Endangered
Eastern Cape Redfin
Pseudobarbus afer
The Eastern Cape redfin is an African freshwater fish species in the family Cyprinidae, this appears to be a species complex rather than a single species.
The minnow
Eastern Cape Redfin is a minnow in the family Cyprinidae (order Cypriniformes) — Pseudobarbus afer.
Range and habitat
It is endemic to the Sundays, Swartkops and Baakens river systems of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, the fish in other rivers in the region have been suggested to belong to different species with four different lineages recognised, a forest lineage that appears to be more closely related to Pseudobarbus phlegethon of the Olifants River than the other lineages traditionally classified within P. Afer, the other lineages are the "St Francis" lineage that occurs in the rivers flowing into St Francis Bay and has been given the name Pseudobarbus swartzi, the Krom lineage Pseudobarbus senticeps from the Krom River system and the "Mandela" lineage Eastern Cape Redfin sensu stricto. All of these populations are becoming rare due to habitat destruction and the impact of invasive species especially exotic bass of the genus Micropterus. Eastern Cape Redfin prefers clear rocky pools in the rivers it inhabits.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
It was formerly common and widely distributed, but Eastern Cape Redfin sensu lato has undergone steep declines in both abundance and range, a primary cause being the introduction of exotic fish species that compete with these fish and also predate them. Other threats include deterioration of water quality and the degradation of habitat.
Eastern Cape Redfin is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Eastern Cape Redfin, Wikidata item Q3235243. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
