Tanichthys

Cardinal fish ( Tanichthys albonubes )

Tanichthys is a genus carp -like freshwater fish, and includes three species. It occurs in tropical South-East and East Asia, in southern China and Vietnam before ( in the river system of the Ben Hai ). The genus was named after Tan Kam Fei, a Chinese scoutmaster who discovered the cardinal fish ( Tanichthys albonubes ).

Features

The size varies between about two and four centimeters. The body is elongated, laterally slightly flattened and has unobtrusive colors. The flanks are with pink, green and patterned black stripes. The mouth is upper constant, the lower jaw is slightly higher than the upper jaw. A lateral line is absent on head and body. Barbels, the Symphysenknopf the lower jaw and a belly keel missing. The pharyngeal teeth are in two rows. The two front and rear nostrils are merged and form each an elongated opening. The base of the dorsal fin is short, without spine-like dorsal spine. The anal fin base is short. It is not surrounded by a series of enlarged scales. The vortex centers of the second and third vertebra are not grown together. Males have a tuberculate with four to eight cornified tubercles in a row behind the premaxillary bone ( premaxilla ) during the breeding season.

Tanichthys - swarm-forming species are omnivores. The fish are ovulipar, which means that the females egg drop, which are then fertilized outside the body of the male.

System

The genus Tanichthys been assigned traditionally cyprinids ( Cyprinidae ). Scientists at the Cypriniformes Tree of Life project they put in a trichotomy with the tench ( Tinca tinca ) and a clade of " white fish " ( Leuciscidae ) and Gründlingsverwandten ( Gobionidae ) into its own family, the Tanichthyidae.

• Genus Tanichthys Cardinal fish ( Tanichthys albonubes Lin, 1932)
• Vietnamese cardinal fish ( Tanichthys micagemmae Freyhof & Herder, 2001)
• Tanichthys thacbaensis Nguyen & Ngo, 2001