Garra

Garra is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. These fish are one example of the "log suckers", sucker-mouthed barbs and other cyprinids commonly kept in aquaria to keep down algae. The doctor fish of Anatolia and the Middle East belongs in this genus. The majority of the more than 140 species of garras are native to Asia, but about one-fifth of the species are from Africa (East, Middle and West, but by far the highest species richness in Ethiopia).
The genus was established by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton in 1822 as a subgenus of Cyprinus (which at that time was a "basket genus" for carp-like cyprinids); though it didn't lead to an act of him to designate a type species by the time. However, as no other garras except the newly discovered G. lamta were known to science in 1822, this was designated as the type species by Pieter Bleeker in 1863. The garras and their closest relatives are sometimes placed in a subfamily Garrinae, but this seems hardly warranted. More often, this group is included in the Labeoninae, or together with these in the Cyprininae. In the former case, the garras are members of the labeonine tribe Garrini, in the latter they are in the subtribe Garraina of tribe Labeonini. The genus Discogobio is a close relative.
Description and ecology
These species are slim cyprinids with a flat belly and a sucking mouth; their shape indicates that they are at least in tendency rheophilic. They are distinguished from other cyprinids by a combination of features: As in their closest relatives, their lower lip is expanded at its posterior rim to form a round or oval sucking pad, the vomero-palatine organ is much reduced or completely lost, the pectoral fins have at least the first two rays enlarged and usually unbranched, the supraethmoid is wider than long when seen from above, and the cleithrum is narrow and elongated to the front.
From other Garrini (or Garraina), the genus Garra can be distinguished as follows: their pharyngeal teeth are arranged in three rows (like 2,4,5–5,4,2), the dorsal fin has 10-11 rays and starts slightly anterior to the pelvic fins, while the anal fin starts well behind the pelvic fins and has 8-9 rays. As far as is known, the diploid karyotype of garras is 2n = 50.
Garras are not or barely noticeably sexually dimorphic and generally cryptically coloured benthic freshwater fish. Five species in the genus (G. dunsirei, G. lorestanensis, G. tashanensis, G. typhlops and some populations of G. barreimiae) are cave-adapted, lacking pigmentation and/or eyes. Garras are omnivorous, eating alga, plankton and small invertebrates that they suck off substrate like rocks or logs. The food is scraped off with the sharp keratinized borders of the jaws and ingested via suction, created by contracting and relaxing the buccopharynx. As typical for Cypriniformes, the garras lack a stomach entirely, their oesophagus leading directly to the sphincter of the intestine. Different Garra species eat animal and vegetable matter in different proportions, which can – as typical for vertebrates – usually be recognized by the length of their intestine compared to related species: more herbivorous species have a longer intestine. Indeed, intestinal length in this genus is remarkably constant within species and varies a lot between species, meaning that it is useful to distinguish species and that dietary shifts have played a significant role in the evolution of garras.
When the females are ready to spawn, they are markedly plump and swollen; the ripe roe may fill almost four-fifths of their body cavity. The testicles of reproductive males are large too. The average Garra egg is 1.77 mm in diameter and a clutch contains several hundred eggs – up to a thousand or so in large females. The breeding behaviour is generally not well known and breeding is not often achieved in the aquarium; presumably, like many of their relatives they migrate upstream or (if they otherwise inhabit lakes) into the rivers to spawn.
Species
These are the currently recognized species in this genus:
Garra abhoyai Hora, 1921
Garra aethiopica (Pellegrin, 1927)
Garra allostoma T. R. Roberts, 1990
Garra alticaputus Arunachalam, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2013
Garra amirhosseini Esmaeili, Sayyadzadeh, Coad & Eagderi, 2016
Garra annandalei Hora, 1921
Garra apogon (Norman, 1925)
Garra arunachalami Johnson & Soranam, 2001
Garra arunachalensis Nebeshwar & Vishwanath, 2013
Garra arupi Nebeshwar, Vishwanath & D. N. Das, 2009
Garra barreimiae Fowler & Steinitz, 1956
Garra bibarbatus (Nguyen, 2001)
Garra bicornuta Narayan Rao, 1920
Garra bimaculacauda Thoni, Gurung & Mayden, 2016
Garra birostris Nebeshwar & Vishwanath, 2013
Garra bisangulris Chen, Wu, & Xiao, 2010
Garra bispinosa E. Zhang, 2005
Garra blanfordii (Boulenger, 1901)
Garra borneensis (Vaillant, 1902)
Garra bourreti (Pellegrin, 1928)
Garra buettikeri Krupp, 1983
Garra cambodgiensis (Tirant, 1883) (Cambodian logsucker)
Garra ceylonensis Bleeker, 1863 (Ceylon logsucker)
Garra chakpiensis Nebeshwar & Vishwanath, 2015
Garra chebera Habteselassie, Mikschi, Ahnelt & Waidbacher, 2010
Garra chindwinensis Nongthombam Premananda, Kosygin, Bano Saidullah, 2017
Garra compressus Kosygin & Vishwanath, 1998
Garra congoensis Poll, 1959
Garra cornigera Shangningam & Vishwanath, 2015
Garra cryptonema (G. H. Cui & Z. Y. Li, 1984)
Garra culiciphaga (Pellegrin, 1927)
Garra cyclostomata Đ. Y. Mai, 1978
Garra cyrano Kottelat, 2000
Garra dampaensis Lalronunga, Lalnuntluanga & Lalramliana, 2013
Garra dembecha Getahun & Stiassny, 2007
Garra dembeensis (Rüppell, 1835) (Cameroon logsucker)
Garra dulongensis (Chen, Pan, Kong & Yang, 2006)
Garra dunsirei Banister, 1987
Garra duobarbis Getahun & Stiassny, 2007
Garra elegans (Günther, 1868)
Garra elongata Vishwanath & Kosygin, 2000
Garra emarginata Kurup & Radhakrishnan, 2011
Garra ethelwynnae Menon, 1958
Garra fasciacauda Fowler, 1937
Garra festai (Tortonese, 1939)
Garra fisheri (Fowler, 1937)
Garra flavatra S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra fluviatilis Kangrang, Thoni, Mayden & Beamish, 2016
Garra fuliginosa Fowler, 1934
Garra geba Getahun & Stiassny, 2007
Garra ghorensis Krupp, 1982
Garra gotyla (J. E. Gray, 1830)
Garra gracilis (Pellegrin & Chevey, 1936)
Garra gravelyi (Annandale, 1919)
Garra hainanensis Y. R. Chen & C. Y. Zheng, 1983
Garra hindii (Boulenger, 1905)
Garra hughi Silas, 1955
Garra ignestii (Gianferrari, 1925)
Garra imbarbatus (Nguyen, 2001)
Garra imberba Garman, 1912
Garra imberbis (Vinciguerra, 1890)
Garra incisorbis L. P. Zheng, J. X. Yang & X. Y. Chen, 2016
Garra jaldhakaensis, Kosygin, Bungdon Shangningam, Pratima Singh, Ujjal Das, 2021
Garra jerdoni F. Day, 1867
Garra jordanica Hamidan, Geiger & Freyhof, 2014
Garra joshuai Silas, 1954
Garra kalakadensis Rema Devi, 1993
Garra kalpangi Nebeshwar, Bagra & D. N. Das, 2012
Garra kemali (Hankó, 1925)
Garra kempi Hora, 1921
Garra khawbungi Arunachalam, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2014
Garra kimini Arunachalam, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2013
Garra lamta (F. Hamilton, 1822)
Garra lancrenonensis Blache & Miton, 1960
Garra lautior Banister, 1987
Garra lissorhynchus (McClelland, 1842)
Garra litanensis Vishwanath, 1993
Garra longchuanensis Q. Yu, X. Z. Wang, H. Xiong & S. P. He, 2016
Garra longipinnis Banister & M. A. Clarke, 1977
Garra lorestanensis Mousavi-Sabet & Eagderi, 2016
Garra magnidiscus Tamang, 2013
Garra makiensis (Boulenger, 1904)
Garra mamshuqa Krupp, 1983
Garra manipurensis Vishwanath & Sarojnalini, 1988
Garra mcclellandi (Jerdon, 1849)
Garra menderesensis (Küçük, Bayçelebi, Güçlü & Gülle, 2015)
Garra menoni Rema Devi & T. J. Indra, 1984
Garra micropulvinus W. Zhou, X. F. Pan & Kottelat, 2005
Garra mini Rahman, Mollah, Norén & Kullander, 2016
Garra minimus Arunachalam, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2013
Garra mirofrontis X. L. Chu & G. H. Cui, 1987
Garra mlapparaensis Kurup & Radhakrishnan, 2011
Garra mondica Sayyadzadeh, Esmaeili & Freyhof, 2015
Garra mullya (Sykes, 1839)
Garra naganensis Hora, 1921
Garra nambulica Vishwanath & Joyshree, 2005
Garra namyaensis Shangningam & Vishwanath, 2012
Garra nana (Heckel, 1843)
Garra nasuta (McClelland, 1838)
Garra nethravathiensis Arunachalam & Nandagopal, 2014
Garra nigricauda Arunachalam, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2013
Garra nigricollis S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra nkhruletisis Nebeshwar & Vishwanath, 2015
Garra notata (Blyth, 1860)
Garra nujiangensis Z. M. Chen, S. Zhao & J. X. Yang, 2009
Garra orientalis Nichols, 1925
Garra ornata (Nichols & Griscom, 1917)
Garra palaniensis Rema Devi & Menon, 1994
Garra palaruvica Arunachalam, Raja, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2013
Garra panitvongi Tangjitjaroen, Randall, Tongnunui, Boyd & Page, 2023
Garra paralissorhynchus Vishwanath & K. Shanta Devi, 2005
Garra parastenorhynchus Thoni, Gurung & Mayden, 2016
Garra periyarensis K. C. Gopi, 2001
Garra persica L. S. Berg, 1914
Garra phillipsi Deraniyagala, 1933 (Phillips's garra)
Garra platycephala Narayan Rao, 1920
Garra poecilura S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra poilanei Petit & T. L. Tchang, 1933
Garra propulvinus S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra qiaojiensis H. W. Wu & Yao, 1977
Garra quadratirostris Nebeshwar & Vishwanath, 2013
Garra quadrimaculata (Rüppell, 1835)
Garra rakhinica S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra regressus Getahun & Stiassny, 2007
Garra robertsi Thoni & Mayden, 2015
Garra rossica (A. M. Nikolskii, 1900)
Garra rotundinasus E. Zhang, 2006
Garra rufa (Heckel, 1843)
Garra rupecula (McClelland, 1839)
Garra sahilia Krupp, 1983
Garra salweenica Hora & Mukerji, 1934
Garra sindhi Lyon, Geiger & Freyhof, 2016
Garra smarti Krupp & Budd, 2009
Garra spilota S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra stenorhynchus Jerdon, 1849
Garra surendranathanii C. P. Shaji, L. K. Arun & P. S. Easa, 1996
Garra surinbinnani Page, Ray, Tongnunui, Boyd & Randall, 2019
Garra tamangi Gurumayum & Kosygin, 2016
Garra tana Getahun & Stiassny, 2007
Garra tashanensis Mousavi-Sabet, Vatandoust, Fatemi & Eagderi, 2016
Garra tengchongensis E. Zhang & Y. Y. Chen, 2002
Garra theunensis Kottelat, 1998
Garra tibanica Trewavas, 1941
Garra trilobata Shangningam & Vishwanath, 2015
Garra tyao Arunachalam, Nandagopal & Mayden, 2014
Garra typhlops (Bruun & E. W. Kaiser, 1944) (Iran cave barb)
Garra variabilis (Heckel, 1843)
Garra vittatula S. O. Kullander & F. Fang, 2004
Garra waensis Lothongkham, Arbsuwan & Musikasinthorn, 2014
Garra wanae (Regan, 1914)
Garra waterloti (Pellegrin, 1935)
Garra yiliangensis H. W. Wu & Q. Z. Chen, 1977
References
Cyprinidae genera
Taxa named by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot