Mahseer is the common name used for the genera Tor, Neolissochilus, Naziritor and Parator in the family Cyprinidae (carps). The name is, however, more often restricted to members of the genus Tor. The range of these fish is from Vietnam in the east and China in the north, through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, and across southern Asia including the countries of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh within the Indian Peninsula, plus Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan. They are commercially important game fish, as well as highly esteemed food fish. Mahseer fetch high market price, and are potential candidate species for aquaculture. Several of the larger species have suffered severe declines, and are now considered threatened due to pollution, habitat loss, overfishing and increasing concern about the impacts of unregulated release of artificially bred stock of a very limited number of species.
Puntius is a genus of small freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae native to South Asia and Mainland Southeast Asia, as well as Taiwan.
The red garra, also known as the doctor fish or nibble fish, is a species of cyprinid that is native to a wide range of freshwater habitats in subtropical parts of Western Asia. This small fish typically is up to about 14 centimeters in total length, but locally individuals can reach as much as 24 cm (9.5 in).
The shabout is a species of cyprinid fish also called in English, Persian or Arabic by the alternate common names shirbot and variations shabut, shabboot or shabbout, and in local languages by several other common names. It is a large freshwater carp found in Western Asia, where it inhabits the Tigris-Euphrates Basin, as well as Iranian rivers that flow into the Persian Gulf.
Alburnus is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows. They are known commonly as bleaks. A group of species in the genus is known as shemayas. The genus occurs in the western Palearctic realm, and the center of diversity is in Turkey.
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.
Garra is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. These fish are one example of the "log suckers", sucker-mouthed barbs and other cyprinids commonly kept in aquaria to keep down algae. The doctor fish of Anatolia and the Middle East belongs in this genus. The majority of the more than 140 species of garras are native to Asia, but about one-fifth of the species are from Africa.
Aphanius is a genus of pupfishes. Unlike other members of the family which are from the Americas, Aphanius species are native to northern Africa, southwestern Asia and southern Europe. Several species in the genus have very small distributions and are seriously threatened.
Aphanius vladykovi is a species of old world pupfish endemic to a restricted area of the central Zagros Mountains of Iran. It can also be found in the aquarium trade. Its specific name honours the zoologist Vadim D. Vladykov (1898-1986) who studied the fishes of the Caspian basin and wo accepted the species author, Brian W. Coad, as a graduate student.
M. J. S. Wijeyaratne is a Sri Lankan academic. He was the Vice-Chancellor of University of Kelaniya and Professor of Zoology.
Dendronucleata is a genus of small parasitic spiny-headed worms. It is the only genus in the family Dendronucleatidae. This genus contains three species that are distributed globally, being collected in North America and Asia. The distinguishing features of this genus among Archiacanthocephalans is the presence of randomly distributed dendritically branched giant hypodermic nuclei. Dendronucleata parasitize freshwater fish and a salamander by attaching themselves in the intestines using their hook covered proboscis and adhesives secreted from cement glands.
Capoeta barroisi, also known as the Orontes scraper or Tigris barb, is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish from the Near East. This species is up to 20 cm long an has sides with brownish spots irregularly arranged in the upper half of the body.
Capoeta caelestis, the Taurus scraper, is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish endemic to southern Anatolia, Turkey. It is less than 20 cm long.
Capoeta damascina, the Levantine scraper or Mesopotamian barb, is a species of cyprinid fish from the Near East region. It is reported from Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Turkey.
Capoeta ekmekciae, the Grusinian scraper is a kind of freshwater cyprinid fish from Turkey. It is known exclusively from the Çoruh River. It was described as a separate species in 2006.
Capoeta erhani, also known as the Ceyhan scraper, is a Turkish species of freshwater cyprinid fish in the genus Capoeta.
Tor douronensis, also known as Labeobarbus douronensis, is a species of ray-finned fish of the family Cyprinidae in the genus Tor. This Asian fresh water river carp can be discovered in southern Thailand, east to Vietnam and south to Indonesia. The species is known from the Chao Phraya and Mekong rivers.
This fish has been attributed to Valenciennes however, in his original notes, he claims that the fish he described "formed part of the collection made in Java by Kuhl and Van Hesselt; they named it Dourr." Certainly, the type locality is Java, in Indonesia and the holotype is lodged at Bogor Zoology Museum.
Alexandr Vladimirovich Gussev, sometimes spelled Gusev in the literature, was a Russian helminthologist specialist of monogeneans.
Capoeta razii, is a newly described species of freshwater cyprinid fish occurring mainly in southern Caspian Sea basin, Iran. This species was mistakenly reported by many authors as Capoeta gracilis in northern Iranian regions. It was first reported to be different from Capoeta gracilis by Levin et al. (2012).
