''Anabarilius alburnops'' (also known as silver minnow or silvery white fish, a direct translation of its Chinese name, 银白鱼) is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

in the genus ''

Anabarilius ''Anabarilius'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Xenocyprididae, the East Asian minnows or sharpbellies, most of them only occurring in the area of China. Many of the species have very restricted geographic range a ...

''. It is only known from

Dian Lake Dian Lake (), also known as Dianchi, Dianchi Lake, Lake Dian and Kunming Lake, is a fault lake located on the Puduhe- Xishan fault in Kunming, Yunnan, China at 24°23′–26°22′ N, 102°10′–103°40′ E. Its nickname is the "Sparkling ...

and Songhuaba Reservoir, both in

Kunming Kunming is the capital and largest city of the province of Yunnan in China. The political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province, Kunming is also the seat of the provincial government. During World War II, Kunming was a Ch ...

Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...

. It can reach sizes above SL. The species was once common in Dian Lake, but has since 1950s dramatically declined; today, only few individuals are occasionally captured. Its decline is caused by introduced fish species, pollution, the loss of

macrophyte Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). In lakes, rivers and wetlands, aquatic vegetations provide cover for aquat ...

s (in part due to

grass carp The grass carp (''Ctenopharyngodon idella'') is a species of large herbivorous freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae, native to the Pacific Far East, with a native range stretching from northern Vietnam to the Amur River on the Sino-Russian ...

), over-fishing, and the loss of breeding sites. Along with many other fish species

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Dian Lake, it is a

threatened species A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

References

alburnops ''Alburnops'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Pogonichthyinae of the family Leuciscidae Leuciscidae is a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes, formerly classified as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae, which ...

Fish described in 1914 Endemic fauna of Yunnan Freshwater fish of China Endangered fish {{cultrinae-stub