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.
Puntius is a genus of small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to South Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia, as well as Taiwan.
Barbels are a group of carp-like freshwater fish, almost all of the genus Barbus. They are usually found in gravel and rocky-bottomed moderate-flowing rivers with high dissolved oxygen content, known as the Barbel zone. A typical adult barbel can range from 25 to 240 cm in length and weigh between 200 g (7.1 oz) and 200 kg (440 lb), depending on species.
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.
Labeo is a genus of carps in the family Cyprinidae. They are found in freshwater habitats in the tropics and subtropics of Africa and Asia.
Pseudobarbus is a ray-finned fish genus in the family Cyprinidae. The type species is Burchell's redfin. The scientific name is derived from the Ancient Greek pseudes ("false") and the Latin word barbus. This genus contains some of the South African redfins. It was originally proposed as a subgenus, but has since been found worthy of recognition as a full genus.
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.
Barbus figuigensis is a doubtfully distinct ray-finned fish species in the family Cyprinidae.
Luciobarbus graecus is a ray-finned fish species in the family Cyprinidae. It is here placed in Luciobarbus following the IUCN, but that genus is very closely related to the other typical barbels and perhaps better considered a mere subgenus of Barbus. Found in and adjacent to Greece, its closest living relative seems to be L. lydianus, which is found in the northwest of Asia Minor.
The giant Atlas barbel was a ray-finned fish species in the family Cyprinidae. It is now thought to be extinct.
Capoeta, also known as scrapers, is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae found in Western Asia. The distribution extends from Turkey to the Levant, to Transcaucasia, Iraq, Turkmenistan, in Armenia, particularly in lake Sevan and northern Afghanistan. This genus is most closely related to Luciobarbus and in itself is divided into three morphologically, biogeographically and genetically distinct groups or clades: the Mesopotamian clade, the Anatolian-Iranian clade and the Aralo-Caspian clade. The Mesopotamian clade was split off to Paracapoeta in 2022.
Chondrostoma is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are commonly known as nases, although this term is also used locally to denote particular species, most frequently the common nase . The common name refers to the protruding upper jaw of these fishes; it is derived from the German term Nase 'nose'.
Squalius is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae found in Europe and Asia. Hybridization is not rare in the Cyprinidae, including this genus. S. alburnoides is known to be of ancient hybrid origin, with the paternal lineage deriving from a prehistoric species related to Anaecypris; the latter mated with ancestral S. pyrenaicus. Present-day S. alburnoides mates with sympatric congeners of other species.
Varicorhinus is an invalid genus of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae. It was established by Eduard Rüppell in 1835 with V. beso as the type species. The prime distinguishing feature was designated as the shape of the mouth, and other species with a similar shape were soon added. However, this diagnostic did not prove to be monophyletic. In 2010, a synonymity of Varicorhinus and Labeobarbus was proposed based on mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. The synonymity was accepted by other researchers. The group of former Varicorhinus species inside Labeobarbus are called chiselmouths, while the remainder of Labeobarbus species are called rubberlips.
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.
Carasobarbus, the himris, is a small genus of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae. Its species are found in rivers, streams, lakes and ponds in Western Asia and Northwest Africa. C. canis can reach 66 cm (26 in) in total length, but most other species are up to around half or one-quarter of that size.
Labeobarbus is a mid-sized ray-finned fish genus in the family Cyprinidae. Its species are widely distributed throughout eastern Africa and especially southern Africa, but also in Lake Tana in Ethiopia. A common name, in particular for the southern species, is yellowfish. The scientific name refers to the fact that these large barbs recall the fairly closely related "carps" in the genus Labeo in size and shape. As far as can be told, all Labeobarbus species are hexaploid. One species, L. microbarbis from Rwanda, is known to have gone extinct in recent times.
Luciobarbus is a genus of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae. Its members are found in fresh and brackish waters of southern Europe, northern Africa, the wider Near East, the Aral and Caspian Seas, and rivers associated with these. Several species in the genus are threatened. Most species are fairly small to medium-sized cyprinids, but the genus also includes several members that can surpass 1 m (3.3 ft) in length and the largest, the mangar can reach 2.3 m (7.5 ft).
Barbinae are a subfamily of fish included in the family Cyprinidae. The taxonomy for this group has not been entirely worked out as some genera historically considered within it are still considered incertae sedis with respect to being a member of the family, and may be included here, while others may be moved to other subfamilies.
The lizard barbel, also known as Kura barbel, is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish from the Near East region. Kosswig's barbel is now a synonym, which also places the species in the Tigris–Euphrates river system of the Middle east.
