Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family, including the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives the barbs and barbels, among others. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family, and the largest vertebrate animal family overall, with about 3,000 species; only 1,270 of these remain extant, divided into about 200 valid genera. Cyprinids range from about 12 mm (0.5 in) in size to the 3 m (9.8 ft) giant barb. By genus and species count, the family makes up more than two-thirds of the ostariophysian order Cypriniformes. The family name is derived from the Greek word kyprînos.
Cypriniformes is an order of ray-finned fish, which includes many families and genera of cyprinid fish, such as barbs, gobies, loaches, botias, and minnows. Cypriniformes is an “order-within-an-order”, placed under the superorder Ostariophysi—which is also made up of cyprinid, ostariophysin fishes. The order contains 11-12 families, over 400 genera, and more than 4,250 named species; new species are regularly described, and new genera are recognized frequently. Cyprinids are most diverse in South and Southeast Asia, but are entirely absent from Australia and South America. At 112 years old, the longest-lived cypriniform fish documented is the bigmouth buffalo.
Barbus is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The type species of Barbus is the common barbel, first described as Cyprinus barbus and now named Barbus barbus. Barbus is the namesake genus of the subfamily Barbinae, but given their relationships, that taxon is better included in the Cyprininae at least for the largest part.
Puntius is a genus of small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to South Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia, as well as Taiwan.
Rasbora is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are native to freshwater habitats in South and Southeast Asia, as well as southeast China. A single species, R. gerlachi, is only known from an old specimen that reputedly originated from Africa (Cameroon), but this locality is considered doubtful. They are small, up to 17 cm (6.7 in) long, although most species do not surpass 10 cm (4 in) and many have a dark horizontal stripe.
Paedocypris is a genus of tiny cyprinid fish found in swamps and streams on the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Bintan.
A barb is one of various ray-finned fish species in a non-phylogenetic group, with members in the family Cyprinidae, and especially the genera Barbus and Puntius, but many others also. They were formerly united with the barbels in the subfamily Barbinae but that group is paraphyletic with the Cyprininae. If the Labeoninae are recognized as distinct, many small African "barbs" would probably, however, warrant recognition as a new subfamily.
Schizothorax is a genus of cyprinid fish found in southern and western China, through northern South Asia (Himalaya) and Central Asia, to Iran, with a single species, S. prophylax, in Turkey. They are primarily found in highland rivers, streams and lakes, although a few species occur in lower-lying locations, like Lake Balkhash and lakes of the Sistan Basin. Their scientific name means "cloven-breast", from Ancient Greek schízeïn (σχίζειν) 'to cleave' and thórax (θώραξ) 'breast-plate'. The western species are typically referred to as marinkas from their Russian name marinka (маринка), while the eastern species are usually called snowtrout. Although they do resemble trouts in habitus this is merely due to convergent evolution and they are by no means closely related apart from both being Teleostei: Cyprinids are in the teleost superorder Ostariophysi, while trouts are in the superorder Protacanthopterygii. Their ancestors must thus have diverged as early as the Triassic, more than 200 million years ago.
Labeobarbus somereni, or Someren's barb, is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its natural habitat is rivers. It is not considered a threatened species by the IUCN. Local names for the fish in Rwanda include ikinanga, inkwenwe, ifurwe (Satinsyi) and urwozi (Nyabarongo).
Jianghanichthys is an extinct genus of freshwater cypriniform fish from the Late Paleocene to Early Eocene of central and southern China, and the only member of the family Jianghanichthyidae. It is the oldest cypriniform fish known from body fossils, and the most basal known cypriniform.
Labeoninae is a doubtfully distinct subfamily of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. They inhabit fresh water and the largest species richness is in the region around southern China, but there are also species elsewhere in Asia, and some members of Garra and Labeo are from Africa. They are a generally very apomorphic group, perhaps the most "advanced" of the Cyprinidae. A common name for these fishes is labeonins or labeoins.
The Catostomidae are the suckers of the order Cypriniformes, with about 78 species in this family of freshwater fishes. The Catostomidae are almost exclusively native to North America. The only exceptions are Catostomus catostomus, found in both North America and Russia, and Myxocyprinus asiaticus found only in China. In the Ozarks they are a common food fish and a festival is held each year to celebrate them. The bigmouth buffalo, Ictiobus cyprinellus, can reach an age up to 127 years, making it the oldest known freshwater teleost by more than 50 years.
Messinobarbus is a doubtful genus of the subfamily Barbinae within Cyprinidae.
Barbus carottae is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus Barbus from Lake Yliki in Greece.
Hypselobarbus is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae endemic to India.
The danionins are a group of small, minnow-type fish belonging to the family Cyprinidae. Species of this group are in the genera clades danio and devario, based on the latest phylo-genetic research by Fang et al in 2009. They are primarily native to the fresh waters of South and Southeast Asia, with fewer species in Africa. Many species are brightly coloured and are available as aquarium fish worldwide. Fishes of the danio clade tend to have horizontal stripes, rows of spots, or vertical bars, and often have long barbels. Species within the devario clade tend to have vertical or horizontal bars, and short, rudimentary barbels, if present at all. All danionins are egg scatterers, and breed in the rainy season in the wild. They are carnivores, living on insects and small crustaceans.
The Cyprininae are one of at least 11 subfamilies of cyprinid fish. It contains three genera in its strictest definition but many more are included depending on which authority is defining it, especially if the Labeobarbinae is not considered to be a valid grouping.
Xenocyprinae, is a contentious subfamily of the family Cyprinidae, the carp and minnow family, originally from eastern Asia.
Syngnathoidea is a superfamily of the pipefish order Syngnathiformes. It is divided into two families, the speciose pipefish Syngnathidae, which includes the sea horses and monotypic Solenostomidae, the ghost pipefishes, which has just five species. The superfamily occurs worldwide in tropical, subtropical and temperate seas, especially in coastal waters around rock and coral reefs and among sea weed and sea grass beds. However, there are also pelagic species of pipefish and even freshwater species. In total the superfamily comprises in excess of 50 genera and nearly 300 species.
