Rhodeus
Encyclopedia
Rhodeus is a genus of cyprinid
fish
, consisting of 21 species called bitterlings. The scientific name is derived from the Greek
word rhodeos, meaning "rose".
Bitterlings are short-lived species, generally surviving only about 5 years. Their maximum size is 11 cm, but they are usually much shorter. Bitterlings inhabit slow-flowing or still waters, such as ponds, lakes, marshes, muddy and sandy pools, and river backwaters. Because they depend on freshwater mussels to reproduce, their range is restricted. Bitterlings are omnivorous, feeding on both invertebrates and plants.
Bitterlings have a remarkable reproduction strategy where parents transfer responsibility for the care of their young to various species of freshwater mussels (Unionidae
and Margaritiferidae
). The female extends her long ovipositor
into the mantle cavity of the mussel and deposits her eggs between the gill filaments. The male then ejects his sperm into the mussel's inhalent water current and fertilization takes place within the gills of the host. The same female may use a number of mussels, and she deposits only one or two yellow, oval eggs into each. Early developmental stages are protected from predation within the body of the mussel. After 3 to 4 weeks larvae swim away from the host to continue life on their own.
In 1936 the bitterling was thought to respond to hormones in a pregnant woman's urine, but the work was later discredited.
have a convoluted taxonomic history, one being at times included in the other. They are now considered separate, but some species formerly in Rhodeus are now in Acheilognathus.
Cyprinid
The family Cyprinidae, from the Ancient Greek kyprînos , consists of the carps, the true minnows, and their relatives . Commonly called the carp family or the minnow family, its members are also known as cyprinids...
fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, consisting of 21 species called bitterlings. The scientific name is derived from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word rhodeos, meaning "rose".
Bitterlings are short-lived species, generally surviving only about 5 years. Their maximum size is 11 cm, but they are usually much shorter. Bitterlings inhabit slow-flowing or still waters, such as ponds, lakes, marshes, muddy and sandy pools, and river backwaters. Because they depend on freshwater mussels to reproduce, their range is restricted. Bitterlings are omnivorous, feeding on both invertebrates and plants.
Bitterlings have a remarkable reproduction strategy where parents transfer responsibility for the care of their young to various species of freshwater mussels (Unionidae
Unionidae
Unionidae is a family of freshwater mussels, the largest in the order Unionoida, the bivalve mollusks sometimes known as river mussels, naiads, or simply as unionids.The range of distribution for this family is world-wide...
and Margaritiferidae
Margaritiferidae
Margaritiferidae is a family of medium-sized freshwater mussels, aquatic bivalve mollusks in the order Unionoida. They are known as freshwater pearl mussels, because they are capable of producing pearls.-Genera within the family Margaritiferidae:...
). The female extends her long ovipositor
Ovipositor
The ovipositor is an organ used by some animals for oviposition, i.e., the laying of eggs. It consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages formed to transmit the egg, to prepare a place for it, and to place it properly...
into the mantle cavity of the mussel and deposits her eggs between the gill filaments. The male then ejects his sperm into the mussel's inhalent water current and fertilization takes place within the gills of the host. The same female may use a number of mussels, and she deposits only one or two yellow, oval eggs into each. Early developmental stages are protected from predation within the body of the mussel. After 3 to 4 weeks larvae swim away from the host to continue life on their own.
In 1936 the bitterling was thought to respond to hormones in a pregnant woman's urine, but the work was later discredited.
Species
This genus and AcheilognathusAcheilognathus
Acheilognathus is a genus of cyprinid fish, consisting of several species. The type species is the Capoeta rhombea. The name is derived from the Greek a, meaning "without", the Greek cheilos, meaning "lip", and the Greek gnathos, meaning "jaw".- Morphology :Fishes of this genus have length from 5...
have a convoluted taxonomic history, one being at times included in the other. They are now considered separate, but some species formerly in Rhodeus are now in Acheilognathus.
- Rhodeus amarusRhodeus amarusThe European Bitterling, Rhodeus amarus, is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in Europe, ranging from the Rhone River basin in France to the Neva River in Russia...
(BlochMarcus Elieser BlochMarcus Elieser Bloch was a German medical doctor and naturalist. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century.- Life :...
, 1782) (European Bitterling) - Rhodeus amurensisRhodeus amurensisRhodeus amurensis is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in the Amur River and Lake Khanka in Asia, and is found in China and Russia. It was originally described as Pseudoperilampus lighti amurensis by B.B...
(Vronsky, 1967) - Rhodeus atremius (D. S. JordanDavid Starr JordanDavid Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
& W. F. Thompson, 1914) (Kyushu Bitterling) - Rhodeus atremius suigensis (MoriTamezo Mori, was a Japanese naturalist in Korea while it was under Japanese Rule . He taught at a prep school for Keijō Imperial University in Seoul, Korea from 1909 until he was expelled by the American forces in 1945. Primarily an ichthyologist, he published numerous works on the zoology of the Korean...
, 1935) - Rhodeus colchicusRhodeus colchicusRhodeus colchicus is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in the western portion of the Transcaucasia region of Georgia. It was originally described by Bogutskaya & Komlev in 2001. It reaches a maximum size of 6.8...
Bogutskaya & Komlev, 2001 - Rhodeus fangiRhodeus fangiRhodeus fangi is a subtropical freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in the Pearl River , Yangtze River , Yellow River and Amur River in China. It was originally described as Pararhodeus fangi by C.P...
(C. P. Miao, 1934) - Rhodeus haradaiRhodeus haradaiRhodeus haradai is a subtropical freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in the Hainan province of China. It was originally described as by Arai, Suzuki & Shen in 1990....
Arai, Suzuki & S. C. Shen, 1990 - Rhodeus laoensisRhodeus laoensisRhodeus laoensis is a tropical freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in Nam Theun river in the Mekong delta in Laos. It was originally described by Kottelat, Doi & Musikasinthorn in 1998...
KottelatMaurice KottelatDr. Maurice Kottelat is a Swiss ichthyologist.In 1976 he entered the University of Neuchâtel where he obtained his diploma in 1987. In 1980 he went to Thailand where he began his field research on Southeast Asiatic and Indonesian fresh water fish species...
, Doi & Musikasinthorn, 1998 - Rhodeus lightiRhodeus lightiThe Light's bitterling, Rhodeus lighti, is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in Russia and China, from the Amur River basin to southern China. It was originally described as Pseudoperilampus lighti by H.W...
(H. W. Wu, 1931) (Light's Bitterling) - Rhodeus meridionalis S. L. KaramanStanko KaramanStanko Karaman was a researcher on amphipods and isopods. Several species are named after him, for example Delamarella karamani Petkovski, 1957 , Stygophalangium karamani Oudemans, 1933 , or Macedonethes stankoi Karaman, 2003 .In 1926 he founded the Macedonian Museum of Natural...
, 1924 - Rhodeus monguonensis (G. L. Li, 1989)
- Rhodeus notatus (NicholsNichols-Places:Canada* Nichols Islands, NunavutUnited States* Nichols, California, an unincorporated community* Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, California* Nichols Farms Historic District, a village within Trumbull, Connecticut.* Nichols, Iowa...
, 1929)
- Rhodeus ocellatus (Kner, 1866)
- Rhodeus ocellatus kurumeus D. S. JordanDavid Starr JordanDavid Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
& W. F. Thompson, 1914 - Rhodeus ocellatus ocellatus (Kner, 1866) (Rosy Bitterling)
- Rhodeus ocellatus kurumeus D. S. Jordan
- Rhodeus pseudosericeusRhodeus pseudosericeusRhodeus pseudosericeus is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in the Namhan River system in the Gyeonggi-do and Gangwon-do provinces of Korea. It was originally described as Acanthorhodeus atremius by Jordan & Thompson...
Arai, S. R. Jeon & Ueda, 2001 - Rhodeus rheinardtiRhodeus rheinardtiRhodeus rheinardti is a tropical freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in the Perfume River, near Hué, Vietnam. It was originally described as Danio rheinardti by G. Tirant in 1883....
(Tirant, 1883) - Rhodeus sciosemusRhodeus sciosemusRhodeus sciosemus is a subtropical freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in inland rivers in Japan. It was originally described as Acanthorhodeus sciosemus by Jordan & Thompson in 1914....
(D. S. JordanDavid Starr JordanDavid Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
& W. F. Thompson, 1914) - Rhodeus sericeus (PallasPeter Simon PallasPeter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...
, 1776) (Amur Bitterling) - Rhodeus shitaiensis F. Li & Arai, 2011
- Rhodeus sinensisRhodeus sinensisRhodeus sinensis is a subtropical freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in inland rivers in China, and has been introduced as an exotic species in Afghanistan. It was originally described by Albert C. L. G...
Günther, 1868 - Rhodeus smithiiRhodeus smithiiRhodeus smithii is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in stagnant waters in inland rivers in Japan. It was originally described as Achilognathus smithii by Charles Tate Regan in 1908, and is also referred to as Rhodeus...
(Regan, 1908) - Rhodeus spinalisRhodeus spinalisRhodeus spinalis is a subtropical freshwater and brackish water fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates on Hainan Island and the Xijiang River basin in China, and is suspected of being native to portions of Vietnam. It was originally described by...
Ōshima, 1926 - Rhodeus uyekiiRhodeus uyekiiRhodeus uyekii is a temperate freshwater fish belonging to the Acheilognathinae sub-family of the Cyprinidae family. It originates in inland rivers in South Korea. It was originally described as Pseudoperilampus uyekii by T. Mori in 1935...
(MoriTamezo Mori, was a Japanese naturalist in Korea while it was under Japanese Rule . He taught at a prep school for Keijō Imperial University in Seoul, Korea from 1909 until he was expelled by the American forces in 1945. Primarily an ichthyologist, he published numerous works on the zoology of the Korean...
, 1935)