identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
F255879BFFA8FA657634F80253C8F930.text	F255879BFFA8FA657634F80253C8F930.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Acheilognathidae	<div><p>4.1 |  Acheilognathidae</p><p>Based on morphological characters,  Rhodeus colchicus was described from the River Natanebi in the Georgian Black Sea basin (Bogutskaya &amp; Komlev, 2001) and the species is widespread from the North Caucasus to the south, not reaching Turkey. Molecular studies (Bartáková et al., 2019; Bohlen, Šlechtová, Bogutskaya, &amp; Freyhof, 2006) revealed that  R. colchicus is nested within  Rhodeus amarus . In their phylogenetic analysis, Bartáková et al. (2019) found six different molecular groups of bitterlings in the western Palearctic,  R. colchicus representing one of these. The phylogenetic structure of these six clades is poorly supported in the analysis by Bartáková et al. (2019) and it cannot be excluded, that  R. colchicus might be the sister group of all other western Palearctic bitterling clades. Similar results have been obtained earlier by the study done by Bohlen et al. (2006). Geiger et al. (2014) suggest that lineages of European bitterlings are very closely related and might be better considered as a separate populations rather than species. However, as the consensus of species status of  R. colchicus is not yet reached, we keep  R. colchicus as a separate species in the presented list.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA8FA657634F80253C8F930	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA8FA617634FB0454B4FA1D.text	F255879BFFA8FA617634FB0454B4FA1D.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Acipenseridae	<div><p>4.2 |  Acipenseridae</p><p>The actual distribution of sturgeons in the study area is not well understood.  Acipenser sturio and  A. nudiventris have vanished from the Caucasus since no records for decades exists. Even whether other sturgeon species still spawn regularly in the Kura and Rioni rivers, is doubtful.  Acipenser colchicus was considered the Black Sea population of the Persian sturgeon ( Acipenser persicus) by Marti (1940) or even the eastern Black Sea population of the  Russian sturgeon  A. gueldenstaedti by Berg (1949). It has been accepted as a valid and the Black Sea endemic species by Kottelat and Freyhof (2007). Following Marti (1940) we identify  A. colchicus as the Black Sea population of  A. persicus until the separate species status is confirmed.</p><p>(Continues)</p><p>(Continues)</p><p>(Continues)</p><p>Note: A cross – x, indicates the occurrence of the species in corresponding column; a cross in parenthesis – (x), indicates species translocated within the region, an asterisk – *, indicates the species that were not mentioned before for the countries.</p><p>Acipenser ruthenus has been recorded from the Kura River drainage in Azerbaijan and Berg (1949) mentions occasional findings from the western Caspian coast and the lower Kura River. However, there is no record or indication that there had ever been an established population of this species in the area. It is suspected, that sterlets found in the Kura mouth were migrants from the Volga population. The anadromous sterlet population in the Volga has vanished in the 20th century (Kottelat &amp; Freyhof, 2007) and more recent records of sterlets are very likely to have come from fish farms. It should be mentioned that, apart from anadromous populations, there are resident populations within the Volga drainage, for instance the Oka and Sura Rivers populations (Ivancheva &amp; Ivanchev, 2008; Shilin, 2001).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA8FA617634FB0454B4FA1D	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFACFA61756CF9E95455F955.text	F255879BFFACFA61756CF9E95455F955.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Anguillidae	<div><p>4.3 |  Anguillidae</p><p>Anguilla anguilla is occasionally found in the Caspian Sea basin, for example in the Aras River in Armenia in 2015 (Pipoyan, 2015). As this species only spawns in the Atlantic Ocean, all records in the Caspian Sea basin must originate from stocking or from individuals which reach the Caspian Sea basin through canals.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFACFA61756CF9E95455F955	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFACFA61756CFB2152C9FC7D.text	F255879BFFACFA61756CFB2152C9FC7D.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Atherinidae	<div><p>4.4 |  Atherinidae</p><p>Atherina caspia is widespread in the Black and Caspian Seas, where it is often identified as  A. boyeri or  A. pontica (see Vasil’eva, 2017). Naseka and Bogutskaya (2009), based on Tarasov (2001), treat  A. caspia as a separate species. Own (unpublished) molecular and morphological studies support the Black and Caspian Sea populations as a distinct species from the Mediterranean  A. boyeri, but fail to distinguish  A. pontica (the Black Sea) from  A. caspia (the Caspian Sea).  A. caspica has been earlier treated as a valid species by Naseka and Bogutskaya (2009), while  A. pontica was not. Here we also treat  A. pontica as a synonym of  A. caspia .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFACFA61756CFB2152C9FC7D	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFACFA607634F849547FFE75.text	F255879BFFACFA607634F849547FFE75.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Clupeidae	<div><p>4.5 |  Clupeidae</p><p>The diversity of shads ( Alosa) from the Black and Caspian Seas is poorly understood and early authors follow Berg (1949) listing 15 species and forms from the Caspian Sea only. The number of species has not been reviewed comprehensively in recent years and we treat the species accepted by Kottelat and Freyhof (2007) as valid awaiting a sound taxonomic review especially of the Caspian marine species.  Alosa curensis is sometimes mentioned as a valid species from Azerbaijan. This very poorly known shad was only found once by Suvorov (1907) and Berg (1949) mentioned that it is only known from the types collected from Kizilagach Bay (Qizilagac Bay) in Azerbaijan.  Alosa curensis has teeth on the jaws, 31–43 gill rakers, and the gill rakers length exceed the length of the gill filaments. With this combination of characters,  A. curensis keys out as  A. sphaerocephala with the identification key given by Berg (1949) and we cannot exclude that it might be a synonym of this marine species. Since no records of  A. curensis exist from freshwaters, we therefore excluded it from the current checklist.</p><p>Clupeonella cultriventris is widespread along coasts of the Black and Caspian Seas, entering lower reaches of rivers. Own (unpublished) molecular and morphological studies fail to distinguish the Caspian population ( C. caspia) from the Black Sea population ( C. cultriventris). Hoestlandt (1991) followed by Kottelat and Freyhof (2007) separate these two tyulkas largely based on the length of paired fins, a character we found to be very much overlapping in own materials examined. Therefore, we treat  C. caspia as a synonym of  C. cultriventris.</p><p>Clupeonella tscharchalensis is described from Lake Chelkar (47°50′N 59°36′E) in Kazakhstan. It is considered to be a freshwater species inhabiting rivers of the northern Caspian Sea basin (Hoestlandt, 1991) and to be invasive in the Don River. Tyulkas analysed from the Don are identified as  C. cultriventris by own (unpublished) molecular and morphological data. Until tyulkas from Lake Chelkar are further studied, we treat  C. tscharchalensis as a valid species having less gill-rakers than  C. cultriventris .</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFACFA607634F849547FFE75	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFADFA607567FE415771FA1D.text	F255879BFFADFA607567FE415771FA1D.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Coregonidae	<div><p>4.6 |  Coregonidae</p><p>Coregonus albula was introduced to Tabatskuri and Paravani Lakes (southern Georgia) from the Volkhov Hatchery at Ladoga Lake in 1930s (Barach, 1941). The local populations are still present and commercially valuable in Georgia though the abundance is decreasing due to the unavailability of local hatcheries (Kuljanishvili, Mumladze, Kalous, &amp; Japoshvili, 2018).</p><p>The taxonomic status of the introduced Caucasian whitefish remains unsolved. Based on literature (Barach, 1940; Dadikyan, 1964; Mailyan, 1957) two species were introduced to Lake Sevan in the 1920s:  Coregonus ludoga from Lake Ladoga and  Coregonus maraenoides from Lake Chudskoe (both in Northern European Russia). These two species naturalised and hybridised in the lake (Mailyan, 1957) and an intermediate phenotype was subsequently described as a  Coregonus lavaretus sevanicus by Dadikyan (1986).  Coregonus sevanicus might represent a valid species of hybrid origin. However, due to scarcity of recent data we cannot confirm or reject any taxonomic hypothesis related to Caucasian whitefishes. Thus, we list only  Coregonus sp. in the checklist. According to Elanidze (1983) in 1930-ies  C. ludoga was also introduced from Volkhov hatchery to Lake Tabatskuri in Georgia through the species was not recorded for at least the last 50 years. As there are no recent records of any  Coregonus from Lake Tabatskuri, we suspect that the population might be extirpated.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFADFA607567FE415771FA1D	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFADFA607567F9E955AEF9ED.text	F255879BFFADFA607567F9E955AEF9ED.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Cyprinidae A. d'Orbigny 1844	<div><p>4.7 |  Cyprinidae</p><p>There are three species of  Barbus distributed in the region.  Barbus ciscaucasicus in northern parts of Georgia and Azerbaijan,  B. cyri in the Kura and Aras drainage and  B. rionicus in the Black Sea basin in the west Georgia. The recent study done by Levin, Gandlin, et al. (2019) has shown that  Barbus goktschaicus does not differ from  B. cyri genetically and they both are distributed in the Kura-Aras system. Therefore,  B. goktschaicus is synonymised with  B. cyri .</p><p>Capoeta capoeta is widespread in the Kura and Aras drainages. Occurs in Lake Sevan and in Lake Urmia basin.  Capoeta sevangi from Lake Sevan is treated as a valid species by Gabrielyan (2001), Ninua and Japoshvili (2008) and Ninua et al. (2013) without presenting any evidence. Levin, Prokofiev, and Roubenyan (2019) identify the  Capoeta from Lake Sevan as  C. capoeta, and we follow Levin, Gandlin, et al. (2019) treating  C. sevangi as a synonym of  C. capoeta, also supported by our own (unpublished) molecular data.</p><p>Capoeta ekmekciae is considered to be endemic to the Eastern Black Sea basins from the Rioni River south to the Coruh. The molecular sequences that were analysed by Bektas et al. (2017) suggest that this species is very closely related to  C. capoeta . After checking the morphological characters given by Turan, Kottelat, Gülsün Kirankaya, and Engin (2006) to distinguish this species from  C. capoeta, we found them largely overlapping. As we could not find other distinguishing characters between  C. capoeta and  C. ekmekciae in our own materials, we treat  C. ekmekciae as a synonym of  C. capoeta.</p><p>Capoeta gracilis was described from the area of Isfahan in Iran, this name is not available for the  Capoeta species in the Caspian Sea basin. Despite, the fish from rivers south of the Kura was often identified as  Capoeta capoeta gracilis . This fish most likely belong to  C. razii that was described from the eastern Caspian Sea basin in Iran by Jouladeh-Roudbar, Eagderi, Ghanavi, and Doadrio (2017). Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2017) already reported this species to be very widespread in the rivers of the Iranian Caspian coast north-west to the Choobar River, close to the Azerbaijan border.</p><p>Carassius gibelio is widely introduced all over the study area. It appeared in the late 1970-ies in Armenia (Pipoyan &amp; Rukhkyan, 1998), followed by record from Georgia in the middle 1980th by Daraselia (1985) (as  C. carassius). Currently  C. gibelio is the most widespread and abundant invasive species which distribution ranges from lowland waterbodies as high as mountain lakes that are up to 2,100 m above sea level (Bogutskaya et al., 2013; Gabrielyan, 2001; Japoshvili, Mumladze, &amp; Küçük, 2013; Japoshvili, Mumladze, &amp; Murvanidze, 2017; Kuljanishvili, Japoshvili, Mumladze, &amp; Kalous, 2018; Oganesyan &amp; Smolej, 1985; Pipoyan, 1993, 2012; Pipoyan &amp; Rukhkyan, 1998). While  C. gibelio and  C. auratus can be distinguished by molecular characters (Rylková, Kalous, Bohlen, Lamatsch, &amp; Petrtýl, 2013), there is no agreed set of morphological characters to separate both species and we cannot exclude that many records of  C. gibelio actually refer to  C. auratus . It should also be noted, that  Carassius langsdorfi as an additional, superficially very similar species (Vetešník, Papoušek, Halačka, Lusková, &amp; Mendel, 2007) is also expected to occur in the area.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFADFA607567F9E955AEF9ED	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFADFA60762FFAB95260F825.text	F255879BFFADFA60762FFAB95260F825.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Gobiidae	<div><p>4.8 |  Gobiidae</p><p>Ponticola iranicus had been described by Vasil’eva, Mousavi-Sabet, and Vasil’ev (2015) from the Gisum and Sefid Rivers in Iran. As the fauna of the Sefid River is relatively similar to the fauna of coastal rivers of the Azerbaijani coast and the Aras, it is expected to find this species here in the future.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFADFA60762FFAB95260F825	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA2FA6F756CFC84575AFA60.text	F255879BFFA2FA6F756CFC84575AFA60.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Gobionidae	<div><p>4.9 |  Gobionidae</p><p>Gobio artvinicus was described from the lower Coruh River in Turkey and is expected to occur also in the Georgian part of the same river. The species is widespread in the Georgian Black Sea basin, where it is at least confirmed to the north to the Rioni River. Gudgeons are alien in the Kura and Aras River drainage. Gudgeons discovered in the Metsamor River (Armenia) in 1998 and identified as  Gobio gobio by Pipoyan (1998) might also belong to  G. artvinicus . The fish found in the Tashir and Debed rivers (The Kura river drainage) in Armenia are also morphologically similar to  G. artvinicus. Own (unpublished) sequence data identify the  Gobio species alien in the Kura in Georgia and Azerbaijan as  G. artvinicus and the species might be widespread also in the Aras.</p><p>The species identity of other  Gobio species in the region remains unclear.  Gobio caucasicus was described as  Gobio lepidolaemus var. caucasica by Kamensky 1901 based on a syntype series from three rivers: the Rioni in the Georgian Black Sea basin, the Podkumok in northern Dagestan, and the Sulak in southern Dagestan, both in the Caspian Sea basin. Furthermore,  Gobio holurus was described from the Terek River drainage, also in the Caspian Caucasus. Kottelat and Freyhof (2007) treat  G. holurus as a valid species and Turan, Japoshvili, Aksu, and Bektaş, (2016) treat  G. caucasicus as a valid species. Our own (unpublished) molecular data suggest that at least two species (excluding  G. artvinicus) might be involved in the Caucasian gudgeon complex and both seem to occur in the Black Sea as well as in the Caspian Sea basin in northern Caucasus and both are closely related, if not conspecific with adjacent species as  Gobio kubanicus,  G. krymensis and  G. brevicirris . Further study is needed to unambiguously resolve the Caucasian gudgeon complex in the future.</p><p>Pseudorasbora parva was accidentally introduced together with Chinese carps fry (e.g.  Hypophthalmichthys nobilis,  H. molitrix or  Ctenopharyngodon idella) from Asia followed the establishment of viable populations throughout the region (Bogutskaya et al., 2013; Gabrielyan, 2001; Naseka &amp; Bogutskaya, 2009; Ninua &amp; Japoshvili, 2008; Pipoyan, 2012; Pipoyan &amp; Arakelyan, 2015). The species is still expanding its range in the study area and recently it was discovered in closed mountain lake Kartsakhi (N41.216 E43.231) in the Javakheti highland (Southern Georgia) (own unpublished data).</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA2FA6F756CFC84575AFA60	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA2FA6E756CFA34573DFF3D.text	F255879BFFA2FA6E756CFA34573DFF3D.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Leuciscidae	<div><p>4.10 |  Leuciscidae</p><p>Alburnoides samii was found by Levin, Simonov, Matveyev, et al. (2018) in the Lenkoran River in Azerbaijan. Future studies might show that some  Alburnoides populations in rivers and streams south of the Kura and Aras drainages belong to this species.</p><p>Alburnus chalcoides is widespread in Azerbaijan and Georgian part of the Kura basin. It is also expected to occur in the Armenia (the Aras River) but has not yet been recorded here.</p><p>Rutilus caspicus from the Caspian Sea basin,  R. heckelii from the Black Sea basin, and  R. shelkovnikovi from the Metsamor River in the Ararat Valley (Armenia) were synonymised with  R. lacustris based on their mtDNA identity (Levin et al., 2017). This opinion is followed here.</p><p>Rutilus kutum is treated as a valid species by Bogutskaya and Iliadou (2006: 294) and following authors without a detailed discussion. The gene trees presented by Kotlík et al. (2008) showed clear geographical structure between the Black and Caspian Sea populations but the two populations were not reciprocally monophyletic at any of the three loci studied and there had been considerable gene flow suggested from the Caspian population into the Black Sea population. Own (unpublished) molecular  data (COI) fail to distinguish the Caspian  R. kutum from the Black Sea  Rutilus frisii . We were unable to find evidence why both species should be separated despite that they are frequently listed in un-commented checklists. Therefore, we treat both populations as conspecific,  R. kutum being a junior synonym of  R. frisii .</p><p>Rutilus sojuchbulagi was known only from the Akstafa Region in Azerbaijan where it has not been found despite of intensive fieldwork and specific research during the last ten years. Therefore, we assume that this species has gone extinct.  R. atropatenus and  R. sojuchbulagi from Azerbaijan were initially described as members of the genus  Rutilus (Abdurakhmanov, 1950; Derzhavin, 1937) but later placed in  Pseudophoxinus by Bogutskaya, Küçük, and Atalay (2006) without detailed discussion or arguments. Saç, Özuluğ, Geiger, and Freyhof (2019) place both species back to  Rutilus based on molecular COI sequence data confirming the original generic placement (Abdurakhmanov, 1950; Derzhavin, 1937) Future research based on nuclear molecular data might again challenge this placement.</p><p>Squalius agdamicus was described from a small river called the Kuyra at Agdam town, not reaching the Kura River (Berg, 1949). Doadrio and Caramona (2006) treat this species as valid and our own (unpublished) data strongly suggest that it is widespread all over the Kura River drainage, but there is no indication, that it also occur in the Aras, where it is replaced by  Squalius turcicus .</p><p>Squalius orientalis is treated as a valid species restricted to the eastern Black Sea basin (Khaefi, Esmaeili, Sayyadzadeh, Geiger, &amp; Freyhof, 2016) and identifications are largely based on the COI gene of  Squalius from the Ashe River in Russia,south to the Coruh River in Turkey. Its distribution range might be much larger and this molecular lineage is very closely related to a molecular lineage that is widely distributed in the northern Black Sea basin as well as in the Baltic Sea basin west to the Elbe River in the Czech Republic and Germany, where it is identified as  S. cephalus .</p><p>Squalius turcicus was described from the upper Aras River in Turkey. Özulug and Freyhof (2011) suggested that this might be the species distributed in the southern Caspian Sea basin. Turan, Kottelat, and Doǧan (2013) treat  S. turcicus as a distinct species from  S. orientalis . Also Khaefi et al. (2016) treat  S. turcicus as a valid species. Accordingly, all previous notes on  Squalius species from Aras river is treated as  S. turcicus . As of now, there is no comprehensive distribution data available for  S. turcicus and  S. agdamicus in the Caspian Sea drainage and they might frequently live in sympatry. Apparently, more data is needed to better understand the distribution of these two species.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA2FA6E756CFA34573DFF3D	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA3FA6E7567FD0957B7FE75.text	F255879BFFA3FA6E7567FD0957B7FE75.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Lotidae	<div><p>4.11 |  Lotidae</p><p>Only single individual of  Lota lota was caught in 1920 in the Kura River which was considered as an accidental migrant from the northern Caspian basin species (Abdurakhmanov, 1962; Derzhavin, 1949; Musayev et al., 2004). However,  L. lota also occurs in Iran and might have spread from this area to the north.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA3FA6E7567FD0957B7FE75	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA3FA6E7567FE415795FAD6.text	F255879BFFA3FA6E7567FE415795FAD6.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Nemacheilidae	<div><p>4.12 |  Nemacheilidae</p><p>Oxynoemacheilus cemali was described from the Coruh River drainage in north-eastern Turkey by Turan, Kaya, Kalayci, Bayçelebi, and Aksu (2019). The species is expected to occur in the Georgian part of the river also.</p><p>Oxynoemacheilus merga is distributed in northern Caucasian rivers (the Kuma, Terek, Sulak) which flow to the Caspian Sea. Although it has not been recorded in Georgia yet, we assume that the fish could be distributed in the European part of the country.</p><p>Oxynoemacheilus veyseli was described from the upper Aras River in Turkey by Çiçek, Eagderi, and Sungur (2018). The species name is incorrect and must be replaced by  O. veyselorum, since this species was named after two men, the father and son of the first author (see Çiçek et al., 2018). Loaches usually identified as  O. angorae in the Kura and Aras Rivers (Abdurakhmanov, 1962; Barach, 1940, 1941; Berg, 1949; Dadikyan, 1986; Elanidze, 1983; Gabrielyan, 2001; Levin &amp; Rubenyan, 2010; Ninua &amp; Japoshvili, 2008; Pipoyan, 2012; Pipoyan &amp; Tigranyan, 1998) might largely belong to  O. veyselorum .</p><p>Overall, the systematics of  Oxynoemacheilus species in the study area is still poorly understood and the taxonomic status of species such as  O. angorae alasanicus,  O. bergi,  O. brandti gibbusnazus, and  O. lenkoranensis need to be revisited.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA3FA6E7567FE415795FAD6	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA3FA6E7567F9A252FAFE80.text	F255879BFFA3FA6E7567F9A252FAFE80.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Oxudercidae	<div><p>4.13 |  Oxudercidae</p><p>Betancur-R et al. (2017) recognised Gobionellidae as a junior synonym for  Oxudercidae . Here we follow Betancur-R et al. (2017) and update the family name for the species which were before placed in Gobionellidae as  Oxudercidae .</p><p>Knipowitschia bergi, sometimes considered as  Hyrcanogobius bergi, has not been found in the last decades and new field data is encouraged to test, if this species might actually be extirpated in the area.</p><p>The  Rhinogobius species, considered invasive in the Caspian Sea basin, seems to be now widespread also in the Caspian part of the study area (Japoshvili et al., 2020) and is expected to enter the Black Sea basin soon. There had been several studies aiming to identify this species, which was treated as  R. cheni (Vasil’eva &amp; Kuga, 2008),  R. similis (Esmaeili et al., 2014),and  R. lindbergi (Esmaeili, Sayyadzadeh, Eagderi, &amp; Abbasi, 2018; Sadeghi, Esmaeili, Zarei, Esmaeili, &amp; Abbasi, 2019). The name of this species in our list is provisional and needs further confirmation.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA3FA6E7567F9A252FAFE80	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA3FA6E762FFD5455FBF825.text	F255879BFFA3FA6E762FFD5455FBF825.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Salmonidae	<div><p>4.14 |  Salmonidae</p><p>The diversity of Caucasian trouts is very poorly understood, what is related to the very recent evolutionary history of all species. Actually, trouts of the northern Caspian Caucasus are identified as  S. ciscaucasicus, described from the Keyranchay River. Those of the southern Caucasus are identified as  S. caspius, described from the Kura in Azerbaijan. Ninua, Tarkhnishvili, and Gvazava, (2018) support this view and suggest using  S. caspius for trouts from the rivers flowing into the Caspian Sea south of the Caucasus and  S. ciscaucasicus for that found in the Terek River and other rivers flowing into the Caspian north of the Caucasus. This system might be oversimplified and more research will for sure challenge our understanding of the species diversity of Caspian trouts. The Black Sea trouts were usually identified as  S. labrax until Turan, Kottelat, and Engin (2009) showed that within the Coruh River drainage, two forms coexist, which they named  S. rizeensis and  S. coruhensis, the former purely riverine and the latter anadromous. Ninua et al. (2018) suggested that the mitochondrial haplogroup of  S. rizeensis was never found in fish caught in the Black Sea. Ninua et al. (2018) support  S. rizeensis and  S. coruhensis as own species different from  S. labrax but indicate some hybridisation between  S. coruhensis and  S. labrax in the Georgian Caucasus, a situation expected to happen in two anadromous, migratory species at their distribution border area.</p><p>The trouts of the  Salmo ischchan complex are endemic to Lake Sevan (Armenia). Four “forms” of Sevan trouts are generally recognised ( S. ischchan,  S. gegarkuni,  S. danilewskii and  S. aestivalis) (Barach, 1940; Dadikyan, 1986; Gabrielyan, 2001; Levin, Simonov, Rastorguev, et al., 2018; Pipoyan, 2012). These have been interpreted as subspecies, ecological forms or life-history types. The available evidence strongly suggests that they had been species following the Evolutionary Species Concept (see Kottelat, 1997 for definitions). The four trout species were very closely related and might have been the result of sympatric speciation events happening after the last glacial times (&lt;10,000 years ago). While Sevan trout diversity has been poorly studied, this very interesting example of intra-lacustrine trout speciation has already been lost. The abundance of all Sevan trouts drastically declined in the twentieth century due to overfishing and loss of spawning grounds due to water diversion and a critical 18.5-m drop of the lake water level finally leading to the extinction of two of the endemic species.  S. ischchan and  S. danilewskii are considered to be extinct since the 1980-ies (Levin &amp; Rubenyan, 2010; Pipoyan, 2012). The two other species,  S. gegarkuni and  S. aestivalis are believed to still exist but they are largely or completely dependent on artificial reproduction and stocking.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA3FA6E762FFD5455FBF825	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA0FA6D756CFC8454C8FE50.text	F255879BFFA0FA6D756CFC8454C8FE50.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Syngnathidae	<div><p>4.15 |  Syngnathidae</p><p>According to Berg (1949) there was  Syngnathus nigrolineatus distributed in the Black Sea (Lake Paliastomi, the Rioni delta, Lake Nuriegel in Batumi, riverlets in Batumi region) and subspecies S. n.  caspius in whole Caspian Sea and downstream of the Kura River. Naseka and Bogutskaya (2009) elevated S. n.  caspius to the species level ( S. caspius) mainly based on the arguments provided in Tarasov (2001). Here we follow Naseka and Bogutskaya (2009) treating  S. caspius as a valid species from the Caspian Sea basin.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA0FA6D756CFC8454C8FE50	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
F255879BFFA0FA6D756CFE245782FC88.text	F255879BFFA0FA6D756CFE245782FC88.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Xenocyprididae	<div><p>4.16 |  Xenocyprididae</p><p>Hemiculter leucisculus is fast expanding its range into the southern Caspian Sea basin in Iran (Zareian, Esmaeili, Zamanian Nejad, &amp; Vatandoust, 2015) and was recently recorded from Azerbaijan by Mustafayev, Ibrahimov, and Levin (2015). Its invasion of the Black Sea basin is only a question of time.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F255879BFFA0FA6D756CFE245782FC88	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Plazi	Kuljanishvili, Tatia;Epitashvili, Giorgi;Freyhof, Jörg;Japoshvili, Bella;Kalous, Lukáš;Levin, Boris;Mustafayev, Namig;Ibrahimov, Shaig;Pipoyan, Samvel;Mumladze, Levan	Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel, Mumladze, Levan (2020): Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4): 501-514, DOI: 10.1111/jai.14038, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.14038
