Barbus bifrenatus

Taxonomy

Assessment Information

Geographic Range

Population

Habitat and Ecology

Threats

Conservation Actions

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Taxonomy [top]

Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
ANIMALIA	CHORDATA	ACTINOPTERYGII	CYPRINIFORMES	CYPRINIDAE

Scientific Name:

Barbus bifrenatus

Species Authority:

Fowler, 1935

Common Name/s:

English

–

Hyphen Barb

Taxonomic Notes:

The genus Barbus (Cyprinidae) is restricted to a small number of species mainly inhabiting the European ichthyographic region including Northeast Africa. Most of the African species that are currently included in the genus, taxonomically do not appear to be closely related to the genus Barbus sensu strictu. However, no attempts have yet been made at an adequate nomenclature of the African forms. We therefore follow Berrebi et al. (1996) and use in this paper the term ‘Barbus’ for the cyprinid fish species which were previously considered as Barbus (Seegers et al., unpublished).

Assessment Information [top]

Red List Category & Criteria:	Least Concern ver 3.1
Year Assessed:	2006
Assessor/s	Vreven, E.
Evaluator/s:	Snoeks, J. (Freshwater Fish Red List Authority) & Darwall, W. (Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment Programme)
Justification: Widespread with no major widespread threats identified.

Geographic Range [top]

Range Description:	Occurs in the Upper Zambezi River, through the Okavango, Kafue, and Zambian Congo, to the Cunene River on the Atlantic coast. Isolated populations occur in Malawi and on the eastern shores of Lake St. Lucia in Natal (Froese and Pauly 2003). In Malawi, the species occurs in the catchment of Lake Malawi, (never recorded in the lake itself). It has not been recorded south of Nkhotakota streams.
Countries:	Native: Angola; Botswana; Congo; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; South Africa; Zambia; Zimbabwe

Population [top]

Population:	No information available.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology [top]

Habitat and Ecology:	This species is found in floodplains, pools and shallow streams with vegetation (Skelton 1993) and not in strongly flowing rivers. It is common in the lower reaches of rivers particularly in Nkhata bay and Songwe river delta. It seems to prefer clear running water. It feeds on detritus, algae, seeds, small invertebrates (Skelton 2001) as well as aquatic insect larvae (Bell-Cross and Minshull 1988). It migrates upriver to breed after heavy rains (Bell-Cross and Minshull 1988). Max. size: 7 cm SL.
Systems:	Freshwater

Habitat and Ecology:

This species is found in floodplains, pools and shallow streams with vegetation (Skelton 1993) and not in strongly flowing rivers. It is common in the lower reaches of rivers particularly in Nkhata bay and Songwe river delta. It seems to prefer clear running water. It feeds on detritus, algae, seeds, small invertebrates (Skelton 2001) as well as aquatic insect larvae (Bell-Cross and Minshull 1988). It migrates upriver to breed after heavy rains (Bell-Cross and Minshull 1988). Max. size: 7 cm SL.

Systems:

Freshwater

Threats [top]

Major Threat(s):	Attractive aquarium species (Skelton 1993).

Major Threat(s):

Attractive aquarium species (Skelton 1993).

Conservation Actions [top]

Conservation Actions:	No information available.

Conservation Actions:

No information available.

Citation:	Vreven, E. 2006. Barbus bifrenatus. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 09 February 2010.
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