Loaches

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Loaches
Homaloptera bilineata

Homaloptera bilineata

Systematics
Cohort : Otomorpha
Sub-cohort : Ostariophysi
without rank: Otophysa
Order : Carp-like (Cypriniformes)
Subordination : Loach- like (Cobitoidei)
Family : Loaches
Scientific name
Balitoridae
Swainson , 1839

The flat loaches or carp loaches (Balitoridae) are a fish family from the order of the carp-like (Cypriniformes). They largely correspond to the earlier "Homalopteridae" ("Ebenflossern" - from ὁμαλός "flat, even (moderate), equal (moderate)"). Flat loaches are found in 14 genera and almost 100 species in fast-flowing mountain streams and rivers from India across continental Southeast Asia to China and Taiwan , as well as Sumatra , Borneo and Java .

features

Flat loaches have a flattened body and head and with the pair of horizontally positioned fins, the fish are able to suckle in the current. The mouth is below and surrounded by three pairs of barbels. The exoccipitalia (lateral bones of the posterior part of the brain capsule) are separated from each other by the supraoccipital (unpaired upper bone of the posterior part of the brain capsule). The enlarged cleithrum in the flat loaches and the mesocoracoid (bones in the shoulder girdle) have grown together. The gill openings are narrowed in some genera. In contrast to the Gastromyzontidae , the flat loaches have two or more anterior, unbranched fin rays in the pectoral and ventral fins (Gastromyzontidae only one fin ray).

Genera

The flat loaches belong to 16 genera and almost 100 species.

Cryptotora thamicola
Hemimyzon nanensis
Homaloptera ophiolepis
  • Balitora Gray, 1830 (12 species; front and rear India to southern China; 12 cm)
  • Balitoropsis Smith, 1945 (10 species; China to Indonesia)
  • Bhavania Hora, 1920 (2 species; front India; 10 cm)
  • Cryptotora Kottelat, 1998 (1 species; Thailand, in caves, blind; 4 cm)
  • Ghatsa Randall & Page, 2015 (Western Ghats, South India)
  • Hemimyzon Regan, 1911 (16 species; China, Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand; 10 cm)
  • Homaloptera van Hasselt, 1823 (11 species; India to China, Borneo, Indonesia; 13 cm)
  • Homalopteroides Fowler, 1905 (6 species; Southeast Asia)
  • Homalopterula Fowler, 1940 (6 species; Indonesia)
  • Jinshaia Kottelat & Chu, 1988 (3 species; China; 7 cm)
  • Lepturichthys Regan, 1911 (2 species; China; 13 cm)
  • Metahomaloptera Chang, 1944 (3 species; China; 5 cm)
  • Neohomaloptera Herre, 1944 (1 species; Indonesia, Malaysia; 2 cm)
  • Pseudohomaloptera Silas, 1953 (6 species)
  • Sinogastromyzon Fang, 1930 (20 species; Vietnam, China, Taiwan; 14 cm)
  • Travancoria Hora, 1941 (2 species; India; 12 cm)

literature

  • Maurice Kottelat (2012): Conspectus cobitidum: an inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei) . The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Suppl. 26: 1-199. PDF

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c Joseph S. Nelson, Terry C. Grande, Mark VH Wilson: Fishes of the World. Wiley, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2016, ISBN 978-1118342336 . Page 191.