Cobitidae
Loach ( Cobitis taenia )
Loach, loaches in the narrow sense, or even Dorngrundeln ( Cobitidae ), are bottom dwelling freshwater fish from the order of carp -like ( Cypriniformes ). They are small to medium-sized, fusiform to elongated fish. All loach live in the Old World, Europe, Asia and in two isolated locations in North Africa.
In Germany there are four wolffish species, the European loach ( Misgurnus fossilis ), who lives mainly in nutrient-rich lakes and ponds, and the loach ( Cobitis taenia ), which occurs mainly in rivers, also the Danubian loach ( Cobitis elongatoides ), which occurs in the Saxon Elbeinzugsgebiet and not yet equipped with a German name type with the Latin name Sabanejewia baltica, which reached the Oder, the western border of its distribution area.
Features
Wolffish are depending on Art 4.5 up to 56 cm long. Your body is cylindrical, elongated, and in contrast to the laterally flattened body of the clown loaches round in cross section. You have three to six Bartel pairs, including a pair Rostralbarteln that can rarely be absent. The mouth is inferior. The lateral line on the head is unremarkable, and the caudal fin usually rounded or slightly emarginate, forked only at Acantopsis and some Lepidocephalichthys. The Pharyngealia is occupied by a row of teeth. In a pocket of skin under each eye each is a thorn that can be expanded by muscle movements forward and locked with a bone joint. Wolffish feed on small, ground-dwelling invertebrate animals. Some of them also take herbal diet that.
Dissemination
The fish live in all of Europe, with the exception of northern Scandinavia, the, throughout Asia with the exception of the Arabian Peninsula, the far north of Siberia, between the mouth of the Ob and the Lena, the Chukchi Peninsula, Kamchatka, islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Peloponnese the Philippines, Hainan, Sulawesi and the area east of the Wallace Line. In Africa, there is an isolated occurrence in northern Morocco, as well as in Ethiopia. Some new species were discovered in the Balkans only recently that live endemic in very small areas.
Outer systematics
The wolffish are a family of Schmerlenartigen, one of the two superfamilies of carp -like. In the past, the loaches and the Langflossenschmerlen were counted among the Steinbeißern. Lately, these are considered based on molecular genetic studies, as a separate family, however. The wolffish are the sister group to a common clade of fins suckers ( Balitoridae ), Ellopostomatidae and Bachschmerlen ( Nemacheilidae ). The clown loaches have a more basal position.
The position of the loach shows the following cladogram (after Bohlen & Šlechtová, 2009 and Chen et al, 2009. )
? Redhorse ( Catostomidae )
? Redhorse ( Catostomidae )
Sucking loaches ( Gyrinocheilidae )
Loaches ( Botiidae )
Langflossenschmerlen ( Vaillantellidae )
Loach loach or sensu stricto ( Cobitidae )
Fins suckers ( Balitoridae )
" Störmäuler " ( Ellopostomatidae )
Bachschmerlen ( Nemacheilidae )
Carp fish ( Cyprinoidea )
Inside systematics
The investigation of both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA supports the monophyly of the family.
- Loach ( Cobitidae ) (20 genera, 130 species) Acanthopsoides Fowler, 1934
- Acantopsis van Hasselt, 1823
- Cobitis Linnaeus, 1758
- Enobarbichthys Whitley, 1931
- Iksookimia Nalbant, 1993
- Kichulchoia Kim, Park & Nalbant, 1999
- Koreocobitis Kim, Park & Nalbant, 1997
- Kottelatlimia Nalbant, 1994
- Lepidocephalichthys Bleeker, 1863
- Lepidocephalus Bleeker, 1859
- Loach, Misgurnus Lacepede, 1803
- Neoeucirrhichthys Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1968
- Niwaella Nalbant, 1963
- Buckthorn Eye, Pangio Blyth, 1860
- Paralepidocephalus Tchang, 1935
- Paramisgurnus Dabry de Thiersant, 1872
- Protocobitis Yang & Chen, 1993
- Sabanejewia Vladykov, 1929
- Somileptus Swainson, 1839
- Theriodes Kottelat, 2012