Aphaniidae, the Oriental killifishes, are a family of the order

Cyprinodontiformes Cyprinodontiformes is an order (biology), order of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish, comprising mostly small, freshwater fish. Many popular aquarium fish, such as killifish and Poeciliidae, live-bearers, are included. They are closely related t ...

. The 42 extant species of the family inhabit inland waters, rivers and lagoons. The distribution of these species extends from the entire Mediterranean region throughout the neighboring states of the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

and

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

to southwest

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Several species in this family have very small distributions and are seriously threatened.

Characteristics

Aphaniidae are small fishes that usually grow to a length of . Their bodies are moderately elongated and only slightly flattened at the sides. The mouth is short and their teeth are tricuspid. Scales are complete, but can also be reduced or completely absent. All fins are rounded, dorsal and anal fins similar and are almost symmetrical, the pelvic fins can also be very small. There is usually

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

and females are usually larger and have dots or spots on a solid colored background. The males often have horizontal stripes. There can also be significant color dimorphism within a species, due to populations that lived completely isolated from one another.

Ecology

The Aphaniidae species mostly live in small and tiny bodies of water with fresh, brackish or sea water. These can be springs, ponds, swamps, lagoons, canals or ditches. The bodies of water are often directly connected to the sea and have a high content of sulphides or magnesium compounds . Salinity and temperatures can fluctuate greatly, the latter both on an annual basis and between day and night. The fish avoid flowing water and feed on plants as well as various small animals and

detritus In biology, detritus ( or ) is organic matter made up of the decomposition, decomposing remains of organisms and plants, and also of feces. Detritus usually hosts communities of microorganisms that colonize and decomposition, decompose (Reminera ...

Taxonomy and systematics

'' Aphanius'', the type genus of the Aphaniidae, was introduced in 1827 by the Italian naturalist

Giovanni Domenico Nardo Giovanni Domenico Nardo (4 March 1802 – 7 April 1877) was an Italian naturalist from Venice, although he spent most of his life in Chioggia, home port of the biggest fishing flotilla of the Adriatic. He learned taxidermy and specimen preparat ...

. The American ichthyologist Lynne R. Parenti placed the genus together with the South American Andean killifish ('' Orestias'') within the family

Cyprinodontidae Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genus, genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. Pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations. They are primarily found in North America, S ...

in the tribe Orestini. Because of the

polyphyly A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which ar ...

of the Cyprinodontidae, the genus was transferred to an independent family, the Aphaniidae, in mid-2017 by the German ichthyologist

Jörg Freyhof Jörg Arthur Freyhof (born 4 November 1964 in Ludwigshafen) is a German people, German ichthyologist specializing on Old World Cypriniformes, cypriniform fishes.

and two Turkish colleagues. The name was first mentioned in a dissertation in 1960. With the introduction of the genus '' Paraphanius'' and the revalidation of '' Aphaniops'' in April 2020, the family is no longer monotypic. In mid-2020s, two more genera were newly introduced and three genera were revalidated, so that the Aphaniidae now consists of eight genera :

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q93873769 Cyprinodontiformes Percomorpha families