NEWS102
29
A specimenof
Myxocyprinusasiaticus
about 8 cm long.
Adult specimen,around,40 cm long.
apolitical viewpoint, that is including
Canada) with outliers in Mexico and
northern Siberia. And that one species is
our
Myxocyprinus asiaticus
. The second
species with a foothold on Asian soil (in
north-eastern Siberia) is
Catostomus
catostomus
, which has several subspecies
and is foundpartly inNorthAmerica,partly
inAsia,andthusmusthavecome intobeing
at a timewhen the Bering Straitswere still
land with freshwater rivers and not, as
today, an icy strip of water around 85 km
wide.
The natural distribution of
Myxocyprinus
asiaticus
lies in western China, where it is
found in theYangtze river system.
Onlyonespecies?
Myxocyprinus asiaticus
was described in
1864byBleeker,under thename
Carpiodes
asiaticus
. In 1872 Dabry de Thiersant
describedasecondspecies,
C.chinensis
.The
genusname
Carpiodes
isnowusedonly for
American species.The genus
Myxocyprinus
was erected in 1878. In 1889 Günther
described the species
Sclerognathus
chinensis
,whichNichols (1925) regardedas
conspecific with
Carpiodes chinensis
, but
distinct from
C.asiaticus
at subspecies level.
Nichols described a third subspecies,
Myxocyprinus asiaticus
fukiensis, and in
1929Tchangaddeda fourth subspecies,
M.
a. nankinensis
. Thus there are at least four
formally described subspecies, but there
has been no recent revision of the genus
Myxocyprinus
. The specimens available in
the tradeareall captive-bred.
Anendangeredspecies
Unfortunately the situation regarding the
natural occurrence of
Myxocyprinus
asiaticus
isn’t very good.The population in
theMinjiang, themostwater-rich tributary
of theYangtze, is even regarded as already
extinct. This fluviatile fish is exploited by
Manbecauseof itssizeandapparentlytasty
flesh,butthat,liketheoccasional removalof
juveniles for aquarium maintenance,
probably doesn’t have any significant
influence on natural stocks. The most
important reasons for thedisappearanceof
