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.
The common carp, also known as European carp or Eurasian carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia. The native wild populations are considered vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), but the species has also been domesticated and introduced into environments worldwide, and is often considered a destructive invasive species, being included in the list of the world's 100 worst invasive species. It gives its name to the carp family, Cyprinidae.
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.
The Cottidae are a family of fish in the superfamily Cottoidea, the sculpins. It is the largest sculpin family, with about 275 species in 70 genera. They are referred to simply as cottids to avoid confusion with sculpins of other families.
The Abyssocottinae are a subfamily of ray-finned fishes in the family Cottidae, the sculpins. They are known commonly as the deep-water sculpins. The entire subfamily is endemic to Lake Baikal in Siberia.
The gnomefishes form a small family, Scombropidae, consisting of three extant species of marine ray-finned fish in the genus Scombrops. They have two dorsal fins and are notable for scales covering the soft parts of the dorsal and anal fins. The eyes are large. The gnomefish, S. boops, lives in deep rocky areas, down to 400 m. It can grow to 150 cm total length and 16 kg weight.
Agonidae is a family of small, bottom-dwelling, cold-water marine fish. Common names for members of this family include poachers, Irish lords, sea ravens, alligatorfishes, starsnouts, hooknoses, and rockheads. They are notable for having elongated bodies covered by scales modified into bony plates, and for using their large pectoral fins to move in short bursts. The family includes about 59 species in some 25 genera, some of which are quite widespread.
The zander, sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Percidae, which also includes perch, ruffe and darter. It is found in freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. It is a popular game fish and has been introduced to a variety of localities outside its native range. It is the type species of the genus Sander.
The Latidae, known as the lates perches, are a family of perch-like fish found in Africa, Asia, and the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Including about 13 species, the family, previously classified subfamily Latinae in family Centropomidae, was raised to family status in 2004 after a cladistic analysis showed the original Centropomidae were paraphyletic.
The Moronidae is a family of percomorph fishes, commonly called the temperate basses, in the order Moroniformes. These fishes are found in the freshwaters of North America and the coastal waters of the North Atlantic.
Synanceiinae is a subfamily of venomous ray-finned fishes, waspfishes, which is classified as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are found in the Indo-Pacific oceans. They are primarily marine, though some species are known to live in fresh or brackish waters. The various species of this family are known informally as stonefish, stinger, stingfish and ghouls. Its species are known to have the most potent neurotoxins of all the fish venoms, secreted from glands at the base of their needle-like dorsal fin spines. The vernacular name, stonefish, for some of these fishes derives from their behaviour of camouflaging as rocks. The type species of the family is the reef stonefish.
The goldeye is a freshwater fish found in Canada and the northern United States. It is one of only two extant species in the family Hiodontidae, the other species being Hiodon tergisus. The species name alosoides means shad-like. It is also called Winnipeg goldeye, western goldeye, yellow herring, toothed herring, shad mooneye, la Queche, weepicheesis, or laquaiche aux yeux d’or in French.
The louvar or luvar is a species of marine ray-finned fish, it is the only extant species in the genus Luvarus and family Luvaridae. This taxon is classified within the suborder Acanthuroidei, which includes the surgeonfish, of the order Acanthuriformes, and is the only pelagic species of this order. The juvenile form has a pair of spines near the base of the tail, like the surgeonfish, though they are lost in the adult.
Emmelichthyidae is a small family of small to medium-sized marine ray-finned fishes known commonly as rovers, bonnetmouths or rubyfishes.
Tincinae is a doubtful subfamily of freshwater ray-finned fish from the family Cyprinidae, it consists of the tench of Eurasia and the east Asian clod minnows.
Indostomus is a genus of small fishes native to slow moving or stagnant freshwater habitats in Indochina. It is the sole genus of the monogeneric family Indostomidae, Long considered to be sticklebacks, within the order Gasterosteiformes, modern analyses place the Indostomids within the order Synbranchiformes, related to the spiny eels and swamp eels.
Loaches are ray-finned fish of the suborder Cobitoidei. They are freshwater, benthic (bottom-dwelling) fish found in rivers and creeks throughout Eurasia and northern Africa. Loaches are among the most diverse groups of fish; the 1249 known species of Cobitoidei comprise about 107 genera divided among 9 families.
Polypterus endlicherii, the saddled bichir, is one of the largest species of the Polypterus genus of freshwater fish.
Congroidei is a suborder of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Anguilliformes, the eels. These eels are mostly marine, although a few species of snake eel will enter freshwater, and they are found in tropical and tempareate waters throughout the world.
Squaliobarbinae is a small subfamily of the carp and minnow family, Cyprinidae, which consists of three monotypic genera which have their natural distributions in eastern Asia. Two species, the grass carp and the black carp, have been introduced to other parts of the world for weed control and aquaculture. They are large cyprinids characterised by an enlarged subtemporal fossa, the palate articulating with the supraethmoid, an enlarged intercalar bone in the cranial vault, and a divided levator posterior muscle.
