The thicklip gudgeon (''Sarcocheilichthys sciistius'') is a species of freshwater

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 ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Gobionidae Gobioninae is a monophyletic family of Eurasian cyprinoid fishes. This is a species rich clade which, as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae was divided into five tribes: Gobionini, Pseudogobionini, Hemibarbini, Coreiini, and Sarcocheilichthyini. T ...

, the gudgeons. This species is found in Eastern Asia.

Taxonomy

The thicklip gudgeon was first formally described as ''Leuciscus sciistius'' in 1901 by the American

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

with its type locality given as the Pei-ho River,

Tien-Tsin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the 2020 Chinese census. Its metropoli ...

, China. In 1914 the Russian scientist

Lev Berg Lev Semyonovich Berg, also known as Leo S. Berg (; 14 March 1876 – 24 December 1950) was a leading Russian geographer, biologist and ichthyologist who served as President of the Soviet Geographical Society between 1940 and 1950. He is known f ...

described two species, ''Chilogobio czerskii'' and ''C. soldatovi'', respectively known as Czerski's thicklip gudgeon and Soldatov's thicklip gudgeon, but these are now considered to be

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of Abbott's ''L. sciistus''. This species is classified in the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

Sarcocheilichthys ''Sarcocheilichthys'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Gobionidae, the gudgeons. The fishes in this genus are found in eastern Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and ...

'' which is an eastern Asian genus of the family Gobionidae, the freshwater gudgeons.

Etymology

The thicklip gudgeon is classified in the genus ''Sarcocheilichthys'', this name is a combination of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

terms ''sarco-'', from ''sárx'', which means "flesh", and, ''cheī́los'', meaning "lip", an allusion to the fleshy lips of the typw species of the genus '' S. variegatus'' suffixed with ''ichthýs'' which means "fish". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''sciistius'', is a compound of ''skiā́'', which means "shade" or "shadow", with ''istius'' which derives from ''histion'' meaning sail. This is an allusion to the dark

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

Distribution and habitat

The thicklip gudgeon occurs in the drainage systems of the

Amur The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer Manchuria, Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ...

, Huaihe River,

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

and Haihe River in China, Mongolia, Russia and Korea. These fishes are found in lakes, main river streams and tributaries.

Biology

The thicklip gudgeon becomes sexually mature at three years old when they have a length in excess of . The large, yellowish pink eggs are laid using a short

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

either between stones or in the mantle cavity of

bivalves Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class of aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed by a calcified exoskeleton consis ...

. This species and related species are described as facultative ostracophilic, i.e. they may lay eggs inside bivalves. It feeds on benthic invertebrates such as

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine Annelid, annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called c ...

s, insect larvae and crustaceans.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q112864305 Sarcocheilichthys Fish described in 1901