Barbus xanthos, Guclu, Kalayci, Kucuk & Turan, 2020

Freyhof, JÖrg, Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash & Kaya, Cüneyt, 2025, Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia, De Gruyter : 109-110

Barbus xanthos

Common name. Menderes barbel.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from other species of Barbus in West Asia by: ○ 53−60 total lateral-line scales / ○ last unbranched dorsal ray weakly ossified / ○ 7–10 gill rakers / ○ 41−43 total vertebrae / ○ head length 22−27 % SL / ○ lower lip with a median lobe / ○ numerous irregular dark-brown blotches on back, flanks, and head / ○ last unbranched dorsal ray 33–50 % ossified / ○ posterior margin of dorsal straight or slightly concave / ○ anal longer in female than in male. Size up to 190 mm SL.

Distribution. Türkiye: Büyük Menderes south to Eşen (Aegean basin).

Habitat. A wide range of stream and river habitats, usually in fast to moderately fast-flowing waters. In reservoirs, where inflowing streams provide spawning habitat. Spawns in fast-flowing waters in riffles on gravel substrate.

Biology. No data. Expected to be similar to B.pergamonensis . Conservation status. LC.

Further reading. Güçlü et al. 2013 (morphology, distribution); Güçlü et al. 2020 (description).

Caecocypris basimi ; Haditha, Iraq, 49 mm SL. Modified from Coad 2010.

Caecocypris Diagnosis. Distinguished from other subterranean fishes in This genus is represented by a single species: a small, whitish, West Asia by: ● barbels absent / ○ no gular disc. Size up to eyeless, troglomorphic fish without barbels and with large 49 mm SL.

scales. The orbit is filled with fatty tissue, and vestigial eyes Distribution. Iraq: aquifer near Haditha, accessible are present only in juveniles. The species was only found once through a well about 3 m below Shaikh Hadeed.

in 1979; virtually nothing is known about it. The large scales, Habitat. Underground waters.

body shape, and absence of barbels indicate a relationship to Biology. No data.

the geographically adjacent genus Mesopotamichthys . Conservation status. CR; possibly extinct. An attempt to locate this species in 2012 was unsuccessful.

Caecocypris basimi Remarks. Coexists with Garra widdowsoni .

Common name. Haditha cavefish. Further reading. Banister & Bunni 1980 (description).

Inside the pumping station in Shaikh Hadeed in Iraq, the only window to

the habitat of Caecocypris basimi and Garra widdowsoni . © O.F. Al-Sheikhly.