive life compared to pre-maturation life (Eskandari et al., 2004).
Food
This species is a predator on other fishes. In the Dez Dam, all samples had fish in their stomachs although the gut to body length ratio indicates omnivory (Eskandari et al., 2004).
Reproduction
van den Eelaart (1954) reports spawning in Iraq in March. Eggs are laid between large stones in the deep part of rivers in March or April. Some fingerlings drift down into lakes and marshes. Eskandari et al. (2004) report a very short spawning season in the Dez Dam in spring after reservoir water levels rise through spring flooding. The fish is a total spawner with eggs released in upstream areas and shallows of the reservoir over gravel at 24ºC. Ünlü (2006) gives age at first maturity as 4 years in the Turkish Tigris River with spawning between large stones.
Parasites and predators
None reported from Iran.
Economic importance
In Iraqi Kurdistan these fish were caught and tethered by a cord passed through the lips until eaten by the villagers (Elliot, 1977). At Altan Keupri on the Lesser Zab River in Iraq a drugged bait was used to stupefy the fish so it could be netted and dragged to shore (Hamilton, 1937).
This species was being considered for aquaculture during the year 2000 in Khuzestan although fish larger than 1 m are needed to be ripe adults. Anglers and commercial fishermen seek this fish in the Iranian Zagros Mountains using ducklings (!) as bait (J. Valiallahi, pers. comm., 2001).
Robins et al. (1991) list this species as important to North Americans. Importance is based on its use in textbooks.
Conservation
This species is under severe threat in the Syria Euphrates and its tributaries. A survey in 1997-1998 caught only a single juvenile and the commercial fisheries had not more than two dozen fish. Blast fishing and poisoning had led to a decline in age of catches since 1993. Large scale water abstraction, dam building and pollution had destroyed habitats (R. Beck, pers. comm., 2000). It is listed by Stone (2007) as one of the world's largest freshwater fishes, presumed to be threatened.
A report of fish kill, presumably of this species, in the "Cham Ghorah" River near Mahabad in July 1999 numbering about half a million fish was owing to desiccation of the habitat (J. Valiallahi, www.modares.ac.ir, downloaded 4 July 2000).
Further work
Distribution and numbers are needed for a conservation assessment.
Sources
Type material: See above, NMW 54088.
Iranian material: ZSM 21830, 1, 284.3 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Dez River at Harmaleh (31º57'N, 48º34'E). Some specimens observed in the IFRTO laboratory at Ahvaz (pharyngeal arches).
Comparative material: BM(NH) 1892.9.1:30, 1, 197.3 mm standard length, Iraq, Al Faw (29º58'N, 48º29'E); BM(NH) 1920.3.3:80-82, 3, 85.7-147.0 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E); BM(NH) 1931.8.12:5, 1, 111.8 mm standard length, Iraq, near Mosul (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1297, 1, 166.5 mm standard length, Iraq, Diyala River (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1810, 1, 220.1 mm standard length, Iraq, ?;
Barbus grypus
Heckel, 1843
Above photographs showing fleshy lips courtesy of Atabak Mahjoor Azad
Common names
شيربت (= shirbot, shirbod or shilbot), shaboot, سس ماهي (= sos or sas mahi), rumi, shebhe shirbot, سرخه (sorkheh, meaning= reddish, a local name in the Zohreh River - J. Gh. Marammazi, pers. comm., 1995), rumi (not heard of in Khuzestan).
[shabout or hamrawi in Arabic; large scaled barb, Tigris barbel].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species outside the genus Barbus sensu stricto as defined by him because it has the non-elongate lachrymal bone with a sensory canal running along the antero-dorsal border, a derived condition. Karaman (1971) and Ekmekçi and Banarescu (1998) placed it in the genus Tor (see above and below) and it may belong in Naziritor Mirza and Javed, 1985 (M. R. Mirza, pers. comm., 6 December 2003). Al-Hassan (1984) looked at several Barbus species and found the electropherogram of this species to be distinctive, perhaps indicating that molecular studies could resolve the relationships of this species. This distinction was reiterated by Jawad (2003).
The type locality of Barbus Grypus is "Tigris bei Mossul" (Heckel, 1843b) and Krupp (1985c) records a syntype (dried) from the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (formerly NMW) now in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt under SMF 2613, 375 mm standard length. One syntype is in the Museum für Naturkunde, Universität Humboldt, Berlin (ZMB 8788, not located February 2006). One syntype is in Vienna under NMW 54160, 2 are under NMW 54161 (280.9-318.9 mm total length as measured by me), and 1 is under NMW 91023 (Eschmeyer et al., 1996). The catalogue in Vienna lists 3 fish in spirits and 2 fish stuffed.
Labeobarbus Kotschyi Heckel, 1843 described from the "Tigris bei Mossul" is a synonym. Krupp (1985c) records a syntype from the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien under NMW 49729, Th. Kotschy (188.8 mm standard length as measured by me). A dried specimen (NMW 59462) is also a syntype. Eschmeyer et al. (1996) also lists another syntype, NMW 91022. The catalogue in Vienna lists 1 fish in spirits and 2 fish stuffed.
Key characters
This species is identified by having two pairs of barbels, a strong, smooth spine in the dorsal fin, and less than 44 scales in the lateral line.
Morphology
The forehead is more rounded than in type material of kotschyi, although kotschyi types are smaller than grypus types which may account for this distinction. The mouth is inferior, horseshoe-shaped and has fleshy lips. The median lobe of the lower lip is well-developed in some individuals (such specimens were described as kotschyi - this form is rare in Khuzestan according to N. Najafpour, pers. comm., 1995) and intermediates can be seen) but not in others (grypus) (Karaman, 1971). The median lobe may extend back almost as far as the level of the rear margin of the lower lip or be distinctive with free lateral and rear margins but only extend back one third of this distance. The much fleshier lip structure in kotschyi (the upper lip can be reflexed for example) may be a form of hypertrophy seen in other cyprinid fishes (see Roberts and Khaironizam (2008) for further discussions on this feature)). The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is smooth and spine-like, with sharp edges but no serrations although serrations are weakly developed in young fish. Barbels are about equal in length. The gut has two anterior and two posterior loops.
Dorsal fin unbranched rays 4, branched rays 7-9, usually 8, anal fin unbranched rays 3, branched rays 5, pectoral fin branched rays 14-18 (including counts from Jawad (1975)), and pelvic fin branched rays 7-8, usually 8. Total gill rakers 16-22 (including counts by Jawad (1975)). Krupp (1985c) cites 13-17 gill rakers, presumably lower arch ones only. Gill rakers reach the second raker below or beyond when appressed, with large tubercles or branches on the inner surface in 2 rows alternating left and right. Lateral line scales 32-43. A pelvic axillary scale is present. Scales have a subcentral anterior, almost central, focus, numerous fine circuli and many radii on all fields with the exposed part of the scale tubercular. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,4-4,3,2 in the literature, but see below, anterior teeth rounded, the most anterior one small and blunt, posterior ones spatulate with hooked tips. Total vertebrae 44-47 (Howes, 1987), 43-45 (Jawad, 1975) or 47(8), 48(7), 49(5) or 50(1) in fish seen by me (BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1283-1284, 1299-1315, 1317, 1323; 1920.3.3:1-18, 1874.4.28:24-6).
Ali et al. (1981) found differences in morphology for fish from Al-Therthar Reservoir and the Tigris River in Iraq, not by locality but by habitat type.
Iranian specimens have the following meristic data: dorsal fin branched rays 7(1), 8(20) or 9(1); anal fin branched rays 5(22); pectoral fin branched rays 15(2), 16(15), 17(4) or 18(1), and pelvic fin branched rays 7(1) or 8(21). Lateral line scales 32(4), 33(4), 34(4), 35(3), 36(3) or 37(3). Total gill rakers 16(4), 17(2), 18(3), 19(6), 20(4) or 21(2), with some evidence of higher counts in larger fish. Pharyngeal teeth usually 2,3,5-5,3,2(14) with variants 2,3,5-4,3,2(2), 2,3,4-5,3,2(2), 2,2,5-5,3,2(1) and 1,2,5-4,3,2(1), in contrast to literature reports of 4 main row teeth being typical.
Sexual dimorphism
Ali et al. (1981) found no sexual dimorphism in their Iraqi samples.
Colour
Overall colour has a pale rose to light orange effect, usually without other markings. The back is a dark olive-brown to blackish-green with the flanks pale rose, light orange to yellowish to silvery and belly silvery to milk-white. There may be an indistinct stripe along the mid-flank. Large fish have the upper flank darkened from the overall orange colour of the mid-flank and the lower flank scales are rimmed in white so they stand out. Lips are pale red. The operculum is golden. The pectoral, pelvic, anal and caudal fins are bright orange or pink at the base (perhaps white after preservation), distally blackish. Pectoral and pelvic fins may be dark overall with a reddish to reddish-brown tinge, and the leading edge of the pelvic fin pink. The anal fin may be a bluish-black distally. In some fish the caudal fin is black proximally and reddish distally. In large fish the pectoral, pelvic, anal and caudal are progressively darker in this order. The anal and pelvic fins, the pectoral fins less so, may be heavily pigmented with melanophores on rays and membranes so as to appear black in preserved fish. The dorsal fin is hyaline. The eye rim is yellow-green to lime-green. Young fish may have some scales darkened, giving a mottled effect and are more silvery on the flank than large fish. Their pectoral and pelvic fins are more orange and the anal and caudal fins are only slightly tinged with colour. The caudal fin carries a lot of grey. The smallest fish have a very faint fin colouration. Peritoneum black.
Size
Attains 96.0 cm and 9.7 kg in Dukan Reservoir, Iraq and 96.0 cm and 11.0 kg in Atatürk Dam Lake on the Euphrates River in Turkey (Al-Hakim et al., 1981; Oymak et al., 2008). Gruvel (1931) cited 1.5 m and 30 kg for Syria. Banister (1980) gives nearly 2 m and 100 kg but this may be confusion with B. esocinus although Krupp (1992) also cites almost 2 m. Reputedly reaches 60 kg in Lorestan (S. Nazeeri, pers. comm., 2000) and Ghofleh Marammazi (2004) found fish up to 20 kg in Khuzestan. Specimens reach 3 kg even in the small canals of the sugar-cane fields of Khuzestan.
Distribution
This species is found in the Tigris-Euphrates basin and the Orontes River basin. In Iran it is found in the Tigris River basin up to the Simarreh including marshes such as the Hawr Al Azim, in the Gulf basin in the Zohreh, Shapur, Helleh, Dalaki, Dasht-e Palang, Shur, Dozgah and Mand rivers and Lake Famur (= Perishan), although rare in the latter, and in the Hormozgan basin in the Hasan Langi and Kul rivers (Berg, 1949; Gh. Izadpanahi, pers. comm., 1995; Marammazi, 1995; M. Rabbaniha, pers. comm., 1995; Maafi, 1996b; H. R. Alizadeh, pers comm., 2000; Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
Karaman (1971) considers this species to have an Indian line of descent, placing it in the genus Tor which most subsequent authors restrict to the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia.
Habitat
van den Eelaart (1954) and Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) describe the habitat for this species in the Tigris River as distributed throughout the river and its tributaries. It is a strong swimmer. Mature fish move upstream to the spawning grounds and spent fish descend to their original habitat. In summer under low water level conditions and high temperatures, the smaller fish remain in the lower reaches of rivers but the larger fish migrate up rivers and tributaries, returning in September and October when temperatures fall. This species may enter marshes on floods, favouring areas where there is fresh river water, but returns to rivers as it requires a higher oxygen concentration than most marsh residents. Heydarpour (1978) gives a temperature range of 9-31ºC for this species under culture conditions in Khuzestan.
Marammazi (1994) considers this species to be versatile in its habitats in the Zohreh River which drains to the northern Persian Gulf. It was found throughout the river in contrast to Barbus sharpeyi which, being stenohaline, was restricted in its distribution. The form with a well-developed median lobe is said to occur in rocky habitats. This species is considered to be the dominant fish in the Karun and Zohreh rivers (Annual Report, 1994-1995, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 48, 1996; Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization Newsletter, 17:1, 1997). Ghofleh Marammazi (2004) found it in almost all water bodies in Khuzestan where it occurred under a wide range of temperatures and salinities. However its presence on the Khuzestan plain was for feeding while for reproduction it required more northerly areas with sandy or gravel substrates, high water flow, low temperatures and high oxygen content (Ghofleh Marammazi, 2000). Ramin (2009) records this species as the most abundant in the Karkheh River out of 37 species and subspecies.
Age and growth
Al-Hakim et al. (1976) studied some aspects of the biology of this species in Razzaza Lake, Iraq. Males are longer than females before maturation and shorter thereafter. Females reach 13 years and males 8 years of age and fish mature at 45-48 cm total length in their fifth year. Males mature earlier than females. Ali et al. (1981) found this species to mature at 3-5 years of age and 40-50 cm in the Al-Therthar Reservoir (about 65 km northwest of Baghdad) and the Tigris River (Kut Dam) in Iraq. Jiad et al. (1984) studied this species in the Al-Hindiya Dam in Iraq and found similar results to the studies cited above.
Al-Hakim et al. (1981) studied this species in the Dukan Reservoir, west of Sulaimaniyah, Iraq. Life span is 17 years for females and 11 years for males. Growth slows with age, and especially after maturity, and is fastest in the first year of life. 30% of males mature at age group 3 (39 cm) and all were mature at age group 6 (48 cm). Al-Hamed (1966a; 1966b; 1972) working with Tigris River populations in Iraq, found males to mature at about 45 cm and females at about 50 cm, with most fish mature in their fourth year and spawning at the beginning of their fifth year of life. Some fish mature in age group 3 and some as late as age group 5. Maximum age observed was 12 years. Males outnumber females, being two thirds of the fish on the spawning grounds. Al-Hakim et al. (1981) found all females are mature at 51 cm (age group 7) but only 10% at 42 cm. Males mature earlier than females and may grow faster and die younger.
Ali et al. (1981) found growth to be better in fish from Al-Therthar Reservoir compared to those from the Tigris River in Iraq. The fishing methods used, both commercially and experimentally, caught mature fish of 40-50 cm and 3-5 years of age.
Oymak et al. (2008) examined age and growth in the Atatürk Dam Lake on the Euphrates River in Turkey. Fourteen age classes were found with age classes 4-6 for females and 2-4 for males dominant. von Bertalanffy growth equations were given for males and females.
Growth in a polluted section of the Diyala River, Iraq is poor compared to other populations (Khalaf et al., 1984; Khalaf et al., 1985).
Food
Al-Hamed (1965) found this species to be a herbivore taking filamentous algae and higher plant parts. Incidental food items taken while feeding on plants include fish tissue and scales. Fallen ripe fruits from trees overhanging the water are also consumed as are cereal grains from loading docks. It may also take some small fishes. Iranian specimens contain filamentous algae, plant fragments and associated invertebrates. Ghofleh Marammazi (2000) considers it to be an omnivore.
Reproduction
In Dukan Reservoir, Iraq spawning takes place from the beginning of May until the end of June. van den Eelaart (1954) and Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) studied the reproduction of this species in Iraq. Eggs are deposited on fine gravels overlying a layer of coarse sand in shallow, wide holes. Water depth varies from 30 to 150 cm. Egg diameter is 1.5 mm and fecundity up to 147,000. The spawning season on the Tigris River between Beled and Tigrit is late May to late June after an upriver migration in April. Fish appear on the spawning grounds in schools just before dark and remain there until shortly before midnight, making loud noises by splashing, jumping and chasing. After spawning, the fish return downriver but do not enter marshes as these are now too warm. Oymak et al. (2008) examined reproduction in the Atatürk Dam Lake on the Euphrates River in Turkey and found a sex ratio of 1:1.34 (females/males), with a spawning period in May to July, a fecundity up to 235,764 eggs and a mean egg diameter of 2.183 mm.
Its presence in areas of the Khuzestan plain is mainly for feeding while reproduction occurs in the northern parts of this province where there are sandy and gravel substrates, fast current, low temperatures and high oxygen content (Ghofleh Marammazi, 2004).
Parasites and predators
Bykhovski (1949) report a new species of monogenetic trematode, Dactylogyrus pavlovskyi, from this species in the Karkheh River, Iran. Molnár and Jalali (1992) describe a new species of monogenean, Dogielius persicus, from this species in the Dez and Karun rivers of Khuzestan. Masoumian et al. (1994) describe two new species of Myxosporea from the gills of this species in the Karun River, Khuzestan, namely Myxobolus karuni and Myxobolus persicus. Molnár et al. (1996) report additional new species from this fish in Khuzestan, namely Myxobolus iranicus in the spleen and Myxobolus mesopotamiae in connective tissue of the caudal and pectoral fins. The latter myxosporean is also reported from Barbus rajanorum as is a new species Myxobolus shadgani infecting the gills - the identity of the host fish is unknown as Barbus rajanorum is not a distinct species (see under Barbus pectoralis). Myxosporeans are potentially dangerous to fishes such as Barbus grypus which may be used in fish culture in Khuzestan.
The monogeneans Dactylogyrus povlovskyi, D. barbioides, Dogielius persicus, Gyrodactylus sprostonae and Paradiplozoon sp. are recorded from this species in the Karun River with heavier infestations in spring and summer than in autumn and winter. These gill parasites caused no serious injuries but were thought to be important in respect of monitoring infestation levels on fish farms in Khuzestan (www.avz1.8m.com/fulltext.htm, downloaded 28 October 2002).
Ebrahimzadeh and Nabawi (1975) list a nematode species Philometra and Ascaridae from this species in the Karun River. Ebrahimzadeh and Kailani (1976) record parasites in the genera Myxosoma (protozoan) and Isoglaridacris (cestode) and also a nematode from Barbus grypus taken in the Karun River.
Masoumian and Pazooki (1999) list Myxobolus persicus, M. karuni, M. mesopotamiae and M. iranicus from this species in various localities in Khuzestan. Moghainemi and Abbasi (1992) record a wide range of parasites from this species in the Hawr al-Azim in Khuzestan. Farahnak et al. (2002) record Contracaecum sp. and Anisakis sp. from this fish in Khuzestan Province.
Papahn et al. (2004) record the monogeneans Dactylogyrus pavlovskyi, D. barbioides, Dogielius persicus, Gyrodactylus sprostonae and Paradiplozoon sp. from this species in the Karun River at Ahvaz, the latter two being first records for the host in Iran.
Economic importance
An important food fish, comprising 23% of the total fish production in Iraq for example and forming the most important commercial fish there (Al-Hakim et al., 1981). Petr (1987) reports the catch for all Iraq in 1976 as 519 t. The weight at the Basrah fish market from October 1975 to June 1977 was only 3,330 kg however (Sharma, 1980) and Khalaf et al. (1984) rank it third in the inland wholesale trade of Iraq for the period 1967-1970.
This species is the preferred catch of anglers at Ahvaz in Khuzestan, with bread or potato as bait. There is a good demand for this species in local markets of Khuzestan (Ghofleh Marammazi, 2004).
Petr (1987) has suggested that this species be investigated for fish farming in Khuzestan. The Khuzestan Fisheries Research Centre at Ahvaz has experimented with this species in pond culture (Emadi, 1993a; Annual Report, 1994-1995, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 6, 1996).
Conservation
The stock of this species in the Gav Masiab River is severely reduced and only 3 fish were caught in western Iran in the Zagros rivers during a 4-year survey (J. Valiallahi, www.modares.ac.ir, downloaded 4 July 2000; pers. comm., 2001). Shirbot were considered to be on the verge of extinction in the Gav Masiab River of the Tigris River basin, through pollution, overfishing, dam building, aquaculture, and introduction of exotics (IranMania.com, 29 December 2006). Probably in decline in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
The biology of this species in Iran needs investigation as does its putative relationship to South Asian fishes in the genus Tor.
Sources
Type material: See above, Barbus grypus (NMW 54161) and Labeobarbus kotschyi (NMW 49729).
Iranian material: CMNFI 1979-0155, 1, 42.8 mm standard length, Fars, spring at Gavanoo (28º47'N, 54º22'E); CMNFI 1979-0291, 1, 31.4 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Diyala River drainage (34º24'N, 45º37'E); CMNFI 1979-0356, 5, 22.5-40.7 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Karkheh River drainage at Hoveyzeh (31º27'N, 48º04'E); CMNFI 1979-0360, 1, 375.5 mm standard length, Khuzestan, canal branch of Karkheh River (31º40'N, 48º35'E); CMNFI 1979-0364, 1, 22.3 mm standard length, Khuzestan, river at Abdolkhan (31º52'30"N, 48º20'30"E); CMNFI 1979-0384, 2, 202.2-222.2 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Ab-e Shur drainage (32º00'N, 49º07'E); CMNFI 1979-0391, 1, 220.5 mm standard length, Khuzestan, stream in Marun River drainage (31º28'N, 49º51'E); CMNFI 1979-0392, 1, 62.4 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Zard River (ca. 31º32'N, ca. 49º48'E); CMNFI 1979-0395, 2, 32.7-38.0 mm standard length, Khuzestan, stream in Marun River drainage (ca. 30º57'N, ca. 49º51'E); CMNFI 1979-0402, 1, 80.7 mm standard length, Bushehr, Mand River 12 km north of Kaki (ca. 28º25'N, ca. 51º32'E); CMNFI 1991-0153, 1, 253.5 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Zohreh River (no other locality data); CMNFI 1993-0141, 1, 80.2 mm standard length, Bushehr, Dalaki River (29º28'N, 51º15'E); CMNFI 1995-009A, 4, Khuzestan, A'la River at Pol-e Tighen (31º23'30"N, 49º53'E); BM(NH) 1980.8.28:7, 1, 72.0 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Dezful (32º23'N, 48º24'E); ZMH 2508, 1, 343.3 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Karun River at Ahvaz (31º19'N, 48º42'E); ZSM 21864, 1, 157.7 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Dez River at Harmaleh (31º57'N, 48º34'E);
Comparative material:- BM(NH) 1874.4.28:24-26, 3, 231.2-254.7 mm standard length, Iraq, Tigris River at Baghdad (33º21'N, 44º25'E); BM(NH) 1920.3.3:1-18, 5, 104.8-196.0 mm standard length, ?; BM(NH) 1973.5.21:191, 1, 205.4 mm standard length, Iraq, Shatt-al-Arab; BM(NH) 1973.5.21:192, 1, 139.5 mm standard length, Iraq, Shatt-al-Arab; BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1283-1284; BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1299-1315, 9, 64.9-101.5 mm standard length, Iraq, branch of Khalis River (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1317, ?, Iraq, branch of Khalis River (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1323, 1, 160.1 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1328, 1, 161.9 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E); KU 10516, 1, 124.1 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E).
Barbus kersin
Heckel, 1843
Common names
برزم (= berzem).
[shissan, jassan, gassan, djissan, barsam or bunni, kersin at Aleppo, all in Arabic; kersin barbel].
Systematics
Karaman (1971) places this species as a synonym of his Barbus capito pectoralis. Almaça (1983) suggests that kersin may be only subspecifically distinct from Barbus pectoralis (q.v.) but later (Almaça, 1984b) retains it as a full species until further information becomes available. Krupp (1985c) also synonymises this species with Barbus pectoralis.
Syntypes of Barbus Kersin from "Aleppo", the type locality given by Heckel (1843b) or "Gewässern von Aleppo" (Heckel, 1846-1849a), are in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NMW 54212 and 54215) (Almaça, 1986). Krupp (1985c) lists the following syntypes of B. kersin all from Aleppo and collected by Th. Kotschy: 1 specimen, 141.2 mm standard length as measured by me (NMW 54212), 4, 89.1-135.1 mm standard length as measured by me (NMW 54213), 1, 166.0 mm standard length as measured by me (NMW 54215) and 1, 152 mm standard length (formerly NMW, now in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt as SMF 610). The card catalogue in 1997 listed NMW 54215 as "? lectotype" and NMW 54213 as "? paralectoptypes" (sic). Eschmeyer et al. (1996) list 1 syntype in the Museum für Naturkunde, Universität Humboldt, Berlin (ZMB 3237, formerly NMW). The catalogue in Vienna lists 6 specimens.
Key characters
This species differs from the similar B. pectoralis by the smaller scales and body depth being greater than head length (equal in pectoralis) (Berg, 1949). ?see BWC95-32 for a kersin after Valiallahi, its a dark Barbus without the very large D spine and a different colour pattern
Morphology
Dorsal fin unbranched rays 3-4, usually 4, branched rays 7-8, anal fin with 3 branched and 5-6, usually 5, unbranched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 17, pelvic fin rays 8. Lateral line scales 49-58. Gill rakers 19. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2. The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is strong (as in pectoralis)with a low density of coarse denticles extending over much of the ray. The mouth is moderate in size and subterminal. The highly rounded snout projects a little. Lips are thin to moderate but not fleshy and lack a median lobe. The upper lip is covered partly by the snout. Barbels are thin, the anterior barbel not extending back beyond the anterior eye margin and the posterior barbel not beyond the middle of the eye. Body depth is equal to or greater than head length in the types examined by me.
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
The body lacks distinctive markings and is olive to reddish-brown above, silvery on the flanks and white below. The dorsal and caudal fins have a blackish margin.
Size
Attains 70.1 cm total length (Menon, 1956). Reaches 2 m and over 100 kg (Khalaf, 1961).
Distribution
Found in the Tigris-Euphrates, Quwayq and Orontes River basins. In Iran, it is found in the Tigris River basin in the Karun and Karkheh rivers, and the northern Gulf basin in the Zohreh and Helleh rivers and questionably the southern Gulf basin (Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
Almaça (1984b, 1991) considers that the origin of this species lies with a group that migrated southwards in the late Pliocene from the Dacian Lake of the Sarmatian Sea and speciated in Mesopotamia.
Habitat
The main habitat of Iraqi fish is rivers, entering marshes and lakes during floods but returning to rivers in June (van den Eelaart, 1954).
Age and growth
Unknown.
Food
This species is said to eat a wide range of food items (Beckman, 1962).
Reproduction
Eggs are deposited on clay or gravel bottoms during mid-February to early March (van den Eelaart, 1954).
Parasites and predators
Gussev et al. (1993a) describe new species of monogeneans from this species in the Dez River, Khuzestan, namely Dactylogyrus deziensis, D. deziensioides and D. kersini. Ebrahimzadeh and Kailani (1976) record parasite species in the cestode genera Caryophyllaeus and Isoglaridacris and the protozoan Myxosoma from Barbus kersin taken in the Karun River.
Economic importance
None.
Conservation
Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007) but status in Iran unknown.
Further work
The biology of this species in Iran needs study and a molecular comparison with putative synonyms would be of value in clarifying distinctiveness.
Sources
Type material: See above, NMW 54212, NMW 54213 and NMW 54215.
Iranian material: None.
Comparative material: BM(NH)1974.2.22:1324, 186.2 mm standard length (); BM(NH)1920.3.3:41-50, 12(5 examined), 110.9-165.3 mm standard length (); BM(NH)1920.3.3:31-40, 10, 141.7-310.9 mm standard length ();
Barbus kosswigi
(Ladiges, 1960)
Common names
ابوحنج (abu henej or abu hanaj= father of the hook or spine; possibly abu hanash or abu henesh, father of the snake), shebeh shirbot.
[Kosswig's barbel].
Systematics
This species was described as Cyclocheilichthys kosswigi Ladiges, 1960 from the "Batman suyu" (the holotype is possibly a female, 162.7 mm, Turkey, Siirt Province, Batman suyu (the Batman stream enters the Tigris River at 37°47.30"N, 41°00'E near Batman), April 1939, C. Kosswig). The holotype is in the Zoologischen Instituts und Zoologischen Museums der Universität Hamburg (ZMH H1148). The genus Cyclocheilichthys Bleeker, 1860 is found only in Southeast Asia.
A new and monotypic genus, Kosswigobarbus, was erected for this species by Karaman (1971) but this was synonymised with Barbus by Coad (1982f). However Bănărescu (1997) and Ekmekçi and Banarescu (1998) consider Kosswigobarbus to be valid. Borkenhagen (2005) considers that kosswigi and sublimus should be placed in Barbus (Carasobarbus) or Carasobarbus, favouring treating Carasobarbus as a subgenus until Barbus is revised thoroughly. Karaman (1971) distinguished the genus on the basis of the fin ray characters, a well-developed rostral flap, numerous fine pores on the head, and a large lachrymal bone. These characters are found in other Barbus species in Southwest Asia and the whole complex of large-scaled Barbus requires a detailed revision (see also under Barbus luteus and B. sublimus).
The relationships of this species appear to lie with other Southwest Asian species in the catchall genus Barbus which possess a compressed body, large scales with counts of 38 or less in the lateral line, a smooth dorsal fin spine, 9 or more branched dorsal fin rays and 6 anal fin branched rays such as Barbus apoensis Banister and Clarke, 1977, B. exulatus Banister and Clarke, 1977 (both in Southwest Arabia), B. chantrei (Sauvage, 1882) and B. canis Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1842 (both from the Levant), B. luteus (Heckel, 1843) from the Tigris-Euphrates and neighbouring basins, and B. sublimus Coad and Najafpour, 1997 from Khuzestan in the Tigris-Euphrates basin of Iran. A systematic revision of these species and potential African, European and Asian relatives may demonstrate that generic distinctions are warranted. Kosswigobarbus would then encompass B. kosswigi and presumably B. sublimus. Borkenhagen (2005) regards these species as a monophyletic group characterised by 6 branched anal fin rays, smooth and ossified last unbranched dorsal fin ray, modally 10 branched dorsal fin rays, less than 40 scales in the lateral line, medium body size, large, round to shield-shaped scales with numerous parallel radii, pharyngeal teeth usually 2,3,5-5,3,2, gill rakers short, stout and slightly curved, and barbels short.
Key characters
This species is characterised by having two pairs of thin barbels, 6 branched anal fin rays, the last unbranched dorsal fin ray strong and sharp-edged but smooth, 9-11 branched dorsal fin rays, large scales (38 or less in the lateral line), and a deep and compressed body.
Morphology
The rostral flap shows variable development, sometimes overlapping the upper lip to become visible in ventral view and other times not so well developed. Lips are thick, continuous and fleshy and there is a large median lobe to the lower lip. The mouth is small, ventral and u-shaped. The dorsal fin origin lies over or slightly in advance of the pelvic fin origin. The dorsal fin margin is strongly concave and the last unbranched dorsal fin ray is a strong spine without teeth. The caudal fin is deeply forked. The anal fin is long and may overlap the caudal fin base.
Scales are regularly arranged over the body. A low sheath of scales is found at the base of the anal and dorsal fins, being most evident anteriorly, and enclosing the anal papilla. There is a pelvic axillary scale. Anterior scale radii are few (5-11 in five scales from one specimen 126.6 mm SL) while posterior radii are numerous (35-40). There is a scaled keel or ridge before the dorsal fin as the back narrows dorsally. Pharyngeal tooth formulae 2,3,5-5,3,2, 2,3,5-4,3,2, 2,3,4-5,3,2 and 2,3,4-4,3,2. The teeth are quite small even in the largest specimens. Teeth are hooked at the tip and strongly recurved there, teeth are conical and have a small, concave to irregular or even rounded grinding surface below the tip. The fifth and most anterior tooth in the main row is small to minute in most fish and may be absent but this is not size related as both large and small specimens have or lack this tooth. The gut is elongate and coiled.
Meristic data from Iranian and other Tigris-Euphrates specimens: dorsal fin branched rays 9(5), 10(34), 11(1), mean 9.9 after 4 unbranched rays; anal fin branched rays 6(40) (not 7 as in the original description) after 3 unbranched rays; pectoral fin branched rays 15(2), 16(6), 17(4), 16.1; and pelvic fin branched rays 7(1), 8(11). Lateral line scales 29(1), 31(2), 32(1), 33(2), 34(6), 35(3), 36(1), 37(1), 38(1), 41(1) mean 34.2 (Kuru's (1975) range is 32-36); scales above the lateral line 6(7), 7(10), 8(1), mean 6.7; scales below the lateral line 5(5), 6(13), mean 5.7; scales between lateral line and pelvic fin 4(11), 5(1), mean 4.1; predorsal scale rows 11(1), 12(2), 13(5), 14(3), 15(1), mean 13.1; and caudal peduncle scales 13(2), 14(2), 15(6), 16(2), mean 14.7. Total gill rakers 10(2), 11(2), 12(3), 13(3), 14(1), mean 11.9. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(4), 2,3,4-4,3,2(3) or 2,3,4-5,3,2(1). Total vertebrae 39(5), 40(4), mean 39.4.
Caudal peduncle length in head length 1.2-1.3, mean 1.3; caudal peduncle depth in caudal peduncle length 1.5-1.7, mean 1.6; pelvic fin length in standard length 4.6-5.4, mean 5.0; pelvic fin length in pelvic fin origin to anal fin origin distance 1.2-1.6, mean 1.3; dorsal fin spine length in head length 0.8-0.9, mean 0.9; and longest dorsal fin ray in head length 0.9-1.0, mean 0.9.
Sexual dimorphism
Sample sizes are too small to investigate accurately.
Colour
Upper flank scales are outlined by pigment, most evidently anteriorly on each scale. Fins are lightly pigmented with scattered melanophores on both rays and membranes with some concentration on dorsal fin membranes although the extent varies individually. The peritoneum is black.
Size
Reaches 19.4 cm total length (the holotype).
Distribution
Found in the Tigris-Euphrates basin of Turkey and Iran (Coad, 1982f; Coad and Najafpoiur, 1997; Abdoli, 2000). It may also occur in the Zohreh River (Gh. Izadi, pers. comm., 2001).
Zoogeography
Karaman (1971) considers that the closest relatives of this species are to be found in the Indo-Malayan region.
Habitat
This species is found in large rivers in Iran which, however, in mid-summer are more stream-like in water flow. Collections are from the plains of Khuzestan and from altitudes in excess of 1600 m in the Zagros Mountains. Temperatures in early July range from 21 to 23°C. One locality was polluted and others were cloudy or muddy. The river beds are composed of stones.
Age and growth
Unknown.
Food
The elongate gut and black peritoneum suggest a plant component to the diet but examination of two gut contents reveal insect remains including chironomid larvae.
Reproduction
Unknown.
Parasites and predators
Sohrabi and Jalali (2002) report the nematode Schulmanella petruchewskii from the liver of this species caught in the Dez River.
Economic importance
This species is too rare in Iran to be of any economic importance.
Conservation
Recommendations are difficult to make since the ecological requirements of this species are unknown. It appears to be rare but this may only be inadequate sampling techniques. Further collections in addition to the holotype have been made in southern Anatolian Turkey (Kuru, 1978-1979) but it does not seem to be common. Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
Intensive field work utilising a wide variety of techniques should be directed to determining the abundance and distribution of this species. An adequate material base would then enable ecological studies to be carried out and conservation measures determined.
Sources
Some counts from Kuru (1975) on Turkish material.
Type material: See above, Cyclocheilichthys kosswigi (ZMH H1148).
Iranian material: CMNFI 1979-0275, 1, 126.6 mm standard length, Lorestan, Kashkan River drainage (33º25'N, 47º58'E); CMNFI 1979-0277, 1, 116.5 mm standard length, Lorestan, Kashkan River drainage (33º30'N, 47º59'E); CMNFI 1979-0289, 1, 103.5 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Diyala River drainage (34º28'N, 45º52'E); CMNFI 1979-0290, 2, 120.1-122.1 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Diyala River drainage (34º31'N, 45º35'E); CMNFI 1979-0368, ?, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, Karkheh River (32º24'30"N, 48º09'E); uncatalogued, 1, 173.3 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Karkheh River near Shush (no other locality data); uncatalogued, 3, 140.1-179.0 mm standard length, Khuzestan (no other locality data); uncatalogued, 1, 160.0 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Karun River basin near Izeh (no other locality data).
Comparative material: BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1281, 1, 31.2 mm standard length, Iraq, Al Hadithah (34º07'N, 42º23'E); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1292-1296, 4, 35.5-98.5 mm standard length, Iraq, Al Hadithah (34º07'N, 42º23'E).
Barbus lacerta
Heckel, 1843
Above photographs courtesy of Atabak Mahjoor Azad
Common names
blizem, bellizem, سس ماهي (= sos or sas mahi), زرده پر (= zardehpar), orenge, sos mahi Kura.
[Kur sirbiti in Azerbaijan; murtsa, murza, muruza, muruz in Transcaucasia generally; mursa in Armenia; shabout moraqqat in Arabic in Iraq; karrid or karad achmar (red frill or shag, probably from the colour and the long barbels) and karrid asrak (= blue shaggy one) according to Heckel (1843b) in Arabic in Aleppo; Kurinskii usach or Kura barbel in Russian].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species in Barbus sensu stricto. Karaman (1971) assigns many taxa as subspecies of Barbus plebejus Bonaparte, 1832 (dated correctly 1839 in Eschmeyer et al. (1996), see Bianco (1995a) for details), found throughout Europe and Southwest Asia. Bianco (1995a) considers that Barbus plebejus is restricted to Adriatic drainages of Italy and Croatia. Valiallahi (2006) considers B. plebejus to be present in Iran and distinct from B. lacerta based mainly on body shape, the relative head length, the body depth and the fourth dorsal fin ray. Barbus plebejus kosswigi Karaman, 1971 is described as new from the "Oberer Teil des Tigris-Systems" and "Hamam suyu, Beytusebab-Hakkari" (upper Tigris River basin in Turkey). Almaça (1991) considers it an ecophenotype of his Barbus plebejus scincus since two subspecies of the same species cannot live in the same river basin. Barbus plebejus kosswigi is a secondary homonym of Cyclocheilichthys (= Barbus) kosswigi according to Kottelat (1997).
Barbus plebejus ciscaucasicus Kessler, 1877 is from the western drainages of the Caspian Sea south to Dagestan but only Barbus plebejus lacerta Heckel, 1843 is found in Iran. It is recognised here as a full species since its relationships to European and other taxa cannot be determined on material available for this study. Bianco and Banarescu (1982) place specimens from the Aras River near Maku, which are probably this species, in Barbus cyclolepis cyri De Filippi, 1865.
Almaça (1981; 1983; 1984a; 1984b, 1986) gives lacerta specific status, distinguishing it from Barbus plebejus by the strong denticulations on the last dorsal fin unbranched ray, lower denticle density, number of scales in transverse rows, shorter head and pectoral fin, longer snout, lower body, the decrease in height of the branched dorsal fin rays is gradual and the profile of the fin is straight, unusual in Barbus with a strongly denticulated dorsal spine. Almaça recognises two subspecies from Iranian drainages:- lacerta from the Tigris-Euphrates basin (and Aleppo) and cyri from the southern Caspian Sea basin. Berg (1948-1949) also refers Caspian Sea basin specimens to Barbus lacerta cyri but in Berg (1949) has cyri from the Tigris River basin too. Saadati (1977) suggests that Lake Orumiyeh basin Barbus lacerta are a distinct subspecies based on higher scale counts there (72-89) than in the Caspian Sea basin. However, B. lacerta as recognised has a wide range in scale counts (see below) and counting methods can differ to include or not supernumerary scales in the lateral line and small scales at the caudal fin base. Fishes resembling B. lacerta from the Namak Lake basin have higher scale counts than Caspian Sea specimens although sample size is too small for a definitive study. Berg (1948-1949) notes that his B. lacerta cyri is subject to extremely wide variations in such characters as body depth, fin and barbel lengths, dorsal spine denticle numbers (even absent in some very large fish) and lateral line scale counts, among others. A large series of specimens would be needed to resolve these problems, allowing for size and sexual variation, new character discoveries and consistent methodologies. Molecular studies might be helpful.
Barbus Lacerta was described from the "Flüssen Kueik bei Aleppo" (Heckel, 1843b).
The following species are synonyms. Barbus Scincus Heckel, 1843 described from "Aleppo" and later from the "Flusse Kueik bei Aleppo" in Heckel (1846-1849a), Barbus cyri De Filippi, 1865 described from the "Kur presso Tiflis" (= Kura River near Tbilisi, Georgia) (including Barbus cyri var. tiflissica Kamenskii, 1899 described from the "Kura bei Tiflis" and Barbus cyri var. chaldanica Kamenskii, 1899 described from the "Andshigan-tschai unweit Chaldan"), Barbus caucasicus Kessler, 1877 from the Kura and Araks rivers and tributaries, Azerbaijan, Barbus toporovanicus Kamenskii, 1899 described from the "Toporavan See" (= Lake Paravani or Taparavani at 41°26'N, 43°48'E, in the upper Kura River basin of Georgia), bortschalinicus Kamenskii, 1899 described from the "schwarze Flüsschen (Das schwarze Flüsschen fällt in die Bortschala, rechter Zufluss des Chram, Nebenfluss der Kura)(tschernaja rjetschka)", Georgia, Barbus sursunicus Kamenskii, 1899 described from "Sursuna in dem Flüsscheu (sic) Kara-tschai, Nebenfluss der Kura, oder ihrem Zuflusse, erbeutet in einer Höhe von ca 3200', zwischen den Seen Tschaldyr-göll und Tuman-göll, dass kleinere aus dem Flüsschen Abastuman-tschai" (Azerbaijan; later in the same article this species is spelt zurzunicus), Barbus armenicus Kamenskii, 1899 described from the "See Tschaldyr-göll, 6522' und den Kars-tschai" (Sildir Gölü and the Kars-chai, Turkey), and Barbus angustatus Kamenskii, 1899 described from the "Kura, bei Borshom". Barbus toporovanicus first appeared in Kamenskii (1887) as a variety of Capoeta fundulus (see Capoeta capoeta). Type localities from Kamenskii (1899) are, obviously, taken from the German text; there is also an accompanying and preceding Russian text with localities in Latin and Russian which are very similar, although in some cases abbreviated.
Heckel (1843), the original describer, recognised Barbus scincus as close to his Barbus lacerta but with a shorter head, sharply decurved forehead, small mouth, and small eyes, all characters not easily quantified without detailed analysis. Berg (1949) placed it in the synonymy of lacerta. Berg's view is followed here; others are described by Almaça (1983; 1984a, 1986) who favours placing scincus as a subspecies of Barbus plebejus as noted above.
The problem with the conclusions above remains, as pointed out earlier, the lack of new material.
Four syntypes of Barbus lacerta are in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NMW 54227), 1 syntype is in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt (SMF 3471, formerly NMW), and 1 syntype is in the Museum für Naturkunde, Universität Humboldt, Berlin (ZMB 3236, formerly NMW, 110.3 mm standard length, examined February 2006; F. Krupp, pers. comm., 1985; Eschmeyer et al., 1996; Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). The Vienna card catalogue in 1997 lists one of NMW 54227 as the lectotype. The Vienna catalogue lists 6 specimens. Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) designates 54227-1, 181.6 mm standard length, as the lectotype.
Syntypes of Barbus scincus from "Aleppo", the type locality in Heckel (1843b), are reported in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien by Almaça (1986) and were also examined by me (NMW 22272, 2 specimens, 97.6-146.7 mm standard length, in poor condition and NMW 54526, 1 specimen, 158.8 mm standard length, designated as a lectotype by F. Krupp, 31 October 1984). Eschmeyer et al. (1996) also list NMW 54525 as a syntype and this fish measured 124.2 mm standard length and had been dried at some point before it was examined by me. The Vienna catalogue lists 4 specimens and the card catalogue in 1997 lists these 4 fish with NMW 54526 as "? lectotype" (sic).
Tortonese (1940) and Eschmeyer et al. (1996) list the holotype of Barbus cyri as in the Istituto e Museo di Zoologia della R. Università di Torino (MZUT N.690).
The lectotype of Barbus armenicus, as established by Berg (1948-1949:Fig. 451), is in the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg under ZISP 5198 with 3 paralectotypes (Eschmeyer et al., 1996).
The lectotype of Barbus sursunicus is in the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg under ZISP 14740 as established in Berg (1948-1949:fig. 451).
Abdurakhmanov (1962) compares fish from the Aras and Kura river basins and the Lenkoranchai. Lenkoran fish have fewer scales, longer head length and depth, greater maximum body depth, greater anal fin height, longer pelvic and ventral fins, a longer lower caudal fin lobe, a shorter caudal peduncle length, a smaller eye, and a shorter interorbital width than Kura and Aras fish; Lenkoran fish have a longer predorsal distance, greater caudal peduncle depth, and greater dorsal fin height than Kura fish though Aras fish are the same; Lenkoran fish have the dorsal fin base and postorbital distance less than in Aras, but not Kura, fish. No taxonomic distinction is made for these variations.
Key characters
The spotting on the body is characteristic.
Morphology
The mouth is moderate in size, with moderate to thick tuberculate lips. The median lobe of the lower lip is not developed, being small to absent; however the lip does have a central area which is thicker and distinct from the lips laterally in small fish. Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) gives illustrations of lower lip development and variations in head shape. Males were thought to have a straight head profile while in females the profile falls steeply in front of the nostrils but Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) found some males with a hump on the snout. Morphology is quite variable. Barbels are thick, the anterior one not extending past the nostril level and the posterior one reaching or exceeding the preopercle level.
Dorsal fin with 3-5, usually 4-5, unbranched rays followed by 7-9, usually 8, branched rays, anal fin with 3 unbranched rays followed by 4-6, usually 5, branched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 13-19 and pelvic fin branched rays 7-8. Lateral line scales 49-87. Scales are a horizontal oval to rectangular in shape with the anterior margin bearing a central protuberance, and sometimes a wavy form. Radii are numerous on all scale fields around a subcentral anterior focus with few to moderate numbers of circuli (as scales are small). Scales may be irregularly arranged on the flank because of their small size giving different counts depending on whether smaller scales are included in the lateral line count. There is a pelvic axillary scale. Gill rakers 5-13, short and just reaching the one adjacent when appressed. Rakers may not develop on the anterior arch giving a wide range in counts. Vertebrae 39-45. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2 with variants 2,3,5-5,3,1, 1,3,5-5,3,2, 1,3,5-5,3,1, 2,3,4-5,3,2, 2,3,5-4,4,2, 2,4,5-4,4,4 and even 1,2,3,5-5,3,2,1. The fourth inner row tooth is usually the largest, slightly larger, or slightly smaller in some, than the third. The fifth inner row tooth is blunt and other teeth are hooked or pointed. Teeth may be slightly serrated and there is a short concave surface below the hook. The last unbranched ray of the dorsal fin is moderately to strongly developed, varying between individuals and populations, with denticle density high (up to 65) along three-fifths to two-thirds of its length. Denticle extent appears to be quite variable. Denticles are proportionately larger in small fish. The tip of the last unbranched ray is thin and flexible. Denticles may be absent in large fish. The gut is elongate with about 2 anterior and 1 posterior loops.
Meristics in Iranian fish: dorsal fin branched rays 8(36); anal fin branched rays 5(36); pectoral fin branched rays 14(5), 15(7), 16(16) or 17(8); pelvic fin branched rays 7(8) or 8(28); lateral line scales 53(1), 55(1), 56(3), 59(3), 60(3), 63(3), 64(3), 65(2), 66(1), 67(1), 69(3), 70(1), 72(1), 74(2), 76(2), 79(1), 82(3), 85(1) or 87(1); total gill rakers 6(1), 7(9), 8(10), 9(7), 10(6), 11(1) or 13(1); pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(18), 1,3,5-5,3,1(1), 2,3,4-5,3,2(1) or 2,3,4-4,3,2(1); and total vertebrae ?.
Sexual dimorphism
Females have shorter barbels than males (Berg, 1948-1949) and females have longer anal and ventral fins (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Tubercle development in males caught on 25-26 June consists of minute tubercles thickly developed on the head top, sides and ventrally, lining the margin of anterior belly scales but also 1-2 tubercles in mid-scale, on anterior flank scales numbering 1-4 becoming 1 tubercle on more posterior scales although most mid-flank scales lack tubercles. Lower flank and lower caudal peduncle scales bear a tubercle. Back scales have a unique tuberculation consisting of a line rather than a rounded tubercle. The line lies centrally on the scale and extends from the margin part way along the exposed scale. Behind the dorsal fin the back scales have the central line and one on each side radiating back and up and back and down. Tubercles on the dorsal, caudal and anal fins are small and follow the fin branching. they are weak to absent on the pectoral and pelvic fins but are found on the first unbranched pectoral ray in two rows. Males are a dark gold dorsally and all fins slightly reddish with a gold iridescence when spawning (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Spawning females have reddish ventral and anal fins.
Colour
The overall colour is yellowish to olive-grey (possibly bluish according to Heckel (1846-1849a)) with numerous, regular dark-brown to black spots on the back, upper flank and dorsal and caudal fins or irregular mottling. The spots may form a stripe in young fish. In general appearance, fish may be quite light or almost blackish as pigmentation level varies individually. The back is olive-brown to light or reddish-brown and the flanks silvery to yellowish. The belly and lower head surface are white. The iris is dark to silvery with a narrow silver-golden ring. Barbels are white. The dorsal fin bears dark spots and extended lines of dark pigment on the rays and membranes. These are not clearly arranged as bars. The margin of the caudal fin is dark in some fish and there may be a band on mid-fin. The caudal fin is often speckled with dark spots which do not form clear bars. The pectoral fin has dark spots and there are odd dark spots on the pelvic and anal fins. The peritoneum is a light brown with dense but spaced melanophores.
Size
Reaches 37.5 cm and 460 g, possibly to 550 g.
Distribution
This species is found in the Tigris-Euphrates, Quwaiq and Caspian Sea basins as well as some internal basins of Iran. In Iran, it is recorded from the Caspian Sea basin in the Aras River and its tributary the Qareh Su, from the Astara to the Atrak rivers including the Anzali Mordab, the upper Safid River drainage in the Qezel Owzan and Shahrud, in the Lake Orumiyeh basin in the middle to upper Talkheh River, Nazlu Chai, Tatavi and Zarrineh rivers, the Tigris River basin, and the Esfahan basin (Dopolan River)(Günther, 1899; Laptev, 1934; Berg, 1949; Holčík and Oláh, 1992; Shamsi et al., 1997; Abbasi et al., 1999; Kiabi et al., 1999; Ghorbani Chafi, 2000; Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
Almaça (1991) considers that this species arose from the first wave of colonisers to enter West Asia from South Europe but is more recent in origin than such Barbus species as esocinus and xanthopterus originating from southwestern Siberia.
Habitat
This species is found in fresh waters and is not migratory. It avoids muddy bottoms and prefers sandy or stony substrates (Solak, 1977; Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). These habitats are rich in benthos, cool, with rapid currents and well-oxygenated; however it may congregate in slow waters where temperatures reach 26°C.
Age and growth
Solak (1989a) examined a population of this species in the Aras River in Turkey and found up to 5 age groups. Abdurakhmanov (1962) records 5 years as life span in Azerbaijan. Çalişkan et al. (1999) also found 5 age groups in Çıldır Lake, Turkey (for Barbus plebejus, probably this species). Fish in age group 2 dominated and the largest fish attained 320 mm and 550 g. Maturity is attained at 2 years for males and 3 years for females (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Food
Plant remains, crustaceans such as amphipods and insect remains such as chironomids and dragonfly larvae have been found in gut contents. Abdoli (2000) lists Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera and Chironomidae. Algae is also consumed (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Reproduction
Eggs number up to 19,680 and a diameter of 2.3 mm (Abdurakhmanov, 1962; Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Spawning may occur 2-3 times in a season judging by oocyte sizes in mature ovaries and occurs from the end of April to August, varying with locality, once temperatures reach 14°C, ceasing if the temperature exceeds 20°C (Bogutskaya in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Small Iranian specimens (130.7-157.7 mm standard length) have eggs of 1.0 mm diameter and 1.1 mm on 9 July and 11 May respectively. Larger eggs were noted in a fish caught on 9 July (1.7 mm). The spawning season is probably spring for large fish.
Parasites and predators
Molnár and Jalali (1992) record the monogeneans Dactylogyrus carpathicus and D. linstowi from Barbus plebejus, presumably this species, in the Safid Rud. Shamsi et al. (1997) report Clinostomum complanatum, a parasite causing laryngo-pharyngitis in humans, from Barbus barbus plebejus, presumably this species. Masoumian et al. (2003) record Myxobolus valdogeli while Pazooki et al. (2003) and Pazooki (2006) record Rhabdochona hellichi, Bothriocephalus gowkongensis, Pseudocapillaria tomentosa, Allocreadium isoporum and Paradiplozoon homoion, all reports from fishes captured in the Tajan and Zarem rivers of Mazandaran. Pazooki et al. (2005) record Trichodina perforata from this species in waterbodies of Zanjan Province. Pazooki et al. (2006) record the monogeneans Dactylogyrus goktschaicus and Gyrodactylus sp. from this fish in Zanjan Province.
Economic importance
Not commercially important although it does provide sport in mountain areas of the former U.S.S.R.
Conservation
Kiabi et al. (1999) consider this species to be near threatened in the south Caspian Sea basin according to IUCN criteria. Criteria include sport fishing, medium in numbers, habitat destruction, widespread range (75% of water bodies), present in other water bodies in Iran, and present outside the Caspian Sea basin. Mostafavi (2007) lists it as near threatened in the Talar River, Mazandaran. Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
The various populations of this species require more detailed study, especially with molecular methods, to determine their taxonomy.
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material: CMNFI 1970-0559, 9, 39.7-114.3 mm standard length, Azarbayjan- eBakhtari, Baranduz Chay (ca. 37º25'N, ca. 45º10'E); CMNFI 1979-0271, 2, ? mm standard length, Lorestan, Kashkan River drainage (33º39'N, 48º32'30"E); CMNFI 1979-0289, 1, 131.6 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Diyala River drainage (34º28'N, 45º52'E); CMNFI 1979-0449, 2, 85.7-92.2 mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Khavari, river 18 km from Khalkhal (ca. 37º42'N, ca. 48º27'E); CMNFI 1979-0452, ?, ? mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Khavari, Qezel Owzan River 6 km from Mianeh (37º23'N, 47º45'E); CMNFI 1979-0468, 7, 30.9-96.1 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Haraz River (36º14'N, 52º22'E); CMNFI 1979-0493, 3, ? mm standard length, Mazandaran, stream in Tajan River drainage (36º19'N, 53º23'E); CMNFI 1979-0557, ?, ? mm standard length, (); CMNFI 1979-0558, ?, ? mm standard length, (); CMNFI 1979-0559, ?, ? mm standard length, (); CMNFI 1979-0785, 2, 115.7-134.8 mm standard length, Aazrabayan-e Bakhtari, Shaher Chay (37º27'N, 34º55'E); CMNFI 1979-0786, 1, 84.1 mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Khavari, Guru Lake (37º55'N, 46º42'E); CMNFI 1993-0125, 1, 83.1 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Sarab-e Nilufar (34º24'N, 46º52'E); CMNFI 1993-0126, 2, 157.7 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Sarab-e Yavari (34º28'N, 46º56'E); CMNFI 1993-0128, 1, 130.7 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Sarab-e Sabz 'Ali Khan (34º25'N, 46º32'E); CMNFI 1993-0136, 1, ?105.5 or 108.2 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Sardabrud (36º39'42"N, 51º22'36"E); CMNFI 2007-0086, 1, 164.4 mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Khavari, Qareh Su basin near Nir (ca. 38º02'N, ca. 48º00'E); CMNFI 2007-0087, 2, ? mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Khavari, Qareh Su north of Ardebil (38º22'N, 48º19'E); CMNFI 2007-0088, 2, ? mm standard length, Azarabyjan-e Khavari, Qareh Su east of Lari (38º30'N, 48º03'E); CMNFI 2007-0093, 1, ? mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari, Qotur River south of Khvoy (38º30'N, 44º58'E); CMNFI 2007-0095, 4, 25.9-73.3 mm standard length, Azarbaijan-e Bakhtari, Shahr Chay southwest of Orumiyeh (ca. 37º27'N, ca. 44º56'E); CMNFI 2007-0096, 1, ? mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari, Qasemul River in Baranduz Chay basin (ca. 37º25'N, ca. 45º10'E); CMNFI 2007-0097, 1, ? mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari, Barunduz Chay basin south of Orumiyeh (ca. 37º16'N, ca. 45º08'E); CMNFI 2007-0098, 2, 193.1-227.4 mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari, river south of Mahabad (ca. 36º42'N, ca. 45º41'E); CMNFI 2007-0099, 2, 28.9-132.1 mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari, Kalwi Chay west of Mahabad (ca. 36º35'N, ca. 45º25'E); CMNFI 2007-0100, 1, ? mm standard length, Azarbayjan-e Bakhtari, Kalwi Chay near Piranshahr (ca. 36º44'N, ca. 45º10'E); CMNFI 2007-0103, 3, 43.6-63.7 mm standard length, Kordestan, Zarineh River basin north of Saqqez (ca. 36º18'N, ca. 46º16'E); CMNFI 2007-0104, 2, 54.6-71.2 mm standard length, Kordestan, Zarineh River basin south of Saqqez (ca. 36º12'N, ca. 46º18'E); CMNFI 2007-0105, 2, ? mm standard length, Kordestan, Zarineh River basin south of Saqqez (ca. 36º06'N, ca. 46º20'E); CMNFI 2007-0106, 1, 99.1 mm standard length, Kordestan, Qezel Owzan River basin near Divandarreh (ca. 35º52'N, ca. 47º05'E); CMNFI 2007-0107, 1, 64.6 mm standard length, Kordestan, Qezel Owzan River basin near Bijar (ca. 35º54'N, ca. 47º20'E); CMNFI 2007-0117, 1, ?66.4 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Gav Masiab basin near Sahneh (ca. 34º24'N, ca. 47º40'E); CMNFI 2007-0117, 1, ?67.2 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Gav Masiab near Sahneh (ca. 34º24'N, ca. 47º40'E); CMNFI 2007-0118, 1, ? mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Bid Sorkh River between Sangeh and Kangavar (ca. 34º23'N, ca. 47º52'E); USNM 205931 2, 93.0-115.4 mm standard length, Azarbaijan-e Bakhtari, Baranduz River south of Orumiyeh (37º25'N, 45º05'E); ZMH 2634, 1, 130.5 mm standard length, ?, Haraz River.
Comparative material: BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1326, 1, 113.8 mm standard length, ? (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1327-1328, 2, 121.0-129.9 mm standard length, ? (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1349-1350, 2, 63.1-83.0 mm standard length, ? (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1351, 1, 146.8 mm standard length, ().
Barbus luteus
(Heckel, 1843)
Common names
حمري (= hemri), himri; sangal or zangol (= blackish, used at Kermanshah, J. Valiallahi, pers. comm., 2001); lab matiki (= from lipstick by professional fishermen at Kermanshah in reference to red lips, from J. Valiallahi, pers. comm., 2001).
[himri, hamria, hamra, binni hamour, binni hamri, bunni himri, binni, binni shifatha, beni asphar (= yellow son), beni abjad (= white son), beni hamra (= red or yellow son), zuri or bartema, all in Arabic; golden barb, yellow barbel].
Systematics
Heckel (1843b) gives localities for the types of Systomus luteus as "Orontes", and "Tigris", and in the next sentence at "Aleppo" and "Mossul". Two syntypes were examined in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien under NMW 54250 (but see below). Krupp (1985c) records a 301 mm standard length syntype from Aleppo formerly in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, now in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt as SMF 6784. Eschmeyer et al. (1996) list the following syntypes: NMW 10827 (1 fish), NMW 54247 (2), NMW 54248 (1), NMW 54249 (1), NMW 54253 (2), NMW 54254 (3), NMW 54255 (2), NMW 54520 (2), NMW 80043 (2) and possibly 2 syntypes in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden (RMNH 2463, formerly NMW) as well as the syntype in Frankfurt. The catalogue in Vienna seems to list 5 specimens but this part of the catalogue is overwritten and difficult to interpret. The card index in 1997 lists NMW 53680a (1 fish, the lectotype), 53674 (1), 53675 (1) and 53676 (1) as the syntype series.
Systomus albus Heckel, 1843 from the "Tigris" and "Orontes" and Systomus albus var. alpina Heckel, 1849 are synonyms.
Systomus albus var. alpina was described from the "Flusse Kara-Agatsch und den Alpenseen Pire-San und Deria Kaserun" (= Qarah Aqaj River and Lake Famur, Fars; Pire-San being Parishan and Deria Kaserun being Lake Kazerun, both other names for Lake Famur) (Heckel, 1846-1849b). Krupp (1985c) records 4 syntypes of alpina from Shiraz (sic), Th. Kotschy as NMW 53679 (2 fish) and NMW 53681 (2). NMW 53678 (5 fish, 27.6-60.8 mm standard length), NMW 53679 (2 fish, 63.8-70.5 mm standard length), and NMW 53681 (2 fish, 79.6-93.3 mm standard length) are from the "Kara Agatsch bei Schiraz"; and NMW 53682 (2 fish, 201.7-203.7 mm standard length) are from the "Alpenseen Pire-san und Deria Kaserun": all are possibly syntypes of Systomus albus var. alpina although the catalogue in Vienna lists 5 fish under this name in one column and 4 fish in smaller writing in the adjacent column. The card index in 1997 lists syntypes under NMW 53678 (5), 53679 (2), 53681 (2) and 53682 (2, one of which is the lectotype). Eschmeyer et al. (1996) list 2 fish in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden (RMNH 2464) as possible former NMW types of this taxon.
A dried specimen of Systomus albus from Mosul collected by Th. Kotschy may be a syntype (NMW 59485). Eschmeyer et al. (1996) gives the syntypes of this species as NMW 53674 (1), NMW 53675 (1), NMW 53676 (1), NMW 53677 (1), NMW 53680 (1), NMW 91400 (1, dry) and SMF 812 (1), formerly NMW. Krupp (1985c) records the syntype of albus in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt under SMF 812 as being 84 mm standard length. The Vienna catalogue lists 4 fish under Systomus albus but the card index in 1997 lists the same NMW fish as Eschmeyer et al. (1996) as above with NMW 53680 as lectotype.
Barbus parieschanica Wossughi, Khoshzahmat and Etemadfar, 1982 is presumably also from Lake Famur or Parishan judging by the name and is a synonym (note that the species name is first spelt parschanica on page 23 in the abstract in Farsi and on page 44 in the English abstract but in the text species description (page 34) and in the table (page 37) it appears as parieschanica, and this is presumably the intended correct spelling). The species locality in the text is "Noorabad of Mamasany". ?
Saadati (1977) refers to a new and undescribed Cyprinion species from Lar in southern Iran but the fish are Barbus luteus.
Günther (1874) placed this species in Barynotus Günther, 1868, a genus with the type species from West Africa. Barynotus is preoccupied in Coleoptera and was replaced by Barbellion Whitley, 1931 (Eschmeyer, 1990). Most authors place the species in Barbus although Karaman (1971) erected a new genus for it, Carasobarbus; neither genus is accepted here and Krupp (1985c) also synonymises Carasobarbus with Barbus. Bănărescu (1997) and Ekmekçi and Banarescu (1998) recognise Carasobarbus as a valid genus however. A group of related species share characters with this species (see also under Barbus kosswigi). Barbellion and/or Carasobarbus may be the generic names for certain members of the group but a complete systematic revision is needed to place these conflicting opinions on a firm basis.
Key characters
This species is characterised by a low scale count, smooth last unbranched dorsal fin ray, one or two pairs of barbels, and 10 branched dorsal and 6 branched anal fin rays.
Morphology
Dorsal fin with 4 unbranched rays followed by 9-11, usually and modally 10, branched rays. The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is smooth, thickened, sharp-edged and spine-like. Anal fin with 3 unbranched rays followed by 5-7, usually and modally 6, branched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 13-17 and pelvic fin branched rays 7-9, usually 8. Lateral line scales 23-36. There is a pelvic axillary scale. There are moderate to many anterior field radii and many posterior field radii and occasionally few lateral radii. The focus is central to subcentral anterior, the anterior scale margin is wavy and the exposed part of the scale is coarse. The concealed part of the scale has numerous fine circuli. Total gill rakers 7-14, reaching the adjacent raker when appressed, sometimes forked at the tip and with spinules on the anterior side. Pharyngeal teeth usually 2,3,5-5,3,2, with the anterior 2-3 teeth rounded and heavier than the posterior teeth. Variants may have 2,3,4 or 1,3,5 (Borkenhagen, 2005). Posterior teeth are hooked at the tip and the grinding surface below the tip is irregular with a protuberant knob which may be striated. The gut is elongate with both posterior and anterior loops.
The mouth is terminal to subterminal and lips are weakly developed. There is one pair of short and thin barbels at the corner in most descriptions. Number and frequencies for 130 fish are 2 barbels (47 or 36.2%), 3 barbels with left anterior present (7 or 5.4%), 3 barbels with right anterior present (5 or 3.8%), or 4 barbels (71 or 54.6%). However, this sample is 112 fish or 86.2% from Fars and Hormozgan. Fish from these provinces, at such localities as the lower Mand River and the Sar Khun oasis north of Bandar Abbas consistently have a high frequency of 4 barbels (58.9%), and with 3 barbel counts included 68.8%, than fish from the Tigris River basin. Even the 18 fish from the Tigris River basin had 5 fish with 4 barbels so, at least in the eastern part of this species range, 4-barbelled fish are not rare.
Body form varies with habitat (Ali, 1982a), there being lake and river forms as with many other cyprinid species.
Iranian specimens have the following meristics: dorsal fin branched rays 9(7), 10(102) or 11(7); anal fin branched rays 5(3) or 6(114); pectoral fin branched rays 14(12), 15(44), 16(48) or 17(13); pelvic fin branched rays 7(9), 8(107) or 9(1); lateral line scales 23(2), 24(10), 25(20), 26(22), 27(28), 28(16), 29(14), 30(4) or 31(1); total gill rakers 8(6), 9(24), 10(40), 11(28), 12(12), 13(3) or 14(2); pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(19), 2,3,4-5,3,2(4) or 2,3,5-4,3,2(2); and total vertebrae 36(8), 37(53), 38(70), 39(25) or 40(1).
Sexual dimorphism
A 12.7 cm specimen from the Mand River has tubercles on the dorsal, anal, caudal, pectoral and pelvic fins, most strongly on the anal fin rays. Fine tubercles cover the top and sides of the head. A 20 cm fish from the same collection lacked tubercles. Another fish from the lower Mand River (128.5 mm standard length) also has fine tubercles on the upper flank scales as well as the head and fin rays. Ali (1982) reports no sexual dimorphism for Iraqi fish.
Colour
The back and upper flank is dark brown, greenish black or grey-green fading to a whitish or silvery belly all overlain by an orange to yellowish tinge. On the upper flank, scale bases are black-brown with a light blue-grey margin. There is a dark stripe along the mid-line of the back and a dark mid-lateral stripe. Fins are greyish to lime-green, reddish-yellow or orange, becoming blackish distally. The pectoral and pelvic fins tend to be more orange than the anal and caudal fins which are more a faint lime-green. The lips are orange. The eye rim is yellow-green. The peritoneum is black. Small fish have a collection of melanophores at the mid-base of the caudal fin forming a spot-like structure.
The fish described by Heckel (1846-1849b) as Systomus albus var. alpina were also painted live and had a lead-grey body, light brown at the head and reddish-white on the belly. Each scale was black-brown at the base and light blue-grey at the margin, particularly on the upper flank. All fins were blackish and the eyes orange-red.
Size
Attains 38 cm calculated maximum length and 501 g (Ahmed, 1982) or 750 g (Borkenhagen, 2005). Heckel (1843b) gives 17 Zoll for Systomus albus (= 44.8 cm).
Distribution
This species is found in the Orontes and Quwayq rivers and the Tigris-Euphrates basin. In Iran, it is found in the Tigris River basin including the Hawr Al Azim marsh, the Gulf basin including the Helleh, Dalaki, Shapur, Mand and Dasht-e Palang rivers and Lake Famur, the Lake Maharlu basin, the Hormozgan basin and the Kor River basin (Wossughi, 1978; Bianco and Banarescu, 1982; Gh. Izadpanahi, pers. comm., 1995; M. Rabbaniha, pers. comm., 1995; Abdoli, 2000). The record from the Kor River basin (Abdoli, 2000) needs confirmation with specimens.
Zoogeography
Karaman (1971) considers that the closest relatives of this species were to be found in India and southern Asia.
Habitat
van den Eelaart (1954) reports that this species in Iraq is a resident in still water and the slower sections of rivers and is the main fish in canals. In summer it goes to the deeper basins of marshes and remains in the shade of plants. It tolerates warm water but does not go into open waters. Al-Hassan and Muhsin (1986) record this species from the Khor al Zubair in southern Iraq where annual temperature range is 12-30°C and annual salinity change is 28-47‰. The fish appear unaffected by these conditions while Heteropneustes fossilis is moribund. Mohamed et al. (1993) report Barbus luteus from 2 km southward of Fao, Iraq in a pure marine habitat (temperature 13-35°C and salinity 30-47‰). The fish were caught in April which is the flood season.
Age and growth
Ahmed et al. (1984) studied the reproductive cycle of this species in the Hawr al Hammar in southern Iraq near Basrah. Maturity is attained at a minimum of 11.2 cm for females and 12.2 cm for males, at age 1+. The largest fish are 26.0 cm and age 6. Barak and Mohamed (1983) also found 6 age groups for fish from the Garma Marshes, Iraq. Ahmed (1982) studied a population in Tharthar Reservoir about 65 km northwest of Baghdad and found 7 age groups. This study has the fastest growth of Iraqi populations. Khalaf et al. (1988) worked on a population in a flooded gravel pit about 50 km north of Baghdad in Iraq and found fish up to age group 7+. Growth is greatest in the first year (67 mm) and averaged only 22.5 mm in the following years. Growth is slow in consequence of high salinity (3-6% (sic)) and poor food resources. Mohamed et al. (1993) report fish up to 7 years of age in a marine setting in Iraq, Epler et al. (1996) up to 5+ years in fresh and salty Iraqi lakes. Biro et al. (1988) found fish up to age group 8+ in the Diyala River, Iraq. Al Hazzaa and Hussein (2007) describe larval development and growth in the laboratory using fish from a Syrian hatchery. Gökçek and Akyurt (2008) found fish up to 9 years of age in the Turkish Orontes River and give growth parameters for this population. Esmaeili and Ebrahimi (2006) give a significant length-weight relationship based on 34 Iranian fish measuring 3.20-16.80 cm standard length. The a-value was 0.0232 and the b-value 3.036 (a b-value < 3 indicating a fish that becomes less rotund as length increases and a b-value >3 indicating a fish that becomes more rotund as length increases).
Food
Naama and Muhsen (1986) examined feeding periodicities in this species in the Hawr al Hammar, Iraq. Food is mainly detritus, aquatic plants and algae taken throughout the night and day. Barak and Mohamed (1982) studied food habits in the Garma Marshes, near Basrah, Iraq and found this fish to contain principally aquatic plants, the broken and fragmented leaves and stems of Vallisneria in particular. Diatoms and other algae as well as shrimps, chironomid larvae, gastropods and cladocerans are important foods. Invertebrates are about eight times more important in fish smaller than 30 cm than in larger fish. Plant parts are more important, almost twice as much, in larger fish than smaller. Mohamed et al. (1993) report plant remains to be dominant and fish eggs in lesser quantities in a marine setting in Iraq. Epler et al. (1996) found plants to dominate in fish from fresh and salty Iraqi lakes, although not to the same extent as in Barbus sharpeyi where 95.7-100% of the diet was plants. Tendipedids, worms, detritus and fish were also found in B. luteus.
Khoshzahmat et al. (1981) found that this species did not eat molluscs in Lake Perishan (= Famur), near Kazerun in Iran and assume its diet is aquatic plants.
Reproduction
Spawning in the Hawr al Hammar starts in April and after July no fish are found in a partially spent phase. Eggs are yellow to orange in colour and testes white. The eggs attain 1.86 mm in diameter and number up to 38,433 for the oldest fish. Bhatti and Al-Daham (1978) and Al-Daham and Bhatti (1979) report a spawning season of May-July (peak June-July) for a lower Euphrates River, Iraq population, perhaps as a result of cooler temperatures outside the shallow marshes where warmer temperatures cause an earlier development of gonads. Epler et al. (1996) report spawning in June/July in freshwater Iraqi lakes, earlier in a saline lake. Iranian fish have well-developed eggs in May.
Parasites and predators
Bykhovski (1949) reports a new species of monogenetic trematode, Dactylogyrus persis, from this species in the Karkheh River, Iran. Ebrahimzadeh and Nabawi (1975) list species in the nematode genus Philometra, the protozoan genera Myxosoma and Trypanosoma, the trematode genera Dactylogyrus and Gyrodactylus and the nematode species Camallanus lacustris as well as various unidentified cestodes, trematodes, acanthocephalans and hookworms, from this species in the Karun River. Jalali and Molnár (1990a) records two monogenean species, Dactylogyrus spp., from this species in the Dez River. Molnár and Jalali (1992) describe a new species of monogenean, Dogielius persicus, from this species in the Dez and Karun rivers of Khuzestan. Gussev et al. (1993b) describe a new species, Dactylogyrus carassobarbi, from this species in the Dez River, Khuzestan, the specific name being founded on a misspelling of the genus name Carasobarbus. Masoumian et al. (1994) describe a new species of Myxosporea from the gills of this species in the Karun River, Khuzestan, namely Myxobolus persicus, and later (Masoumian et al., 1996) another new species of Myxosporea, Myxobolus nodulointestinalis, in the gut lining of this species and also from rivers of southwestern Iran. Molnár et al. (1996) report additional new species from this fish in Khuzestan, namely Myxobolus iranicus in the spleen and Myxobolus mesopotamiae in connective tissue of the caudal and pectoral fins. Molnár and Pazooki (1995) record philometrid nematodes from this species in the Karun River, and these are presumed to be a new species.
Masoumian and Pazooki (1999) list Myxobolus persicus, M. karuni, M. sharpeyi, M. nodulointestinalis, M. mesopotamiae and M. iranicus from this species in various localities in Khuzestan. Jalali et al. (2005) summarise the occurrence of Gyrodactylus species in Iran and record G. sp. from Dez River fish. Farahnak et al. (2002) record Anisakis sp. from this fish in Khuzestan Province.
González-Solís et al. (1997) report Proleptinae larvae (Nematoda) from this species in the drainage of Lake Maharlu, Fars. The definitive host is a predatory fish, possibly Mastacembelus mastacembelus, not yet recorded from this basin.
Moghainemi and Abbasi (1992) record a wide range of parasites from this species in the Hawr al-Azim in Khuzestan. Mortazaei et al. (2000) record an infection rate of 1.6% with the worm Bothriocephalus opsariichthydis in Khuzestan marshes.
Economic importance
An important food fish in southern Iraq and Iran (Al-Daham and Bhatti, 1979; Ahmed, 1982). Sharma (1980) reports that hamri were the fourth most important fish species at Basrah fish market, accounting for 267,570 kg from October 1975 to June 1977. Heckel (1846-1849b) reports that they "reach a good size and are very tasty" in Lake Famur, Fars.
In some parts of Southwest Asia this species is regarded as &qut;sacred" kept and bred in special pools where fishing is forbidden (Tortonese, 1934).
The eggs of this species are poisonous (Najafpour and Coad, 2002). A kebab made of about one-quarter of an ovary was eaten. Toxic effects were dizziness, abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, bitter taste, dryness of mouth, intense thirst, and faintness. One victim as hospitalised for two days and his stomach pumped while a second victim recovered after one day's rest.
Conservation
Vulnerable in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007). It is a common species in Iranian freshwaters but no detailed conservation assessment has been made.
Further work
The biology of this species in Iran needs study along with its conservation status. Specimens from Fars show differences in body form from those in Khuzestan and this could be investigated.
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material: CMNFI 1979-0023, 17, 58.3-161.4 mm standard length, Fars, neighbourhood of Shiraz (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0024, 1, 61.5 mm standard length, Fars, neighbourhood of Shiraz (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0026, 2, ? mm standard length, Fars, Shapur River (29º47'N, 51º35'E); CMNFI 1979-0047, 1, ? mm standard length, Fars, Ab-e Paravan (ca. 29º34'N, ca. 52º42'E); CMNFI 1979-0076, 1, ? mm standard length, Fars, Barm-e Shur (29º28'N, 52º41'30"E); CMNFI 1979-0087, 1, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, Karun River at Ahvaz (31º19'N, 48º42'E); CMNFI 1979-0125, 1, ? mm standard length, Bushehr, Dalaki River near Dalaki (ca. 29º28'N, ca. 51º21'E); CMNFI 1979-0129, 26, ? mm standard length, Fars, spring about 2 km from Farrashband (28º54'N, 52º04'E); CMNFI 1979-0135, 19, ? mm standard length, Fars, Mand River tributary (28º08'N, 53º10'E); CMNFI 1979-0154B, 3, 160.7-258.6 mm standard length, Fars, stream channels at Koorsiah (28º45'30"N, 54º24'E); CMNFI 1979-0155, 2, ? mm standard length, Fars, spring at Gavanoo (28º47'N, 54º22'E); CMNFI 1979-0156, 6, ? mm standard length, Fars, qanat at Rashidabad (28º47'N, 54º18'E); CMNFI 1979-0157, 1, ? mm standard length, Fars, qanat at Hadiabad (28º52'N, 54º13'E); CMNFI 1979-0160, 2, ? mm standard length, Fars, spring at Arteshkkadeh Pomp (29º09'N, 53º37'E); CMNFI 1979-0163, 1, 84.9 mm standard length, Fars, neighbourhood of Shiraz (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0164, 6, 56.6-91.1 mm standard length, Fars, neighbourhood of Shiraz (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0187, 31, ? mm standard length, Hormozgan, stream and pools at Sar Khun oasis (27º23'30"N, 56º26'E); CMNFI 1979-0206, 3, 24.4-25.1 mm standard length, Fars, qanat near Runiz-e Pa'in (29º12'N, 53º40'E); CMNFI 1979-0240, 3, ? mm standard length, Fars, Parishan Lake (ca. 29º31'N, ca. 51º50'E); CMNFI 1979-0304, 5, ? mm standard length, Fars, Parishan Lake (ca. 29º31'N, ca. 51º50'E); CMNFI 1979-0347, 2, ? mm standard length, Fars, Pol-e Berengie (29º27'30"N, 52º32'E); CMNFI 1979-0352, 7, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, marsh in Jarrahi River drainage (30º33'30"N, 48º48'E); CMNFI 1979-0358, 1, 23.7 mm standard length, Khuzestan, pond southeast of Bostan (31º37'N, 48º07'E); CMNFI 1979-0360, 8, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, canal branch of Karkheh River (31º40'N, 48º35'E); CMNFI 1979-0364, 6, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, river at Abdolkhan (31º52'30"N, 48º20'30"E); CMNFI 1979-0371, 7, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, stream in Karkheh River drainage (32º05'N, 48º19'E); CMNFI 1979-0687, 7, 124.8-154.1 mm standard length, Fars, Shiraz bazar (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0789, 4, ? mm standard length, Fars, Lake Parishan (29º31'N, 51º48'E); CMNFI 1991-0154, 1, ? mm standard length, Khuzestan, Hawr al Azim (ca. 31º45'N, ca. 47º55'E); CMNFI 1993-0126, 1, ? mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Sarab-e Yavari (34º28'N, 46º56'E); CMNFI 1993-0127, 1, ? mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Sarab-e Maran (34º44'N, 46º51'E); CMNFI 2007-0060, 2, ? mm standard length, Fars, Chashmeh Ab-e Shirin near Lar (ca. 27º41'N, ca. 54º17'E); CMNFI 2007-0111, 1, ? mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Alvand River near Sar-e Pol-e Zahab (ca. 34º36'N, ca. 45º56'E); ZSM 21861, 5, 172.0-217.2 mm standard length, Khuzestan, Dez River at Harmaleh (31º57'N, 48º34'E).
Comparative material: CMNFI 1987-0017, 3, 97.3-143.9 mm standard length, (); BM(NH) 1934.9.5:6, 1, 117.3 mm standard length, Kurdistan, Ain al Hamra, Shithatha (); BM(NH) 1973.6.21:194, 1, 203.4 mm standard length, Iraq, Shatt al Arab (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1338, 1, 134.9 mm standard length, Iraq, Najab Bazar (); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1346, 1, 108.7 mm standard length, Iraq, Tigris River near Faish Khabour (); BM(NH) 1986.2.14:4-7, 4, 98.6-146.6 mm standard length, Iraq, Baghdad (33º21'N, 44º25'E).
Barbus mursa
(Güldenstaedt, 1773)
B. capito (above) and B. mursa (below) Aras River, 2 October 1994
Courtesy of Asghar Abdoli
Common names
سس ماهي (= sos, sas or sass mahi), mahi siah (= black fish), zardek-e qalami (= slender or straight yellow one), ses mahi koloft safid rud (= Safid River thick fish, the meaning of ses, sos or sas being unknown but referring to Barbus), sas mahi-ye lab koloft (= thick lip Barbus fish), زرده پر (= zardehpar).
[mursa or shchirbit in Azerbaijan; murtsa or mursa in Georgian; murtsa or Araksinskaya murtsa, both in Russian].
Systematics
Cyprinus mursa was originally described from the Kura River at Tbilisi, Georgia. Syntypes are presumed lost (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003)
Barbus miliaris De Filippi, 1863 described from a "fiumicelli presso Teheran" (= a stream near Tehran), Barbus mursoides Kessler, 1877 described from Transcaucasia (presumably the Kura-Araks basin), Barbus microphthalmus Sauvage, 1882 from "Tiflis" (presumably the Kura River at Tbilisi, Georgia) (and Barbus macrophthalmus and Barbus mycrophtalmus in Chantre (1882) which are presumably misspellings of this name; the former is in any case preoccupied by B. macrophthalmus Bleeker, 1855 described from Indonesia), Barbus kessleri Derzhavin, 1929 described in Latin from the "Keredsh flumen" (= Karaj River near Tehran), and Barbus dageti Fowler, 1958 are synonyms. Barbus dageti was coined because Fowler believed Barbus kessleri was preoccupied by Puntius kessleri Steindachner, 1866; Puntius Hamilton-Buchanan, 1822 is not now considered a synonym of Barbus (Eschmeyer, 1990) although Eschmeyer et al. (1996) have Barbus kessleri listed as preoccupied by Puntius kessleri. Eschmeyer et al. (1996) record 3 syntypes "whereabouts unknown" for Barbus dageti, i.e. Derzhavin's Barbus kessleri types. Dadikyan (1986) refers Aras River fish from Armenia to Barbus mursa mursoides.
Three specimens (presumably syntypes)(MZUT N.676) of Barbus miliaris are stored in the Istituto e Museo di Zoologia della R. Università di Torino (Tortonese, 1940).
The holotype of Barbus mursoides is in the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg (ZISP 2863) from the Caucasus collected by Hohenacker in 1838.
Two syntypes of Barbus microphthalmus, measuring 340 mm total length, are in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN A.3923, formerly MNHN 1881-1007 and MNHN 1881-1008) (Bertin and Estève, 1948).
Howes (1987) considers the generic placement of Barbus miliaris as problematical. It has a series of preanal scales and a prominent genital papilla similar to schizothoracines, and a lachrymal bone similar to Barbus grypus and B. sharpeyi. Karaman (1971) considers Barbus miliaris from the Namak Lake basin of Iran to be a subspecies of the Caspian Sea basin type subspecies, differentiated by larger scales (78-92 compared to 85-103), less fleshy lips, an undeveloped lower lip lobe, feebly ossified last dorsal fin spine, and shorter pectoral fins. Derzhavin (1929b) in describing his Barbus kessleri on fish 121-154 mm total length with well-developed gonads states that the lower lip is clearly trilobate. Berg (1949) recognises miliaris as distinct from mursa on the basis of a shorter snout, somewhat larger scales, fewer scale rows above the lateral line, smaller dimensions and different colour. Bianco and Banarescu (1982) and Almaça (1984b) retain it as a full species although Bianco and Banarescu (1982) also suggest that this species may be a subspecies of their wide-ranging taxon Barbus cyclolepis Heckel, 1837. Almaça (1984a) points out that his conclusion is based in part on small specimens in poor condition and that there is not enough data to take a sound decision (Almaça notes that gill raker counts are low and the lower lip lobe undeveloped in accordance with Karaman (1971) but these are characters which I believe may be size and age related). Almaça (1992) also distinguishes the two taxa on the shorter barbel in miliaris (not exceeding the middle of the eye as opposed to not exceeding the rear border of the eye), slope of the dorsal fin oblique in miliaris as opposed to oblique to nearly perpendicular, and pharyngeal teeth in miliaris 5,3 (or 4),2 as opposed to 4-5,3,2. These characters too may be size dependent or individually variable, as are those of Berg (1949). I consider that miliaris is at most a subspecies of mursa.
Key characters
The high scale counts are an important character as is the presence, usually, of a fleshy three-lobed lower lip.
Morphology
Dorsal fin unbranched rays 3-5, usually 4, followed by 7-8, usually 8, branched rays, anal fin unbranched rays 3 followed by 5 branched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 13-17 and pelvic fin branched rays 6-8, usually 7. Lateral line scales 74-103, often 85 or more. Scales are small, horizontally elongated and almost rectangular, with a anterior margin variably indented, a very anterior focus, relatively few and well-spaced circuli, and few radii on all fields. A single pelvic axillary scale is not developed but a series of enlarged scales may be separated from other scales by a fold of skin. Gill rakers 7-18 (10-18 in Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003), lower counts from the literature perhaps not including rakers on the upper arm of the arch. There may also be differences due to size and, independent of size, the rakers on the lower arch anteriorly are variably developed, sometimes being reduced to bumps which were counted and sometimes not even bumps are present. The larger rakers reach the second adjacent raker when appressed. Vertebrae 41-45. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2, rarely 1,2,3,5-5,3,2,1; or with only 4 teeth in the main row (e.g. see Heckel (1843b)). Teeth are hooked and the fourth inner row tooth is slightly larger or smaller than the third. The fifth tooth is smaller (sometimes minute) than teeth 3 and 4 and may be pointed or blunt. The grinding surface below the tip is short, uneven and concave to rounded. The mouth is moderate in size, inferior, horseshoe-shaped with moderate to thick fleshy lips and an undeveloped to strongly developed median lower lip lobe (see above). Barbels are thick, the anterior one not extending back beyond the nostril level and the posterior one not exceeding the middle or posterior eye margin. The last dorsal fin spine is moderate to strong and has many, closely-packed denticles from one-half to four-fifths of the spine length, although denticles are lost in adults. The gut is elongate with 2-3 anterior loops. Chromosome number 2n = 100, NF 140 (Pourali Darestani et al., 2006).
Meristic variation in Iranian specimens:- dorsal fin branched rays 7(1) or 8(18); anal fin branched rays 5(19); pectoral fin branched rays 14(1), 15(2), 16(13) or 17(3); pelvic fin branched rays 7(13) or 8(6); lateral line scales 75(1), 80(2), 82(1), 84(1), 85(1), 87(1), 88(3), 89(3), 90(3), 91(1), 92(1) or 95 (1); total gill rakers 9(2), 10(1), 12(1), 13(5), 14(4), 15(2) or 16(3); pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(7), 2,3,4-5,3,2(5), 2,3,5-4,3,2(2) or 3,4,5-5,3,2; and total vertebrae 43(1), 44(6) or 45(2).
Sexual dimorphism
Etessami (1982) reports an hermaphrodite in this species in the Namak Lake basin. A female specimen, 112.5 mm standard length, caught on 15 July had tubercles on the top and upper sides of the head. Male tuberculation in large adults has not been reported on.
Colour
Overall colour is a pale grey to olive-grey to brownish, slightly darker over the back, and the belly is white to yellowish-brown. The sides of the head and flanks can have golden tints. The iris is grey with a narrow rim of silver immediately around the pupil or may be yellow-gold. The dorsal and caudal fins are pale grey to dark reddish-brown. The caudal fin bears several series of small dark spots. The pectoral and pelvic fins have pale brown rays and transparent membranes but may be pink. The anal fin may be colourless except for a little grey pigment over the last unbranched and first branched rays to an overall reddish-brown. The margins of the pelvic and anal fins are well-developed and white, while the pectoral fin has a very narrow white margin. Young may have numerous dark spots on the back and upper flank, lost in adults.
Size
Attains 39.5 cm or 43 cm total length (Jolodar and Abdoli, 2004).
Distribution
This species occurs in the Kura River basin of the southwestern Caspian Sea and in southern tributaries of the Caspian from Iran. In Iran, it is reported in the Caspian Sea basin from the Aras to the Gorgan rivers (Abbasi et al., 1999; Kiabi et al., 1994; 1999; Abdoli, 2000), the Namak Lake basin (Wossughi, 1978; Rainboth, 1981; Almaca, 1984a; Bianco and Banarescu, 1982; Abdoli, 2000), and the Lake Orumiyeh basin in the Arnar Chay, Nowruzlu Chay, Tatavi and Zarrineh rivers (Günther, 1899; Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
This species is possibly a Caspian Sea endemic, depending on the status of populations in the Namak and Orumiyeh Lake basins.
Habitat
Avoids muddy bottoms, preferring streams with rapid water, gravel and sand bottoms and a rich benthos. It may also be found in lacustrine habitats (Solak, 1977; Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Age and growth
Solak (1989b) reports a life span of 6 years in the Aras basin of Turkey. Maturity is attained at 2-3 years (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Food
Food items include chironomids, as much as 70-100% of the diet at times, crustaceans such as copepods and ostracods, insects, worms, plankton, vegetation and detritus (Abdurakhmanov, 1962; Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Iranian fish guts contain plant fragments, aquatic insects such as chironomids and Ephemeroptera (mayflies), and crustaceans such as amphipods.
Reproduction
Fecundity is up to 25,000 eggs. The spawning season is probably in May and June as noted for Georgian fish in Abdurakhmanov (1962) but may extend from April to August, the peak depending on locale (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003). Fish caught on 6 July in Mazandaran, 64 km west of Dasht had large, possibly atretic, eggs measuring about 1.5 mm although Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) report a maximum egg diameter of 2.5 mm.
Parasites and predators
Masoumian et al. (2003) record Myxobolus azerbajdzanicus, M. kovali, M. squamae, M. tauricus, M. rutili and M. osmaniae while Pazooki et al. (2003) and Pazooki (2006) record Rhabdochona hellichi, Bothriocephalus gowkongensis and Paradiplozoon homoion, all reports from fishes captured in the Tajan and Zarem rivers of Mazandaran.
Economic importance
Said to taste even better than trout (Abdurakhmanov, 1962), it is caught by some anglers but is not commercially important (Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya, 2003).
Conservation
Kiabi et al. (1999) consider this species to be near threatened in the south Caspian Sea basin according to IUCN criteria. Criteria include sport fishing, medium in numbers, habitat destruction, widespread range (75% of water bodies), present in other water bodies in Iran, and absent outside the Caspian Sea basin. Mostafavi (2007) lists it as near threatened in the Talar River, Mazandaran. Bogutskaya, Bănărescu and Almaça in Bănărescu and Bogutskaya (2003) report that is is extremely rare in Azerbaijan. Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
The presence of this species in the Lake Orumiyeh basin and the taxonomic status of Namak Lake basin populations need careful examination.
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material: CMNFI 1970-0525, 1, 49.3 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River near Mohsenabad (ca. 37º22'N, ca. 49º57'E); CMNFI 1970-0538, 5, 42.5-82.7 mm standard length, Gilan, Qezel Owzan River near Manjil (36º44'N, 49º24'E); CMNFI 1970-0545, ?, ? mm standard length, (); CMNFI 1970-0589, 1, 110.0 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River opposite Kisom (37º12'N, 49º54'E); CMNFI 1979-0084, 2, 92.5-96.8 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Chalus River (no other locality data); CMNFI 1979-0253, ?, ? mm standard length, (); CMNFI 1979-0456, 2, 44.1-50.2 mm standard length, Markazi, Shah River at Lowshan (36º37'30"N, 49º31'E); CMNFI 1979-0481, 1, 142.7 mm standard length, Mazandaran, stream 3 km west of Ghalahleekesh (37º18'30"N, 55º31'E); CMNFI 1980-0132, 1, 112.5 mm standard length, Gilan, Safid River at Kisom (37º12'N, 49º54'E); CMNFI 1991-0158, ?, ? mm standard length, (); CMNFI 1993-0136, 1, 109.9 mm standard length, Mazandaran, Sardabrud (36º39'42'N, 51º22'36'E); CMNFI 2007-0086, 1, 182.2 mm standard length, Azarbaijan-e Khavari, Qareh Su basin near Nir (ca. 38º02'N, ca. 48º00'E); Behnke 8 Behnke 79 CMNFI 2007-00, ?, ? mm standard length, (); FMNH 51245, 2, 108.4-128.5 mm standard length, Markazi, Rayy (35º35'N, 51º25'E); ZMH 2429, 98.1 mm standard length, Markazi, Tehran (no other locality data).
Barbus pectoralis
Heckel, 1843
Common names
basan, برزم (berzem or barzam), ? tu'ini.
[nebbash or sheikh san in Arabic; Heckel's Orontes barbel (Fricke et al., 2007)].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species in Barbus sensu stricto. Barbus perniciosus Heckel, 1843 described from "Gewässern bei Damascus", Luciobarbus Schejch Heckel, 1843 described from "Mossul" (also spelt schech on p. 1019 and p. 1098 in Heckel, presumably in error, and sometimes emended to scheich), Labeobarbus Orontis Sauvage, 1882 from the "Canal de l'Oronte à Antioche", Turkey and possibly Barbus kersin Heckel, 1843 (q.v.) and possibly Barbus barbulus Heckel, 1849 (q.v.) are synonyms (see Krupp (1985c)). Barbus pectoralis was described from the "Orontes" (Heckel, 1843b) but the catalogue in Vienna reads "Damascus" (possibly in confusion as this part of the catalogue has been overwritten).
The holotype of Labeobarbus orontis is in the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (MNHN A.3868), with a length of 600 mm (Bertin and Estève, 1948). The catalogue in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien appears (the catalogue is overwritten here) to list a single specimen opposite each of the names Barbus perniciosus and Barbus pectoralis, probably the holotypes. Krupp (1985c) records the holotype of B. pectoralis as being 116 mm standard length (NMW 54474 and the holotype of B. perniciosus as being 105 mm standard length (NMW 54472). My examination of NMW 54474 showed a length of 117.8 mm standard length.
Karaman (1971) places pectoralis as a subspecies of Barbus capito but Almaça (1986) disagrees on several grounds, especially on the number of pharyngeal teeth (5 in capito and 4 in pectoralis in the main row (yet Heckel (1843b) gives 5 main row teeth for pectoralis, 4 for the synonym schejch), see also below). Barbus kersin has 5 main row pharyngeal teeth, an indication that it may be distinct. Almaça (1986) points out that the specimen in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (NMW 54475) referred to as the holotype of pectoralis by Karaman (1971) is from the wrong locality and was collected at a later date.
Barbus Rajanorum Heckel, 1843 described from "Aleppo" and later in Heckel (1846-1849a) from "Gewässern von Aleppo" is a hybrid of this species and Capoeta damascina (F. Krupp, in litt., 1986) and Almaça (1991) also believes it to be founded on a hybrid; see also Almaça (1983; 1991), Berg (1949) and Karaman (1971) for conflicting views). Almaça (1983) could not find any specimens attributable to Barbus rajanorum and the holotype housed in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien is lost. However, the type locality for this taxon is "Aleppo" (Heckel (1843b) and Krupp (1985c) states that the holotype is NMW 54494, 190 mm standard length, Aleppo, 1842, Th. Kotschy. The catalogue in Vienna lists a single specimen and the card catalogue in 1997 lists this fish as the holotype.
Karaman (1971) places Barbus barbulus, Luciobarbus schejch and fish Heckel (1843) referred to Luciobarbus mystaceus (Pallas, 1814) as synonyms of B. rajanorum. Berg (1949) also places L. mystaceus of Heckel in B. rajanorum. However mystaceus of Pallas would have priority (authors such as Karaman (1971) and Almaça (1983, 1991) refer the species description to Heckel (1843) in error) but, as Berg (1949) points out, Pallas's Cyprinus mystaceus is partly Barbus mursa and B. capito. Almaça (1983) recognises Barbus mystaceus with two subspecies, mystaceus from Aleppo, Tigris at Mosul and the Euphrates and barbulus (see above under this latter species). Krupp (1985c) places Barbus barbulus and Heckel's Luciobarbus mystaceus in Barbus pectoralis.
I am uncertain as to the identity of Barbus mystaceus (Pallas, 1814) reported by Heckel (1843b) from the "Tigris bei Mossul", Iraq, in regard to Iranian Barbus species and do not assign any Iranian specimens collected by me to it. F. Krupp (in litt., 1987) considers Heckel's mystaceus to be identical with B. barbulus but that Heckel's mystaceus differs from that of Pallas, as previously noted by Berg (1949). Heckel's B. mystaceus is most probably either B. barbulus or B. pectoralis.
Barbus schejch is recognised as a distinct species by Almaça (1983, 1991) but only one specimen, a syntype from the Tigris (in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, NMW 50399), was available to him. It measures 136.5 mm standard length. Two other specimens identified as syntypes of this this species are under NMW 54520 with standard lengths 175.4 and 270.7 mm. The barbels in the 50399 are very short, not reaching the eye and about equal in length while in the other two syntypes the posterior barbel reaches the mid-eye and the barbels are subequal. The lips are fleshy, like Barbus barbulus, but there is no central lobe in 50399, present in the smaller of the two other syntypes and poorly developed in the larger. The complete dorsal fin spine bears 29 teeth in the 50399 and 29 or 35 in broken spines of the other two fish. Gill rakers number 22 in 50399 and 16 or 18 in the other two fish. Lateral line scales number 52 (or 54 to end of scale row on caudal fin) in the syntype and 57(58) or 58(60). Main row pharyngeal teeth are 4-4 in 50399, missing in the other two fish. These data are somewhat contradictory and further data are required to resolve the status of this nominal species. The catalogue in Vienna lists 4 fish in spirits and 4 fish stuffed.
The synonymy of Barbus barbulus with B. pectoralis remains uncertain. The putative holotype of B. pectoralis (NMW 54474) was compared with a specimen of similar size from Iran referred to B. barbulus (CMNFI 1973-0393). The B. pectoralis specimen is partly dried so direct measurement comparisons are not possible. The B. pectoralis specimen has more teeth in the dorsal fin spine (27 teeth even though it is broken off, much more than 30 presumably in the intact spine), barbels in pectoralis are shorter, the posterior one reaching the anterior half of the eye, the anterior one short of the mouth angle, mouths similar in shape but lips appear to be less fleshy, gill rakers number 16, lateral line scales number 44, and 4 main row pharyngeal teeth but there is a trace of a fifth tooth not fully ossified. ? check counts on NMc fish?
Key characters
The dorsal spine is much stronger than in Barbus barbulus and arises from an elevated base that supports the dorsal fin base. The body is deeper than in Barbus barbulus and the lips usually less fleshy.
Morphology
Dorsal fin with 4 unbranched and 7-9 branched rays (7 in the holotype, usually 8), anal fin with 3 unbranched and 5, rarely 6, branched rays. Pectoral fin branched rays 16, pelvic fin rays 8. Lateral line scales 42-60 (44 in the holotype; 42 in Barbus perniciosus). Gill rakers 14-17 (to 21 if Barbus schejch is included (Almaça, 1986)). Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,4-4,3,2 in 16 fish, 2,3,5-5,3,2 in 9 fish examined by Krupp (1985c), rarely 2,3,5-4,3,2 or 2,3,4-5,3,2 (1 fish each), spoon-shaped or pointed with the fourth tooth of the inner row large and globose. Larger fish usually have 4 teeth in the main row and the fourth tooth is globose. Smaller fish with 5 teeth in the main row have cylindrical teeth. All intermediates stages exist (Krupp, 1985c). The mouth is moderate in size and subterminal. Lips are thin to moderate and the median lobe of the lower lip may be present or absent. Barbels are thin to moderate, the anterior one not extending back beyond the nostril to anterior eye margin level and the posterior one not beyond the middle to the posterior margin of the eye. The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is moderate to very strong with a low density of denticles extending along much of the ray. Larger specimens have a lesser extent of denticles along the ray. The body form is extremely variable.
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
The back is brown to bluish-green and the flanks yellowish to silvery-white.
Size
46.9 cm standard length (Krupp, 1985c).
Distribution
Tigris-Euphrates basin and the Orontes and Quwayq rivers. In Iran, it is found in the Tigris River basin in the Hawr Al Azim and the lower Karkheh, Karun and Jarrahi rivers, in the Kor River basin, and in the Gulf basin in the middle and lower Helleh, middle and lower Mand and Dasht-e Palang rivers (Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
Almaça (1984b) considers that the origin of this species (as Barbus schejch) lies with a group that migrated southwards in the late Pliocene from the Dacian Lake of the Sarmatian Sea and speciated in Mesopotamia and later (Almaça, 1991) that this species (as Barbus pectoralis) originated from a colonisation wave from South Europe.
Habitat
Unknown.
Age and growth
Unknown.
Food
Unknown.
Reproduction
Unknown.
Parasites and predators
None reported from Iran.
Economic importance
Occasionally caught and used for food.
Conservation
Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007). Confusion over its identity has made a conservation assessment difficult for Iranian waters.
Further work
The taxonomic status of this species and its presence in Iranian waters should be resolved.
Sources
Type material: See above, Barbus pectoralis (NMW 54474).
Barbus sharpeyi
Günther, 1874
Common names
بني (benni, benny, beni, binni, bini, binny (meaning possibly nose)), سليماني (= solimani or soleimani, meaning unknown).
[binni, bunni, bunnei, bunia or aradah, all in Arabic].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species outside the genus Barbus sensu stricto as defined by him because it has the non-elongate lachrymal bone with a sensory canal running along the antero-dorsal border, a derived condition. Karaman (1971) erected a new genus for this species, Mesopotamichthys, which is not accepted here nor by Krupp (1985c). However Bănărescu (1997) and Ekmekçi and Banarescu (1998) recognise this genus as valid. The large-scaled Barbus of Southwest Asia require a detailed revision probably with additional, molecular characters (see also under Barbus luteus and Barbus kosswigi).
Barbus faoensis Günther, 1896 described from "Fao (Persian Gulf)", Iraq is a synonym; Karaman (1971) retains it as the subspecies of the lower part of the Tigris-Euphrates basin with the type subspecies in the upper part of the Tigris River basin.
Barbus sharpeyi was described from "Baghdad". The three syntypes are in the Natural History Museum, London (BM(NH) 1874.4.28:20 labelled "R. Tigris nr. Baghdad. Sharpey", well sealed in its jar and not measured accurately, and BM(NH) 1874.4.28:27 and BM(NH) 1875.1.14:16 labelled "R. Tigris. Sharpey" and measuring 147.6-178.0 mm standard length). The large holotype of Barbus faoensis is also there, strongly sealed in its jar, labelled "Persian Gulf. Kurrachee Museum" (BM(NH) 1888.5.17:4).
Al-Mukhtar and Al-Hassan (1999) describe a hybrid of this species and Carassius auratus from Al-Hayei (= Al Ha'i), a seasonal lake between the Karkheh and Dez rivers in Khuzestan.
Key characters
The absence of barbels, the last dorsal fin unbranched ray moderately ossified but lacking teeth, and the low scale count are characteristic.
Morphology
Dorsal fin with 4 unbranched and 7-9, usually 8, branched rays, anal fin with 2-3 unbranched and 4-5, usually 5, branched rays, pectoral rays 13-19, usually 16-17, and pelvic fin branched rays usually 8. The last third or quarter of the last unbranched dorsal fin ray is thin, flexible and tapering. The gut has several loops, two anteriorly and three posteriorly. Pharyngeal tooth formula is 2,3,5-5,3,2, sometimes with only 4 teeth in the main row but the anterior tooth is missing in both small and large fish and so does not appear to be age related, with teeth hooked at the tip but not strongly on the posterior teeth which are spoon-shaped with the hollow of the spoon filled in with bone. Total gill rakers number 13-19, reaching the raker below or just beyond when appressed. Total vertebrae 38-42 (lower values, 38-39, may not include hypural plate). Lateral line scales 29-37. A small pelvic axillary scale may be present or scales in this area may be so weakly developed as not to be an apparent axillary scale. Scales have a slightly anterior focus, fine concentric circuli, many radii on all fields and the posterior, exposed field bears numerous small tubercles. The mouth is slightly subterminal. Lips are well-developed but not fleshy and the lower lip is interrupted in the middle. Microscopic studies of the pharynx and oesophagus have been carried out by Alboghobeish and Moosavi (1998) who confirm that it is adapted for herbivory. Chromosome number 2n=98 (Balasem et al., 1994). Alboghobeish and Hamidian (2006) studied the distribution of alarm cells in the skin of this species.
Iranian fish have the following meristics: branched dorsal fin rays 8(2), branched anal fin rays 5(2), branched pectoral fin rays 16(2) and branched pelvic fin rays 5(2). Lateral line scales 30(1) or 31(1). Total gill rakers 16(1) or 18(1). Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(2). Total vertebrae 41(1) or 42(2) based on CMNFI 79-0087 (42) and 87-0017 (41 and 42). 41(3) or 42(2) based on BM(NH) 1920.3.3:71-75, 42 (1973.5.21:195), 41 (1973.5.21:196), 42 (1874.4.28:27), 41 (1875.1.14:16)
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
Overall colour is greenish to light brown or golden brown with the belly white to silvery or yellowish-brown. Scales on the back and uppermost flank have solid dark brown pigment on the exposed part of the scale. The scale edge is thinner and so appears lighter. The eye is brownish orange, golden or silvery. Fins are darker than the adjacent body, a deep reddish-brown, with melanophores on rays and membranes in preserved fish. The peritoneum is black.
Size
Attains 55 cm and 4 kg (van den Eelaart, 1954; Al-Hamed, 1966b; 1972). Reaches at least 3.5 kg in Khuzestan (J. Gh. Marammazi, pers. comm., 1995).
Distribution
This species is found in the Tigris-Euphrates River basin including its Iranian portion in such marshes as the Hawr Al Azim and in rivers and in the northern Gulf basin in the Zohreh River (Marammazi, 1995; Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
Karaman (1971) considers that this species originated from the Indian line of the Torini, a tribe of Cyprinidae, in which Karaman includes such genera as Carasobarbus and Kosswigobarbus (both recognised as Barbus here), Garra, Hemigarra (recognised as Hemigrammocapoeta here) which have Iranian members.
Habitat
van den Eelaart (1954) and Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) report some movement from lakes and marshes, from the end of February to the beginning of March, to rivers in the Tigris-Euphrates basin of Iraq during floods for about 3 weeks. There is a return to lakes and marshes for spawning in mid-March to mid-April. However, most fish remain in marshes and lakes for most of the year, in overgrown areas avoiding open water. Low water levels and high temperatures in the lakes and marshes may cause a migration to their deepest parts or into the lower reaches of the main and more permanent rivers. This species is less tolerant of low oxygen than Barbus xanthopterus which probably accounts for them not being caught together in any number.
Marammazi (1994) considers this species to be stenohaline and so restricted in its distribution in the Zohreh River which drains to the northern Persian Gulf. The influence of salinity on growth rate is examined by Orian et al. (1993).
Age and growth
Al-Hakim et al. (1976) studied some aspects of the biology of this species in Razzaza Lake, Iraq. Females are longer and heavier than males at advanced ages. Life span of females is 9 years and for males 8 years. Maturity starts in the third year at 32-35 cm total length. Males mature earlier than females. Al-Hamed (1966a; 1966b; 1972) found Tigris River fish in Iraq to mature at 25 cm for males and 28 cm for females in the second year of life and spawning took place early in the third year. A few matured in age group 1 and some as late as age group 3. Males are somewhat more abundant than females on the spawning grounds, averaging 57.4% of the fish caught. Maximum age is 6 years. Ali (1982b) found this species to mature in the fourth year of life in Iraq, with growth better in the marshes than in Tharthar Reservoir. Epler et al. (1996) found fish up to age 6+ years in fresh and salty Iraqi lakes. Nasir et al. (1989) reports on the biology of this species in the Al-Hammar Marsh, Iraq and found a sex ratio of 1 female:3 males for all months and length groups caught. No explanation for this skewed ratio was found.
Food
Al-Hamed (1965) found this species to be strictly herbivorous, feeding on unicellular Chlorophyceae, diatoms and filamentous algae when young and on higher plants and detritus when older. Nasir et al. (1989) and Epler et al. (1996) confirm that this species in Iraq is completely herbivorous although some copepods and molluscs are taken, most probably incidental to filamentous algae, diatoms and detritus. van den Eelaart (1954) reports feeding even in cold winters. In the Karun River, diet includes such plants as Potamogeton, Salvinia, Nuphar and Phragmites (Annual Bulletin 1993-94, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 91-92, 1995).
Reproduction
van den Eelaart (1954) and Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) studied reproduction in this species on the Tigris River in Iraq and Al-Nasih (1992) in fish ponds. Spawning occurs chiefly in lakes and marshes, with some spawning in the lower reaches of rivers. Eggs are deposited on submerged, or partially submerged, vegetation, from the surface down to about 1 m depth. Eggs are large, yellow and measure up to 1.7 mm in diameter and number up to 158,000. Epler et al. (1996) give a relative fecundity of 10,021 to 28,471 eggs for fish 4+ to 6+ in age from Iraqi lakes with fish spawning in April in a freshwater lake and February/March in a saline lake. Al-Nasih (1992) gives details of larval development. The spawning season in Lake Saniyah just north of Amara is March and April, with some ripe fish caught in May. Fish appear on the spawning grounds about sunset and left before darkness is complete. They return in the early morning and leave again at about 0800 hours. These fish chase each other, dart about singly or in pairs and sometimes come to the surface and splash. Al Mukhtar et al. (2006) investigated this species in the Hawizah Marsh as a source of spawners for aquaculture. Ripe eggs appeared in January and 25% were running in February and 30% in March. Half of the fish were spent in April. The spawning migration was lead by males in October and December with females increasing rapidly in February. Males disappeared in April. Absolute fecundity reached 236,160 eggs.
Petr (1987) reports spawning in Iran at 15-16°C in February in clean water of rivers with sandy bottoms. In the Karun River this species spawned in March-April in river estuaries (Annual Bulletin 1993-94, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 91-92, 1995). A specimen caught in March had well-developed testes. Spawning in Shadegan Marsh, Khuzestan is in March and in branches of the Karkheh River in March to April (Al Mukhtar et al., 2006). Shadegan Marsh is one of the most important spawning areas in Iran (Mohammadi and Marammazi, 2001).
Parasites and predators
Bykhovski (1949) reports a new species of monogenetic trematode, Dactylogyrus pavlovskyi, from this cyprinid in the Karkheh River, Iran. Ebrahimzadeh and Nabawi (1975) list species of the protozoans Trichodina and Myxosoma and the trematode Dactylogyrus as well as the nematode Camallanus lacustris, from this species in the Karun River. Jalali and Molnár (1990a) record two monogenean species, Dactylogyrus spp., in the Dez River and Molnár and Jalali (1992) a new species of monogenean, Dogielius persicus, from this species in the Dez and Karun rivers of Khuzestan. Gussev et al. (1993b) record Dactylogyrus pavlovskyi in the Dez River.
Masoumian et al. (1994) describe a new species of Myxosporea from the gills of this species in the Karun River, namely Myxobolus persicus, and later (Masoumian et al., 1996) another new species of Myxosporea, Myxobolus nodulointestinalis, in the gut lining of this species and also from rivers of southwestern Iran. Masoumian et al. (1996) describe a new species of Myxosporea, Myxobolus bulbocordis, from the heart of fish caught at various localities in Khuzestan. Molnár et al. (1996) report additional new species from this fish in Khuzestan, namely Myxobolus iranicus in the spleen and Myxobolus sharpeyi in the gill cartilage. Myxosporeans are potentially dangerous to fishes such as Barbus sharpeyi which may be used in fish culture in Khuzestan. Masoumian and Pazooki (1999) list Myxobolus persicus, M. karuni, M. sharpeyi, M. nodulointestinalis, M. bulbocordis and M. iranicus from this species in various localities in Khuzestan. Shamsi et al. (2009) found Dactylogyrus nchoratus in this species from fish farms and the Karun River.
Peyghan (1994) reports ichthyophthiriasis in cultured Barbus sharpeyi in Khuzestan. This parasite causes severe skin and gill damage and mortality reaches 80%. A combination of formalin and malachite green with transfer of fish to another pond having a better environment cured the condition.
Molnár and Pazooki (1995) record philometrid nematodes from this species in the Karun River, and these are presumed to be a new species. Pazooki and Molnár (1998) later describe Philometra karunensis as the new species from the swimbladder and adominal cavity of this fish.
Moghainemi and Abbasi (1992) record a wide range of parasites from this species in the Hawr al-Azim in Khuzestan.
The monogeneans Dactylogyrus povlovskyi, D. barbioides, D. anchoratus, D. carassobarbi and Dogielius persicus are recorded from this species in the Karun River with heavier infestations in spring and summer than in autumn and winter. These gill parasites caused no serious injuries but were thought to be important in respect of monitoring infestation levels on fish farms in Khuzestan (www.avz1.8m.com/fulltext.htm, downloaded 28 October 2002). Papahn et al. (2004) record the monogeneans Dactylogyrus pavlovskyi, D. barbioides, D. anchoratus, D. carassobarbi and Dogielius persicus from this species in the Karun River at Ahvaz.
Economic importance
This species is second in importance after sobour (Tenualosa ilisha) at the Basrah fish market in Iraq with a weight from October 1975 to June 1977 of 772,775 kg. Nasir et al. (1989) record a total catch for Iraq of 5000 tonnes per year and Petr (1987) for Iraq in 1976 a catch of 4243 t. Young (1976) noted that this species was regarded as the tastiest fish available from the marshes of Iraq.
Petr (1987) has suggested investigating fish farming of this species in Khuzestan and Al-Nasih (1992) carried out such an investigation for Iraq (see below). The Khuzestan Fisheries Research Centre at Ahvaz has successfully bred this species in pond and pen culture using hormone stimulation of broodstocks (Emadi, 1993a; Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization pamphlet; Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization Newsletter, 5:2, 1994; Annual Report, 1994-1995, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 49, 1996) and in polyculture with Chinese carps such as Ctenopharyngodon idella (Annual Bulletin 1993-94, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 93-94, 1995; Annual Report, 1995-1996, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 36-37, 1997). Private companies also culture this species in Khuzestan. In Khuzestan, over 95% of young survived, using hormones to stimulate reproduction. Mortezazadeh et al. (2009) studied the effects of propofol as an anaesthetic on cultured fish.
Yazdipour et al. (1991) give a report on propagation of this species in Iran.
Sharifian (2000) gives details of whole body analysis. The highest protein content was in the 30-95 mm and 100-140 mm length groups.
Conservation
Local fishermen in Khuzestan believe numbers of this species declined in the Shadegan marshes after young Hypophthalmichthys molitrix from the Caspian were released. As a food fish, its population biology should be monitored in Khuzestan. Several hundred thousand juveniles have been introduced into the Hawr al Azim in Khuzestan in order to restock and protect this resource (Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia, downloaded 11 January 2007).
Further work
Al-Nasih (1992) investigated the use of this popular food fish for aquaculture in Iraq. Although its growth rate is slower than in Cyprinus carpio, a popular fish for aquaculture, its plankton feeding makes it adaptable to pond life without competition with Cyprinus carpio, it has tasty flesh, reaches 2 kg, and has a relatively high fecundity. Hormonal injections with hypophysial extract from the more readily available Cyprinus carpio induced breeding in this species. Natural production can be increased to 450-600 kg/ha with the use of mineral fertilizers in ponds to stimulate plankton growth. The biology of this species has been investigated in Khuzestan with a view to aquaculture (Annual Report, 1994-1995, Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization, Tehran, p. 6, 1996).
Sources
Type material: See above, Barbus sharpeyi (BM(NH) 1874.4.28:20, BM(NH) 1874.4.28:27, BM(NH) 1875.1.14:16), Barbus faoensis (BM(NH) 1888.5.17:4).
Iranian material:- CMNFI 1979-0087, 1, 228.0 mm standard length, ? (); CMNFI 1991-0154, 277.8 mm standard length, ?; material observed on market stalls in Ahvaz, Khuzestan.
Comparative material:- CMNFI 1987-0017, 146.0-175.4 mm standard length, Iraq, vicinity of Basrah (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1920.3.3:71-75, 17, 58.7-115.0 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E); BM(NH) 1920.3.3:76-77, 1, 261.4 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E); BM(NH) 1922.5.24:1, 1, 113.5 mm standard length, Iraq, Basrah (30º30'N, 47º47'E); BM(NH) 1973.5.21:195, 1, 185.5 mm standard length, Iraq, Shatt-al-Arab (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1973.5.21:196, 1, 186.1 mm standard length, Iraq, Shatt-al-Arab (no other locality data).
Barbus sublimus
Coad and Najafpour, 1997
Common names
None.
Systematics
The holotype is CMNFI 1995-0009, female, 113.5 mm, Iran, Khuzestan, A'la River at Pol-e Tighen, 31°23.5'N 49°53'E, 20 September 1995, B. W. Coad, N. Najafpour and party. Paratypes are CMNFI 1995-0009A, 41.9 mm, same locality as the holotype (lost in the mail while on, loan September 2005), CMNFI 1995-0010, female, 115.3 mm, A'la River, 2 km above Pol-e Tighen, 31°23.5'N 49°54'E, 20 September 1995, B. W. Coad, N. Najafpour and party, and CMNFI 1995-0011, 3 females, 90.5-98.6 mm, same locality as holotype, early December 1994, Gh. Eskanderi (one specimen lost in the mail while on loan, September 2005).
The species was named after its river of capture, the only known locality for this species. A`la means "most high" or "exalted".
Along with B. luteus and B. kosswigi (both q.v.), this species falls under the genus or subgenus Kosswigobarbus.
Key characters
A member of the genus Barbus sensu lato characterised by the unique combination of the following characters: large scales (24-27 in the lateral line), 37-38 total vertebrae, 10-11 branched dorsal fin rays, 6 branched anal fin rays, a relatively short and smooth dorsal fin spine (spine length in head length 1.0-1.1), lower lip with a rounded median lobe and a posterior free flap, a compressed body (depth 3.3-3.5 in standard length), a short caudal peduncle (length in head length 1.5), long pelvic fins (length in standard length 4.1-4.5), and a short dorsal fin (longest dorsal fin ray in head length 1.1-1.2).
Morphology
Dorsal fin branched rays 10(5), 11(1), mean 10.2; anal fin branched rays 6(6); pectoral fin branched rays 14(1), 15(5), mean 14.8; and pelvic fin branched rays 8(6). Lateral line scales 24(1), 25(2), 26(2), 27(1), mean 25.5; scales above the lateral line 4(1), 5(5), mean 4.8; scales below the lateral line 4(3), 5(3), mean 4.5; scales between lateral line and pelvic fin 3(6); predorsal scale rows 9(5), 10(1), mean 9.2; and caudal peduncle scales 12(5). Total gill rakers 10(1), 11(1), 12(2), 15(1), mean 12.0. Total vertebrae 37(2), 38(4), mean 37.7. A specimen from the Khersan River had 39 total vertebrae and one from the Ardal River had 40 total vertebrae; both these fish being unusual in other counts too. Esmaeili et al. (2006) give the following characters for their 6 specimens from Fars: 11 branched dorsal fin rays, 6-8 anal fin branched rays, 16-18 branched pectoral fin rays, 24-28 lateral line scales, and 10-12 total gill rakers.
The body is relatively deep (depth 3.3-3.5 times in standard length) and compressed. The snout is rounded and overhangs the upper part of the thick upper lip. The extent of overlap varies individually. The lower lip is also thick but has a rounded protuberance at its centre, visible in lateral view. The protuberance is variably developed as a flap which is free posteriorly and at the rearmost sides. The posterior barbel is longer and thicker than the anterior barbel. The anus lies just anterior to the anal fin origin.
Scales are regularly arranged over the whole body, there is a pelvic axillary scale, and scales at the anterior base of the anal fin form a small sheath around the bases of the anal rays. Radii are found on the anterior and posterior fields of each scale, being most numerous posteriorly, about three times as many. Some radii extend into the lateral fields. Circuli are numerous and on the posterior field break up into bubble-like shapes.
The dorsal fin is slightly to strongly concave on its margin. The spine tapers and is thin and flexible at the tip. The dorsal fin origin lies over the pelvic fin origin. The caudal fin is deeply forked with the lower lobe more developed and with longer rays than upper lobe. The anal fin reaches or obviously passes the base of the caudal fin rays. This variation in length does not appear to be size or sex related. The posterior margin of the anal fin is straight to concave. The pelvic fin has a straight to rounded posterior margin. The pectoral fin margin is concave and in some fishes is falcate.
The gut is elongate with anterior and posterior loops. Gill rakers are short and reach to the adjacent raker when appressed. Pharyngeal teeth are rounded with a hooked tip and a flattened area below the tip. On three specimens counts were 2,3,5-4,3,2, 1,3,5-4,3,2 and 3,3,4-4,3,2.
Sexual dimorphism
Sample size of the type series is too small to document sexual dimorphism.
Colour
The overall live colour of the species is silvery with the back olive-green. Scales are outlined with dark pigment. The pectoral, pelvic, anal and caudal fins are a faintly pigmented with orange to yellow hues, most apparent when the fin is collapsed. Much of these fins is grey to hyaline. The dorsal fin is grey to hyaline. The eye is silvery with grey-brown pigment at the upper margin. The peritoneum is silvery with numerous melanophores merging to give an overall dark appearance.
In 70% ethanol the pigmentation pattern is as follows. Upper to mid-flank scales have the margins and bases pigmented with melanophores, outlining the scales. Most pigment is concentrated at the scale base giving a slight appearance of rows of spots. Larger fish are more fully pigmented so the back and upper flank then appear dark. The dorsal surface of the head is finely speckled black. The dorsal fin has dark pigment on the membranes, on the distal half or the whole fin, with less pigment on the rays. The caudal fin is mostly hyaline with dark pigment lining the rays. The pectoral and anal fins have some dark pigment lining or on the anterior rays and, in larger fish, on the membranes. The pelvic fin is hyaline. The smallest specimen has a distinct mid-caudal base spot and another spot on the back at the anterior dorsal fin base. Fins are more hyaline than in larger fish.
Size
Reaches 115.3 mm standard length. The maximum size is 15.5 cm (Iranian Fisheries Research and Training Organization Newsletter, Tehran, 18:5, 1997).
Distribution
Known from the A'la River in Khuzestan Province in the Tigris River basin and the Fahlian River in Fars (Esmaeili et al., 2006).
Zoogeography
This species is known from the A`la River, which joins with the Rud Zard (rud = river), and emerges from the foothills of the Zagros Mountains onto the Khuzestan plains where it is tributary to the Jarrahi River. The Jarrahi feeds the Shadegan Marshes and is mostly lost there. In flood times, there may be a connection through the marshes to the Karun River and thence to other large river systems in the Tigris-Euphrates basin. However, it is suspected that the ecological requirements of this species limit it to fast flowing rivers over hard substrates and the marsh system isolates it from other river systems. Collections in the Rud Zard at Rud Zard village and Bagh-e Malek on several occasions have not included the new species although the Rud Zard would appear to be a suitable habitat.
The range extension of 380 km southwest of the A`la River to the Fahlian River near Noorabad in Fars places this species in the headwaters of the Zohreh River which drains to the northern Persian Gulf. This may indicate headwater captures or possibly former interdigitating drainages on the Khuzestan plain.
Habitat
The type habitat is a cloudy river in a wide flood plain at about 800 m. The river bed is stones and pebbles. Water is led off from the river at intervals to irrigate the rice fields of the villages of Meydavud-e `Olya (31°24'N. 49°52'E) and Meydavud Pa'in (31°23'N. 49°49'E) which extend along the bank of the A`la River. This water abstraction is a potential threat to the well-being of fishes in this river system. The water demands of rice growing are large and there is little or no rain through the summer months in this area. Air temperatures in September can exceed 40°C and evaporation from the fields and the river is commensurate.
The fish were caught at the type locality in relatively fast water (0.9 m.s-1) over a one hour fishing period. In September 1995, the river was at the seasonal low water and the type locality was 10 m wide, 40 cm deep and had a discharge of ca. 2.9 m3.s-1. The water was also cloudy for the collection in December 1994 at the type locality but the river was wider and had more flow after rain. The second locality had more flow and was deeper and wider than the type locality, to about 30 m and 80 cm. Fishes were caught by electroshocker and cast-net and were difficult to catch and few in number. Other species captured were the cyprinids Barbus barbulus, B. grypus, Barilius mesopotamicus, Capoeta trutta, Cyprinion macrostomus and Garra rufa, and the sisorid catfish Glyptothorax silviae.
The Fahlian River capture site was shallow, had relatively clear water, a heterogenous bed morphology (sand, gravel, stone, pebbles, rock, etc.), and an absence of aquatic and riparian vegetation (Esmaeili et al., 2006).
Age and growth
Unknown.
Food
Unknown.
Reproduction
Unknown.
Parasites and predators
None reported.
Economic importance
None reported.
Conservation
Known only from the type series, its conservation status is unknown. It appears to be rare and possibly restricted to areas with running water year round.
Further work
The distribution of this species should be investigated within the A'la River and neighbouring drainages and accurate estimates of its numbers and biology procured as part of a process to determine its conservation status.
Sources
Type material: See above, CMNFI 1995-0009, CMNFI 1995-0009A, CMNFI 1995-0010, CMNFI 1995-0011.
Barbus subquincunciatus
Günther, 1868
Common names
سليماني (= solimani or soleimani).
[abou khazzama, a'djzan, agzan or adzan, all in Arabic; black spot barb, leopard barbel, Mesopotamian barbel].
Systematics
The type locality of this species is unknown. Günther (1868) gives the following account:- "From the Collection of the East-India Company.- Although no record of the history of this specimen has been preserved, it is probable that it came from Mesopotamia, as other examples from this country are preserved in precisely the same manner". The type specimen is a "Skin, 15 inches long" (= 5.9 cm).
Krupp (1985a) removes this species from Bertinius Fang, 1943 since the enlarged molariform pharyngeal teeth on which this genus was erected are due to convergence and are not evidence of monophyly. Howes (1987) places this species in his Barbus sensu stricto.
Key characters
The numerous, large, dark spots arranged in an almost quincunx pattern are distinctive.
Morphology
Dorsal fin with 3-4 unbranched and 8 branched rays, anal fin with 3 unbranched and 5 branched rays. The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is very strong and bears denticles along almost its whole length or three-quarters of the length. Pectoral fin branched rays 14-18, pelvic fin rays 7. Lateral line scales 75-88. Scales have few radii on all fields, fine circuli and a focus slightly subcentral anterior. Total gill rakers about 10-13, broad based and triangular in shape with highly tubercular distal or foliose margin. The longest raker reaches the one below when appressed. Total vertebrae 45 (Howes, 1987). Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,3,-3,3,2, occasionally 2,3,4-4,3,2, the usual number of teeth in the inner row in large specimens being 3 (Krupp, 1985a). The third inner row tooth is the biggest by far and is molariform. Juveniles have 5 inner row teeth (Krupp, 1985c). Total vertebrae 46. The mouth is horseshoe-shaped, small and inferior. Lips are well-developed and fleshy. The median lobe of the lower lip is undeveloped. The barbels are thick. The gut has many anterior loops, the number increasing with size.
Meristics for Iranian material:- dorsal fin branched rays 8(1), anal fin branched rays 5(1), pectoral fin branched rays 14(1), and pelvic fin branched rays 5(1). Lateral line scales 83(1). Total gill rakers ?. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,4-4,3,2 (1).
?others
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
The whole body, head, fins, barbels, lips and even eyeball are covered with dark spots about the same size as or larger than the eye. Some larger flank spots are 2-3 times the eye diameter. Spots on fins are elongated along the fin length. These spots are arranged in patterns similar to a quincunx, hence the species name. A quincunx comprises four spots, one at each corner of a square with the fifth spot in the middle of the square. Sometimes a spot runs into an adjacent one. Some spots below the lateral line may be elongate, three times longer than wide, and arranged vertically. Occasional fish lack spots on the mid-flank but are still distinctively spotted elsewhere. The overall colour is greenish to brownish-yellow with the belly white. Peritoneum dark brown to black.
Size
Reaches 33.8 cm total length (Menon, 1956), 45.7 cm (Khalaf, 1961) or 60 cm (Sauvage, 1884).
Distribution
Found in the Tigris-Euphrates basin including its Iranian portion in such rivers as the Jarrahi (Wossughi, 1978; Rainboth, 1981; Abdoli, 2000).
Zoogeography
Almaça (1991) believes that this species originated in Mesopotamia.
Habitat
Unknown but recorded from rivers and artificial reservoirs.
Age and growth
Şen et al. (1992) examined 9 fish in Keban Dam Lake, Turkey and found age groups 3-7, growth rings being best expressed in sectioned dorsal fin rays. The length-weight relationship was logw = - 5.78723 + 3.27533 logl and the mean K(TL) was 0.8234. The b value indicates the habitat is suitable for the species.
Food
The molariform pharyngeal teeth and evidence from gut contents showed this species is an obligate molluscivore (Krupp, 1985a).
Reproduction
Unknown.
Parasites and predators
None reported from Iran.
Economic importance
This species occasionally occurs in commercial catches in Khuzestan but is not a common food fish compared to other Barbus species. It has been investigated for aquaculture in Khuzestan but fish are rare and so adults are caught and released.
Conservation
This species is now very rare in Iran and "critically endangered". Reports of 1 fish taken in the Gav Masiab River in 1991, 4 fish from the Karun River in 1995 and 1 fish from the Karun River at Ahvaz in 1997 were the only records for the 1990s (M. Ramin, pers. comm., 2000). The stock of this species in the Gav Masiab River is severely reduced and during 4 years of collecting in western Iran only one fish was caught (J. Valiallahi, www.modares.ac.ir, downloaded 4 July 2000; pers. comm., 2001; Valeolahy, 2000).
Syrian populations in the Euphrates River and parts of its tributaries are also in a parlous state (R. Beck, pers. comm., 2000).
Further work
The biology of this distinctive species should be investigated.
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material:- CMNFI 1993-0133, ?, ? mm standard length, (): ZMH 2506, 1, 308.0 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Karasu-Gamasiab-Seymarreh, Kermanshah (); FMNH70794,1, ?, Javanarud near Kermanshah (); and market specimens from Khuzestan.
Comparative material:- CMNFI 1980-1036, 1, 177.5 mm standard length, Turkey, Keban Dam on Murat Nehri near Elazig (38º41'N, 39º14'E); CMNFI 1986-0676, 1, 283.0 mm standard length, Turkey, Keban Dam on Murat Nehri (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1874.4.28:15, 1, 415.3 mm standard length, Iraq, Tigris River near Baghdad (33º21'N, 44º25'E); BM(NH) 1875.1.14:3-5, 3, 377.6-468.2 mm standard length, Iraq, Tigris River (no other locality data); BM(NH) 1974.2.22:1353, 1, 253.4 mm standard length, Iraq, Sirwan River, Diyala (no other locality data);
Barbus xanthopterus
(Heckel, 1843)
Common names
گطان (gatan or gattan).
[gattan or ghattan, nobbash, or thekar, all in Arabic; yellowfin barbel].
Systematics
Howes (1987) places this species in Barbus sensu stricto. Almaça (1983) briefly reviews the placement of this species in synonymy; most ichthyologists now regard it as a distinct species. Barbus xanthopterus has been considered as a variant of Barbus schejch but differs in gill raker count (10-13 in xanthopterus, 21 in schejch) and main row pharyngeal tooth count (5 in xanthopterus and 4 in schejch) (Almaça, 1983; see also discussion under Barbus pectoralis; Heckel (1843b), however, gives the main row count for xanthopterus as 4). It has also been considered as a synonym of esocinus (q.v.) (Almaça, 1986).
Fayazi et al. (2006) used mtDNA to study differentiation between populations of this species in the Karun, Karkheh and Jarrahi rivers in Iran. Diversity was low although the Karun and Karkheh fish grouped together, leading to the recommendation that fish from the Jarrahi should not be used to stock other river basins.
Almaça (1986) records syntypes of Luciobarbus xanthopterus from the type locality given by Heckel (1843b) "Tigris bei Mossul", Iraq in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien under NMW 54841 (10 specimens, one large fish at 216.5 mm standard length and 9 smaller fish at 48.6-63.4 mm; one of these was noted as being listed as the lectotype in 1997 (? the largest), and the catalogue number was 54841a) and NMW 54786 (1 specimen, 292.8 mm, not listed as a type in 1997). Material listed under NMW 1843 (? catalogue number or collection date) may also be syntypes. Eschmeyer et al. (1996) list 1 dried syntype under NMW 91215. The catalogue in Vienna lists 4 fish in spirits and 2 fish stuffed.
Key characters
This species is characterised by two pairs of barbels, a serrated dorsal fin spine, small scales (57-68 in lateral line), and a subterminal to terminal and oblique mouth. The elongate postorbital length is also seen in Barbus esocinus but is more marked in the latter (check this?) and scale counts are different (check?).
Morphology
Dorsal fin with 4 unbranched and 7-9, usually 8, branched rays, anal fin with 3 unbranched and 5 branched rays. Pelvic fin branched rays 8. Pectoral fin branched rays 14-18 (Jawad, 1975). Lateral line scales 57-68. Scales have rounded dorsal, ventral and posterior margins and an anterior margin with a central protuberance and indentations above and below. Circuli are fine and radii are found on the anterior and posterior fields and sometimes the lateral fields. The focus is subcentral anterior. There is no distinct pelvic axillary scale. Gill rakers 7-13, short and reaching the adjacent raker when appressed. Pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2, strongly hooked the fourth tooth of the inner row being the largest and anterior teeth being rounded with a small flat or concave grinding surface below the tip. Qasim and Niazi (1975) gave a tooth formula of 4,3,2-2,3,4, i.e. 2,3,4-4,3,2 as does Heckel (1843b) and teeth were molariform. Total vertebrae 44 (Howes, 1987), 40-42 (Qasim and Niazi, 1975), 42 (Wossughi, 1978) or 46 (BM(NH) 1973.5.21:198). The last unbranched dorsal fin ray is moderately to very strong, has a low denticle density and is serrate along much of its length. Barbels are thin, the maxillary barbels are longer than rostral barbels but both are short, the rostral ones not extending beyond the level of the nostrils and the maxillary ones not extending back beyond mid-eye to rear eye level. The gut has one anterior and two posterior loops in an elongate s-shape. The mouth is moderate in size, inferior and an elongate u-shape in young fish and as development progresses becomes terminal in adults (Karaman, 1971; Almaça, 1984b). Lips are thin to moderate and the lower lip has no median lobe.
Iranian specimens had the following meristics:- dorsal fin branched rays 8(2); anal fin branchd rays 5(2); pectoral fin branched rays 18(2); pelvic fin branched rays 8(2); lateral line scales 57(1) or 68(1); total gill rakers 7(1) or 10(1); pharyngeal teeth 2,3,5-5,3,2(2); and total vertebrae ?.
Sexual dimorphism
Unknown.
Colour
The body is without distinctive marks. The back is brownish to bluish-grey, the flanks silvery to silvery-yellow, and the belly white. The scales are outlined by melanophores. The overall colour from a marsh habitat is darker than from a riverine habitat, the pigment outlining scales being thicker for example especially at the scale base. The eye is red in marsh specimens, white to yellowish elsewhere (M. Al-Mukhtar, pers. comm., 1995). All fins are lemon-yellow to orange with some darker melanophores. The unbranched dorsal fin rays and the uppermost caudal fin rays are black.
Two small specimens from Iran have irregular spots and blotches on the flank. The peritoneum is silvery with melanophores developed dorsally.
Size
Al-Hassan et al. (1986) report a specimen 1.5 m total length and 8.6 kg from the Abu Al Khasib area in the Shatt al Arab, Iraq.
Distribution
This species is found in the Tigris-Euphrates basin including its Iranian portion such as the lower Karun River and adjacent lower reaches of the Jarrahi River (Abdoli, 2000), the Qareh Su at Kermanshah, the Karkheh River and Hawr al Azim.
Zoogeography
Almaça (1984b, 1991) considers that the origin of this species lies with a group that migrated southwards in the late Pliocene from the Dacian Lake of the Sarmatian Sea and speciated in Mesopotamia.
Habitat
van den Eelaart (1954) and Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) describe the habitat for this species in the Tigris River as distributed in the deep, open waters of lakes and vegetated marshes and to a lesser extent in the river and its tributaries. Mature fish move upstream to the spawning grounds in February-March and spent fish descend to their original habitat in lakes and marshes. In summer, beginning in June, under low water level conditions and high temperatures, the smaller fish remain in the deepest depressions of lakes but the large fish (3 kg or more) migrate up rivers and tributaries in search of cooler water, returning in September and October when temperatures fall to fatten over winter.
In Khuzestan, this species is most abundant in the Karkheh River in March and in the Hawr al-Azim in December, migrating from the wetland to the river in spring. Younger fish are more abundant in the wetland and older fish in the river (Iranian Fisheries Research Organization Newsletter, 22:3, 2000; Eskandary et al., 2000). Another study showed this species to be most abundant in the Karkheh River in December, with a migration from wetlands in spring to the main river (Tehran Times, 1 October 2000).
Age and growth
Life span is at least 11 years (Al-Ahmed, 1966a). Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) working on Tigris River fishes found males to mature at about 43 cm and females at about 48 cm, maturity being attained in the fourth year of life and spawning occurring at the beginning of the fifth. Some fish mature at age group 3 and some as late as age group 5. Males outnumber females on the spawning grounds, comprising 62% of the population. Tigris River and Al-Tharthar reservoir fish in Iraq had 7 age groups with growth good in the first three years and slower thereafter (Ali, 1979). In Keban Dam Lake, Turkey, age determination was best made on sectioned dorsal fin rays (of scales, otoliths, vertebrae and opercula) and up to 9 age groups were detected (Duman and Şen, 1995).
In the Karkheh River, male fish are mature at 151-200 mm (one year old) and females at 501-550 mm (3 years old). The sex ratio is 1:1.31 for males:females but this is not significantly different from 1:1 (Eskandary et al., 2000).
Food
Al-Hassan et al. (1986) report isopods and molluscs. Al-Hamed (1965) considers this species to be an omnivore, consuming filamentous algae, detritus, frogs, molluscs and fishes and even planktonic organisms. Organic matter is obtained in periods of food shortage by engulfing mud from the pond bottom. van den Eelaart (1954) reports food to be plants, epiphytes and plankton. In cold winters they take no food. Ali (1979) for Iraqi waters gives insects and plankton as the principle foods. In Khuzestan it is omnivorous, feeding mainly on insects and vegetation, but also taking secondarily shrimps, snails and ostracods (Iranian Fisheries Research Organization Newsletter, 22:3, 2000; Eskandari et al., 2003). In the Karkheh River food is insects and vegetation mainly, with shrimps, gastropods and ostracods secondary food choices (Tehran Times, 1 October 2000). The intestine fullness is greater in fish in the Hawr al Azim, less in the Karkheh River which is used mainly for spawning (Eskandari et al., 2003).
Reproduction
van den Eelaart (1954) and Al-Hamed (1966b; 1972) studied the reproduction of this species in Iraq. Eggs are deposited on fine gravels overlying a layer of coarse sand in shallow, wide holes excavated by the fish. Water depth varies from 30 to 150 cm. Egg diameter is 1.0 mm and fecundity up to 340,000 grey eggs. Al-Hassan et al. (1986) record up to 350,000 eggs for their large fish from the Shatt-al-Arab. The spawning season on the Tigris River between Beled and Tigrit is April and May. Fish appear on the spawning grounds in schools just before dark and remain there until shortly before midnight, making loud noises by splashing, jumping and chasing.
In Khuzestan, spawning fish are 63.7-80.0 cm total length with a relative fecundity of 18.9-142.5 eggs/g body weight and a minimum and maximum absolute fecundity of 136,924 and 549,211 eggs (Iranian Fisheries Research Organization Newsletter, 22:3, 2000; Eskandari et al., 2003). In the Karkheh River, spawning took place at surface water temperatures of 25.5-28.65°C in turbid water after a spring migration from wetlands into the river (Tehran Times, 1 October 2000; Eskandary et al., 2000). Spawning occurs annually in May and June in the Karkheh River and maximum egg diameter is 2.25 mm (Eskandary et al., 2000).
Parasites and predators
Bykhovski (1949) reports a new species of monogenetic trematode, Dactylogyrus inutilis, from this species in the Karkheh River, Iran. Ebrahimzadeh and Nabawi (1975) list Anisakidae from this species in the Karun River. Moghainemi and Abbasi (1992) record a wide range of parasites from this species in the Hawr al-Azim in Khuzestan.
Economic importance
This species appears regularly in the markets of Ahvaz and Wossughi (1978) states it is of great economic importance. Sharma (1980) reports that gattan is the third most important fish species at Basrah fish market, accounting for 510,503 kg for the period from October 1975 to June 1977. Petr (1987) reports the annual catch for 1976 in Iraq was 2543 t. This species has been studied for pond culture in Khuzestan where over 95% of young survived, using hormones to stimulate reproduction (Iranian Fisheries Research Organization Newsletter, 28:3, 2001). Zadeh et al. (2009) investigated the optimal dietary carbohydrate to lipid ratio for fingerlings of this species. Mortezavizadeh et al. (2009) induced reproduction in this species with carp pituitary extract. Sperm production was increased, 86% of females responded positively, 480 eggs/gram were produced and mean survival rate was 77.95%. Propagation was best at the beginning of March at 19.0-24.5°C.
englers in Iraq catch this fish which will reject any bait showing resistance, requiring a fast strike at the first indication that the fish has taken the bait.
Conservation
Several hundred thousand gattan juveniles have been introduced into the Hawr al Azim in Khuzestan in order to restock and protect this resource. The fish were artificially bred from breeders using hormone treatment (Iranian Fisheries Research Organization Newsletter, 39:3, 2004; Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia, downloaded 11 January 2007). Endangered in Turkey (Fricke et al., 2007).
Further work
?
Sources
Type material: ?
Iranian material: ZMH 4071, 1, 151.6 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Qareh Su at Kermanshah (?). uncatalogued, 2, 93.7-112.8 mm standard length, Kermanshahan, Sarab-e Yavari (34º28'N, 46º56'E);
Comparative material: BM(NH) 1893.6.23:25, 1, 198.0 mm standard length, Iraq, Al Faw (29º58'N, 48º29'E); HL51.5, Postorb 26.6, for body proportions; g.r 13 BM(NH) 1973.5.21:198, 1, 143.0 mm standard length, Iraq, Shatt al Arab.
© Brian W. Coad (www.briancoad.com)