Cyprinidae: Myxocyprinus Asiatica sinensis

Thursday 19 July 2012

Myxocyprinus Asiatica sinensis

The other "loaches" used to be included in this family, but nowadays are recognized as well-distinct members of the order Cypriniformes. Together with the suckers (Catostomidae), the "loaches" made up the superfamily Cobitoidea. However, the sucking loaches (Gyrinocheilidae) were easily recognizable as relatives of the suckers.^[2]

Eventually it was realized that the hillstream loaches, though more similar to the true loaches than the other two presumed Cobitoidea, are nonetheless distinct enough to be better regarded a full-blown family Balitoridae. And as it seems the "sucking Cobitoidea" are quite distant indeed, perhaps even markedly closer to the Cyprinidae, and thus the old superfamily Catostomoidea warrants revalidation. Finally, the puzzling mountain carps were most often considered a distinct family Psilorhynchidae in recent times. But in a number of systematic schemes,