Cyprinidae Rafinesque 1815

Angulo, Arturo, Betts, Joel T., González-Alemán, Néstor J., Castañeda, Edgar, Berghe, Eric Van Den, Elías, Diego J., Mcmahan, Caleb D. & Matamoros, Wilfredo A., 2023, Continental fishes of Nicaragua: diversity, distribution and conservation status; with an annotated and illustrated checklist of species and an identification guide to families, Zootaxa 5376 (1), pp. 1-89 : 20

Family Cyprinidae Rafinesque 1815 ( Fig. 2M ). Carps, Barbs; Carpas, Kois

Description: Body variable, usually slightly elongate and robust; up to 250 cm, usually less than 100 cm, in length; barbels usually present; lips usually thin; plicae or papillae absent; mouth sometimes sucker-like; upper jaw bordered only by premaxilla (i.e., maxilla excluded from gape), usually protrusible; spinelike rays in dorsal fin in some taxa (Nelson et al. 2016, Froese & Pauly 2023). Distribution: Freshwater, very rarely in brackish water; naturally from North America (northern Canada to southern Mexico), Africa and Eurasia, introduced elsewhere (Nelson et al. 2016). One genus and one species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Families of continental fishes of Nicaragua, part 1; Carcharhinidae (A), Pristidae (B), Dasyatidae (C), Potamotrygonidae (D), Lepisosteidae (E), Elopidae (F), Megalopidae (G), Ophichthidae (H), Anguillidae (I), Engraulidae (J), Pristigasteridae (K), Dorosomatidae (L) and Cyprinidae (M). Illustrations adapted (with permission) from Nelson et al. (2016) and Angulo et al. (2021).