Arabian toothcarp
species of fish
The Arabian toothcarp (Aphaniops dispar), known also as the mother-of-Pearl fish is a species of killifish belonging to the family Aphaniidae . It can be found from the shores of the Red Sea south to Ethiopia, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and along the Persian Gulf east to Pakistan and India. It is also found in the Suez Canal, the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, and in one location on the Israeli coast. The former recognized subspecies: A. d. richardsoni, the Dead Sea toothcarp endemic to the Dead Sea has now been raised to a full species as Aphaniops richardsoni.
Taxonomy
The Arabian toothcarp was reassigned from the genus Aphanius in 2020 in the course of a reclassification of several species in that genus.
Description
A. dispar is a chubby and robust fish in both sexes with a similar body plan lacking any spines, but here is where their similarities end. This species expresses extreme sexual dimorphism in both appearance and behaviour. The larger males are very brightly coloured with long fins that may reach the end of the tail when lowered. He is a lustrous greyish blue with bright silver spots spread across his body, with a relatively sharp snout.
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This entry incorporates text from “Arabian toothcarp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.