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New Fish Species Described from Streams of Manyas Lake Basin

TURKEY - The newly described species, Alburnoides manyasensis, belongs to the large carp family Cyprinidae that includes freshwater fish such as carps, the minnows, and their relatives.

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This is the largest fish family, and more notably the largest family of vertebrate animals, with over 2,400 species.

Cyprinids are highly important food fish because they make the largest part of biomass in most water types except for fast-flowing rivers.

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The newly discovered species, Alburnoides manyasensis. Credit: Davut Turan

The genus Alburnoides is widely distributed in Turkey, in rivers and streams of basins of the Marmara, Black and Aegean seas, being absent only from the Mediterranean Sea basin.

It is distinguished by small black spots located on each side of the fish, especially prominent on the anterior of the body. The description was published in the open access journal Zookeys.

The new species inhabits clear fast running water with cobble and pebble substrates. It is a comparatively small representative of the family with maximum known body length of only 92 cm while the largest representative of the family, the giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) can reach up to three metres in length.