Short communication: Karyological analysis of small-scaled Damascus barbel, Capoeta damascina (Valenciennes, 1842) from Tigris Basin

Abstract

Cyprinids are one of the major components of the freshwater fish diversity of Asia. Among different genera of this family; Capoeta shows wide distribution in the southwest area of this mainland. It contains about 20 species of which 8 occur in Iran (Keivany et al., 2015). Small-scaled Damascus barbel, Capoeta damascina (Valenciennes, 1842) is one of the most important species of Capoeta in Iran. It attains the greatest size and the highest density among all other Capoeta species in this region. Chromosome analysis is a valuable tool for systematic evaluation, biodiversity, conservation, stock assessment and aquaculture (Dorafshan and Kalbassi, 2006; Kalbassi et al., 2006; Pisano et al., 2007). Despite the importance of fish cytogenetics, when available data sets on fish karyotype are analysed, it is clear that they are still very incomplete (Gromicho and Collares-Pereira, 2007).