Critically Endangered
Oxynoemacheilus tigris
Oxynoemacheilus tigris
Oxynoemacheilus tigris is a ray-finned fish in the family Nemacheilidae (order Cypriniformes), recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The species possesses a long, high dorsal crest with a whitish margin that extends through the anal-fin origin. Most individuals possess two bold black spots at the caudal fin base. The flank has several isolated, deeply embedded scales, and the body cross-section is compressed.
Range and habitat
Has recently lost majority of habitat due to limited geographic range making it a very vulnerable species. Loss of habitat has been caused mainly by climate change, with rivers drying up and human-caused extraction of water from these systems. Is now considered extinct in its reaches in Syria, Iran, and Iraq and is now only found in Queiq river in Turkey.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
After hatching in there larval stage they rely on their egg sac as their source of food before they transition into being a juvenile where they can start feeding on small invertebrates as they become stronger swimmers. Once they reach adult stage where they can handle stronger currents they can feed on more variety on invertebrates.
Oxynoemacheilus tigris feeding is like all other stone loach species that primarily feed on aquatic invertebrates among them chironomids and other insect larvae on the river bottom using their barbels around their mouth to locate their prey. As well they are mainly a nocturnal feeder where they feed only at night.
In crisis
This critically endangered species is endemic to the Queiq River in Turkey where it occurs ins a short stretch of stream between two reservoirs. It formerly occurred in Syria but it is locally extinct from the Syrian portion of the Queiq. This species is threatened by water abstraction and the increased frequency of droughts caused by climate change, most of the Queiq has already been desiccated.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed the Oxynoemacheilus tigris as critically endangered. The last assessment on the species was back in 2013 and since then there range has shrank even more and lead to the population to stay in decline.
Oxynoemacheilus tigris is Critically 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 Oxynoemacheilus tigris, Wikidata item Q2690382. 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.
