Scientific Name
Aphanius mesopotamicus
Common Name
Mesopotamian tooth-carp
Biology
Dorsal
soft rays
(total): 11-13;
Anal
soft rays: 10 - 12. Can be diagnosed by its pigmentation, meristics, and in multivariate morphometric and meristic space: males have clear margins to the unpaired fins, no bars on the caudal fin and have 10-15 clearly defined flank bars. Females possess irregular blotches or spots on the flank. Twelve of 14 meristic characters are significantly different for males and 9 of 13 meristic characters for females, although ranges overlap in all cases. Discriminant function analyses indicate that the variables with the best discriminating power are pectoral fin rays (13-15), scales to pelvic fin (5-7), postorbital length (16% HL) and caudal peduncle length in males; and pectoral fin rays (14-15), scales to pelvic fin (5-8), scales to dorsal fin (4-5), total scales (27-30) and predorsal length in females ( 23% SL) (Ref. 83325).