Pike barb

Pike barb
Pike barb ( Luciobarbus esocinus )
Systematics
without rank: Otophysa Order : Carp-like (Cypriniformes) Subordination : Carp fish-like (Cyprinoidei) Family : Carp fish (Cyprinidae) Genre : Luciobarbus Type : Pike barb
Scientific name
Luciobarbus esocinus
Heckel , 1843

The pike barbel ( Luciobarbus esocinus ) belongs to the group of carp fish and is one of the largest species of cyprinids with exceptional weights of over 100 kilograms.

Name and designation

The pike barbel, engl. Mangar, Pike Barb or Tigris Salmon. The name is misleading because pike barbs are not related to salmon. The scientific names Barbus esocinus , Barbus euphrati , Labeobarbus euphrati or Luciobarbus esocinus were also used synonymously . In Persian it is called بچ, بل زرد, سس ماهي or سونگ, Anezh, Narbach or in Arabic Farch.

Occurrence

The pike barbel is endemic to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and other waters of the Mesopotamia in Iraq and Iran . In Iraq it was found in the Zab and Diyala rivers and in Iran in the Simareh, Dez and Karun. It is also common in some rivers and reservoirs in Syria and eastern Turkey.

Description and way of life

The profile of the head is straight or slightly concave. The upper edge of the eye touches the head profile. The mouth is relatively large and terminal, while the lips are thin. The middle flap of skin is missing on the lower lip. The barbels are narrow, the anterior ones reach maximally the anterior nostril and the posterior one the anterior or middle edge of the eye. The pike barb is very similar in appearance to the European barbel and also lives in fast-flowing and oxygen-rich water areas. Pike barbs feed on small animals, but if they are large enough, they increasingly become fish-eating predatory fish. Their back is colored olive to dark green and turns into a yellowish color pattern on the flanks. In ideal living conditions, it can be up to 2.30 meters long and weigh up to 140 kilograms. A specimen caught in the net in 2010, weighing 123 kilograms and 2.25 meters long, came from the Turkish Karakaya Dam in southeastern Anatolia . In the river system of the Euphrates and Tigris, Barbus esocinus is the largest freshwater fish and its population is severely threatened due to overfishing and river regulation. The construction of the Ataturk Dam in Turkey in the upper reaches of the Euphrates also threatens the population of this species. Except for the fish spawning in April until May, very little is known about the biology of the barbel.

Web links

• Photo of a large caught pike barb from the Tigris near Baghdad: [1]
• Pike barbel captured with the fly rod [2]
• Big pike barbel [3]
• Pike barbs from the Darreh Shahr Simarreh River in Iran [4]
• Pike barb caught in Iran [5]

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b} Pike barb on Fishbase.org (English)
2. ^ Carlos Almaça: On some Barbus Species from Western Asia (Cyprinidae, Pisces). In: Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. 87B, 1986, pp. 5-30 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
3. ^ Fishing World Records
4. ↑ http://www.cofad.de/syrien_d.htm
5. ↑ http://www.petri-heil.net/joomla/files/wrff_news_2006.pdf
6. ↑ http://ajol.info/index.php/tfb/article/view/56618