The species dealt with here in detail (Freshwater Families above) have all been recorded from Iran and confirmed by specimens. Mention is also made of other species which occur on the borders of Iran or in drainage basins shared with Iran. These have no valid Iranian record but may eventually be found in that country. The listing here is selective from other papers by me on neighbouring countries as a number of species are unlikely to enter Iranian waters because their distributions are too remote, e.g. Cobitis elazigensis from the Tigris-Euphrates basin at Elazig in Turkey or too restricted, e.g. Typhlogarra widdowsoni from a cave in Iraq (see Coad, 1991b). Coad (1995a) gives a more complete listing of species found in waters neighbouring Iran.

The definition of freshwater here includes the southern Caspian Sea which is at one-third seawater and has both nominally marine and freshwater species in its fauna.

The choice of introduced species to include in the Species Accounts is somewhat arbitrary. Soviet authorities introduced a number of species into the Caspian Sea and its tributaries and some of these became well established, spreading to Iranian waters, e.g. Liza aurata and Liza saliens, now commercially important. Other species did not become established but the potential for spread was there and so they are mentioned briefly in the Species Accounts. In northeastern Iran, the Tedzhen River flows into Turkmenistan and a number of exotic species are known from this former Soviet republic (see Aliev et al., 1988; Shakirova and Sukhanova, 1994; Sal'nikov, 1995). I have listed here only ones reported from the Tedzhen River basin and its reservoirs. The Tedzhen (Hari Rud in Iran) connects with the Karakum Canal which harbours a number of exotics as well as species from the Amu Darya. These may be able to colonise Iranian waters should they reach the Tedzhen River but are not included here in the absence of definite records.

A paper in Farsi by Farid-Pak (1957) records the grayling, Thymallus thymallus (Linnaeus, 1758), the lacustrine smelt Osmerus eperlamus eperlamus (sic) m. sprinchus (sic) (= Osmerus eperlanus eperlanus morpha spirinchus Pallas, 1814) and the sculpin Cottus gobio koshewnikowi Grazianov, 1907 from the Caspian coast of Iran but the first two species are distributed in waters remote from Iran and the last has not been recorded south of the Caucasus (Abdurakhmanov, 1962; Abbasov, 1980). They are assumed here to be misreadings of the literature and are not included in the species list.

Some marine species penetrate the fresh waters of southern Iran from the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman. These species are included in a Marine List as an advisory. They are not included in keys but more detailed descriptions of these fishes can be found in the literature listed in the Bibliography such as Blegvad and Løppenthin (1944), Randall et al. (1978), Kuronoma and Abe (1986) and Assadi and Dehqani Posterudi (1997). Certain marine species do, however, spend a significant part of their life cycle in brackish to fresh water and are given full accounts as freshwater fishes, e.g. Carcharhinus leucas and Tenualosa ilisha. Choice of other marine species to be given a full treatment is dependent on frequency of capture, residence time and distance from the sea.

Coad (1991b) and the website Freshwater Fishes of Iraq give a list of marine species known from the Tigris-Euphrates basin but these are mostly records from the Shatt al Arab and Hawr al Hammar in Iraq which are under tidal influence. Hussain et al. (1989) give an account of seasonal fluctuations in species composition in the Shatt al Arab, Iraq. Little or nothing is known of the biology of these species in fresh and brackish waters. They are listed here to give an idea of the diversity of species which could be found in Khuzestan and in rivers along the Persian Gulf coast but are not covered in detail unless verified for Iran. Al-Daham and Yousif (1990) list additional species in an Iraqi estuary but do not distinguish the marine species which entered purely fresh water.

Some families have numerous species that do not lend themselves to treatment as a single file under the family name, notably the Cyprinidae. Each genus has a separate file accessed through the family name.

The Species Accounts are arranged by family after Nelson (2006). A higher classification can be found in the Scientific Names Checklist.

Each Species Account is comprised of the following parts:

a) Illustration

The species is illustrated by a line drawing which is accurate in respect of body shape, number, position and shape of fins, scales and other structures. This drawing is usually a composite one, based on both a variety of published illustrations and on specimens.

Further illustrations are from various sources as indicated, are of varying quality and format, and may include colour and black and white photographs.

Diagrams may also be found in the Keys to illustrate characters not apparent in the main drawings, such as mouth structure.

b) Map

Distributions are summarized in the form of a map. Often two maps are given, one for the whole of Iran and one zooming in on distribution if restricted to a particular part of the country. The maps are from a world map layer provided by Demis bv (www.demis.nl), accessed through http://linuxgurrl.agr.ca/mapdata/itis/itisrosa.php.

Maps must be examined in conjunction with the text Distribution (see below). Map points are are a reflection of adequately documented museum collections and literature. As such they reflect catchability, ease of identification, rarity, size (large species not as easily preserved in museums as small ones but perhaps better documented, even if only in general), field work, available nets and other equipment, contiguity to research stations and universities, road accessibility, commercial interest, research interests, and so on. However, while bearing all these variables in mind and reading the Distribution summary critically, it is possible to gain a picture of fish distributions and objective rarity of species.

A symbol records distributions based on specimens seen by me and on literature records judged to be valid and complementary to my data. Other sources of distributional data are field notes (principally mine and those of V. D. Vladykov) and sight and field records transmitted to me verbally by sources judged to be authoritative.

Note that these localities were ascertained in pre-GPS days from maps of varying quality and literature requiring some careful interpretation. Maps available in the field did not always match maps examined later and once I was lost for a whole day. Zooming in reduces accuracy proportionately.

Each symbol may represent more than one record because of the scale of the map or because of repeated visits to the same locality. Localities have not been sampled on a regular basis so population trends cannot be given. The general distribution in Iran and elsewhere is also given textually as outlined below.

The best records are those based on collections in a museum as these can be re-examined should any questions arise about identity and field data notes can be re-assessed for accuracy. However, the data associated with many museum collections are too vague or too contradictory to be included on maps with a locality symbol.

Criteria for inclusion of literature mapping records are as follows:-

1. Accurate identification (e.g. on geographical grounds; uniqueness of species so it could not possibly be anything else; lack of systematic/taxonomic confusion; distinctive characters cited in the text, drawn or photographed; assessed competence of author in identification),

2. Accurate latitude-longitude data. Latitude-longitude may be given by the author or derived by me from the literature based on maps and gazetteers, unique locality names, and my field experience close in time to when the material was recorded (road/river crossings have changed in some areas with new construction after the Islamic Revolution). One exception in accurate latitude-longitude data is that of migratory fish - if reported from a named river then the river mouth can be recorded since the fish pass this point on their migration (but few works mention the extent of upriver migration so no upper limit can be deduced; when an upper limit is given this is spot mapped; then the species is theoretically present in a continuous distribution from mouth to upper limit along the river but this distribution is not filled in and this presence along the river must be assumed from the known migratory habit).

Criteria for exclusion of literature mapping records are as follows:-

1. Generalised localities are not accepted, e.g. Safid River is not accepted since the actual locality along this river is unknown (except migratory fish - see above); landing ports, fish markets and fish farms are not included as localities unless the fish capture site or release site is known,

2. Localities with non-unique names, e.g. Hosseynabad, a common name for many villages; Shur River, a common name for any brackish stream, unless these have accurate qualifying data,

3. Descriptions with internal inconsistencies which cannot be resolved to one locality,

4. Named sites which cannot be found in a gazetteer; this is often a problem with Farsi names transliterated into various European languages with widely differing orthography,

5. Literature records which conflict with original field notes, jar labels or catalogues unless the literature explains why it differs.

Under Sources is a partial list of material examined, most with latitude-longitude. Some material was identified and is used in mapping distributions but lengths were not taken and that material is not listed. Sometimes fish were spirited away to be eaten, fell back in the river, leaped over nets, were kept by another researcher, were seen on market stalls and the source was given verbally, and so on. Collections in Sources may be annotated as "no other locality data" indicating that the collection data could not be interpreted to a latitude/longitude or was internally contradictory.

c) Scientific and Common Names

The use of scientific names is described in the Introduction. Scientific names are dynamic and can change as knowledge of the fishes increases. The ones used here are the latest available.

Common names in Farsi are given with the English translation in parentheses. Obviously some Farsi names are merely a translation from the English common name. Note however that some Iranian names are originally Arabic or Turkic in origin and I have not always been able to track their meaning. Some species have no common name and none has been advocated. Others have a common name which is applied to all members of the same genus (e.g. Nemacheilus species are called mar mahi (= snake fish)) but this has not been repeated under each species account. The common name in Russian, Arabic, Azarbaijanian, English and from Pakistan is also given to facilitate communication and understanding; these names are in brackets.

There are often many common "book" names for Caspian Sea fishes. This is a result of the Russian designation of subspecies and other categories such as natio. The names are often based on geographical locations. These names are included here, although many of the taxa are not now recognised, as an aid to study of the literature. The names are probably not used locally. Azerbaijani names appear to follow mostly the Russian designations for these subspecies and again may not be truly local names.

The names cited as by J. J. Heckel in Arabic are also of dubious value. They are quite old, often from areas remote from Iran, and may not be in use today. A number of common names whose origin is Arabic are in use in Khuzestan however, although transmogrified into Farsi.

d) Systematics

An extensive synonymy or historical treatment of the mis-application of scientific names is not given. Some earlier names can be found in synoptic works such as Berg (1948-1949; 1949), Coad (1981d; 1985), Krupp (1985) and others. In certain cases, systematic or nomenclatorial problems remain unresolved and these are briefly discussed.

Type locality is given for species originally described from Iran or immediately adjacent waters. This type locality is given as cited in the original text description in quotes ("....") wherever possible. Some type localities are not given in quotes, e.g. middle Caspian Sea, to denote they are a general indication of where the fish was first described - this is usually applied for older literature not at hand or for fishes not described from Iran but nearby waters. The original text, jar labels or catalogues may be compared and interpreted where these are unclear, contradictory or spellings of place names have changed markedly. Most agree well between these three sources and are easily located with due allowance for variant spellings, handwriting skills and transcription errors. Disposition, number and condition of types may vary with time however. Eschmeyer's on-line "Catalog of Fishes" has disposition of types but these records are only as good as the most recent revision of the taxon concerned. Latitude and longitude are calculated for type localities in Iran wherever possible.

Note that transliteration from Russian names often gives variant spellings for authors of species names. Actual dates of publication may vary one or more years subsequent to the date on the journal or article, i.e. publication may be delayed. This may not be evident from an examination of the article but may be known to the author or others familiar with the situation. This has not always been clearly set down in print and accounts for varying publication dates in different sources.

The disposition and condition of type material is given where known along with catalogue numbers. Museum acronyms are from Leviton et al. (1985) but these may change, notably ZIL (Zoological Institute, Leningrad, U.S.S.R.) became ZISP (Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia) and the British Museum (Natural History), London became the Natural History Museum but retained BM(NH) as its acronym. Note that knowledge of type material in museums changes as the specimens are examined over time. Not all new information is published as it is the result of in-house curatorial work and may only be available in catalogues and jar labels. The information cited here is the most recent available to me.

Subspecies and lower, non-taxonomic categories have received names. Such taxa (and non-taxa) have a narrower range of meristic characters and certain distinguishing other characters compared with the species. Ranges and descriptions apply to the species as a whole, since many subspecies appear to be ill-founded where they have been studied in more detail, e.g. see Rutilus rutilus, and indeed some species are not distinct but members of a wide-ranging and variable species, e.g. see Syngnathus abaster and Atherina boyeri. Certain subspecies may be valid, or their status is undetermined by recent study, and characters for these are given separately, either here or in Key characters or Morphology.

e) Key characters

The characters detailed here will separate the species from any Iranian freshwater fish. These characters (and the keys) should not be used to identify species from countries bordering Iran as they are specific to Iran.

f) Morphology

Under this heading are described a number of features which add to the key characters in describing the fish. Morphometric characters are not often used since the shape of body parts can be seen in the drawing and such characters vary greatly with sex and size in contrast to meristic characters. The accurate explication of morphometric characters depends on comparative statistics and is beyond the scope of this work. The assessment of variation between adults and juveniles or between geographical localities is limited by material and its presentation here by space.

The chief characters summarised here are meristic or countable characters. These include counts of scale, fin rays, vertebrae, gill rakers, and teeth. They are summarised as ranges based on literature sources (including my own data where this expands ranges). In certain cases literature data is extensive and swamps the few specimens available from Iranian waters. The literature ranges give an indication of how variable a species may be in a given character; data on a few Iranian specimens would give a misleading picture of potential variation which future students of Iranian fishes may find. Counts from Iranian specimens made by me are given with frequency in parentheses, e.g. dorsal fin branched rays 7(3), 8(34), 9(5) indicates that 3 fish had 7 branched dorsal fin rays, 34 fish had 8 branched rays and 5 fish had 9 branched rays.

g) Sexual dimorphism

Males and females often differ markedly in appearance, whether in colour, body proportions or in structural features and these are detailed here to obviate misidentifications.

h) Colour

The colour patterns of fresh and preserved specimens including males and females, young and adult, and spawning and non-spawning individuals are given where known. Colour can be a key character in determining the species but is also variable and should be treated with care in identifications. Some fish change colour to match their background or pale in response to a threat. Fish from muddy waters in Iran are often washed out and greyish in colour. Immersion in ice water enhances the colour patterns and some of this is retained in preservative.

i) Size

The maximum reported size is recorded as total length or standard length (if not specified then the source did not indicate which length was measured) and weight where known. These measures are not restricted to Iranian specimens since sample sizes are small for some species and would give a false picture of maximum size.

j) Distribution

This section summarises distribution for the whole range of the species both within Iran and the rest of the world. Within Iran the general distribution is given. The detailed mapped distributions are based on collections or literature with adequate data (see above under Map). Some literature and museum records are given simply as, e.g. "Safid River", which cannot be mapped accurately but can be cited in this section. Not every river mentioned in the literature is listed here, as common species are assumed to be widely distributed within a basin; generally only those major rivers or general localities that are in basins without a mapped distribution are cited.

k) Zoogeography

The relationships of the species, its origins and movements in the past are given here, where this has been determined.

l) Habitat

The type of habitat favoured by the species is outlined and includes such factors as altitude, substrate, temperature, salinity, oxygen, flow regime, pH, vegetation, turbidity, pollution resistance, etc. There are few detailed studies of habitat requirements for many species: some can be deduced from morphology. Field data can give a partial picture but are often limited to one time measurements of seasonal and daily variables such as temperature which are necessarily of restricted value. Colour illustrations of habitats are included where available.

m) Age and growth

This section, and the following two sections, either have no information or masses of information. The Caspian Sea basin species are often widely known and have books and numerous papers written about them. There is also a vast "Soviet" literature on some of these species but I did not have the time nor the resources to digest it all. Here only brief summaries can be given and it is not always clear whether the Iranian populations, often at the southern edge of the species range, or recognised as a distinct subspecies, have the same general ecology as European or more northerly "Soviet" populations.

Most species outside the Caspian basin are poorly known ecologically. I have attempted to summarize what is known based on literature in particular from Iraq and Turkey where ecological studies of varying quality have been published on some of the species. Morphology can be used to gain a general picture and knowledge of related species helps.

Generally growth in fishes is fastest in the youngest age groups, slowing with age and with investment in reproduction. Maximum age varies considerably, some small species living only a few years while others are much larger and are reputed to live longer than people. Conventionally, age may be represented by a number then the + sign, e.g. 0+ = a fish in its first year of life, less than one year old; 6+ = a fish between 6 and 7 years old.

n) Food

Diet is reported from literature studies and from brief examination of gut contents by me. Diet varies seasonally, daily, with age, between sexes, and with changes in environmental conditions but most fish concentrate on one or a few major groups. These are scrapers, invertebrates and fishes, and rarely aquatic macrophytes.

o) Reproduction

The spawning season, migrations, egg numbers and diameters, and reproductive behaviours are recorded here. Some migratory behaviour and ages at spawning may be recorded in the the Habitats and Age and growth sections.

p) Parasites and predators

This section contains information on the parasites and predators of the species described. I have recorded only parasites known from Iranian populations. There is a more extensive literature on Iraqi populations (see Mhaisen, 1980; Coad and Al-Hassan, 1989) and on European or Caspian Sea populations (see Romanov, 1955) for species found in Iran. For eastern waters consult Moravec and Amin (1978) on Afghanistan and Mirza (1978) on Pakistan. In the absence of definite records for Iran and in the interests of saving space, I have not cited this extensive literature.

There are a number of piscivorous birds in Iran (see Scott et al. (1975), Behrouzirad (2007) and general field guides) and these take fishes but there seems to be little direct observation on the fish species preferred.

q) Economic importance

Note that fishery information may be given on an annual basis but the year reads 1965-1966 or 1965/66; Iranian years start in March and run across 2 western calendar years.

r) Conservation

This section details conservation measures undertaken or needed for the species. A general survey of conservation status of native Iranian freshwater fishes is given by Coad (2000a).

s) Further work

This section gives some suggestions for knowledge gaps that should be filled.

t) Sources

This section refers to papers or synoptic works on the species in addition to those cited in the text. It should be noted that a number of synoptic works refer to several species in Iran, e.g. Berg's "Freshwater Fishes of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries", and these are not listed repetitively under each "Species Account" although they are to be found in the "Bibliography". Web sites or URLs are cited as documentation of statements but it should be noted that these may become broken links and they are not continually verified as active.

Descriptions are based on Iranian specimens wherever possible but additional material from neighbouring countries has also been examined. Meristic counts, for example, are given as frequency distributions for Iranian material while general ranges for these characters are based on Iranian material, on literature and on counts of other specimens listed here briefly. Descriptions are also based on material seen in bazaars or captured in the field but not retained, and on photographs, drawings, field notes of other collectors, and verbal descriptions of other scientists.

Details on collections are on file at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa and in other institutions as recognised by their acronyms. Locality data is given in short form and the reader is referred to the website of the relevant museum for further information. Locality names are taken from U.S. Board on Geographic Names publications and these may vary from names on labels in museums. The Board names contain both conventional and local Farsi, Arabic and Turkish names of localities. I have interpreted names as best I can and have, for example, retained English names for major water bodies and towns where a strict usage would be bewildering, e.g. Harirud = Tedzhen River, Sefidrud = Safid River, Al Mawsil = Mosul, Darya-ye Mazandaran = Caspian Sea, and so on. Sometimes a collection is annotated as "no other locality data", indicating that no further details are known or localities cited could not be found on maps or in a gazetteer (and thus there is no latitude-longitude). Collections listed as uncatalogued are mostly held in the Canadian Museum of Nature and may eventually receive a catalogue number. The collections listed are those examined for morphology. Map records include these collections, other collections checked for identity and locality only, and literature sources, all kept in a database held at the Canadian Museum of Nature: these would be too lengthy to list here.

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© Brian W. Coad (www.briancoad.com)