Garra widdowsoni (Trewavas, 1955)

Freyhof, JÖrg, Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash & Kaya, Cüneyt, 2025, Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia, De Gruyter : 226-227

Garra widdowsoni

Common name. Haditha garra.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from other species of Garra in Persian Gulf and endorheic basins in Iran by: ● scales restricted to lateral midline, rarely fully scaled / ○ lateral line complete, with 28−35 scales in lateral series / ○ eye reduced and invisible externally / ○ cream white or pink, without colour pattern / ○ usually 8½ branched dorsal rays / ○ gular disc fully developed / ○ two pairs of normally developed barbels. Size up to 61 mm SL.

Distribution. Iraq: groundwater table near Haditha, from three wells; one about 3 m below Shaikh Hadeed, a second 9 m deep, 135 m south-west of Shaikh Hadeed, and a third called “Pigeon Hole,” 12 km south of Sheik Hadid shrine, all in Euphrates drainage.

Habitat. Underground waters.

Biology. Appears to spawn all year round as all sizes of fish are present. Grazes epilithic layers of bacteria and ciliates from rock surfaces. Also, takes food from water surface by upside-down grazing.

Conservation status. CR; three sites indicate a wider distribution in Haditha Karst. Water table in karst is now much lower than in past, and fish can only be found at Shaikh Hadeed. All other springs are dry. While this species was once very abundant, and hundreds were sold as ornamental fish in Baghdad, it is now rare in accessible parts

of groundwater. Water is abstracted from wells, and the construction of a reservoir on the Euphrates upstream of Haditha has lowered the water table. The species may be on the verge of extinction. However, it is impossible to study which part of population lives in inaccessible parts of karst and which part lives in inaccessible parts.

Remarks. Often placed in a separate genus Typhlogarra but closely related to Garra rufa . Coexists with Caecocypris basimi .

Further reading. Trewavas 1955 (description); Hamidan et al. 2014 (molecular phylogeny, placement in Garra ).

Springs at the edge of mountain slopes in the Orontes drainage, such as this one south of Qala’at in Syria, are the habitat of Garra variabilis .