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Results for cyprinid
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Any of numerous often small freshwater fishes of the family Cyprinidae, which includes the minnows, carps, and shiners.
adj.Of, relating to, or belonging to the family Cyprinidae.
[From New Latin Cyprīnidae, family name, from Cyprīnus, type genus, from Latin cyprīnus, carp, from Greek kuprīnos.]
A member of the fish family Cyprinidae, including carp, tench, minnow, goldfish, barbel, chub, bream and many others.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
soft-finned mainly freshwater fishes typically having toothless jaws and cycloid scales
Synonym: cyprinid fish
The adjective cyprinid has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
of or relating to members of fish family Cyprinidae
Synonym: cyprinoid
Pertains to noun: Cyprinidae (meaning #1)
| Cyprinids Fossil range: Eocene - Present |
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 A harlequin rasbora
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(many, see text) |
The family Cyprinidae, named after the Greek word Kypris, another name for Aphrodite, consists of the carps and some of the fish known as minnows.[1]
The fish in this family originate from North America, Africa, and Eurasia. The largest fish in this family is the Giant Barb (Catlocarpio siamensis), which may grow up to 3 m (10 ft). The largest North American species is Ptychocheilus lucius. On the other hand, many species are smaller than 5 cm (2 in); the smallest freshwater fish is, in fact, a cypriniform, Danionella translucida, reaching 12 mm at the longest.[1] All fish in this family are egg-layers and the breeding habits of most is one of non-guarding of the eggs, however, there are a few species that build nests and/or guard the eggs.
Cyprinids are highly important food fish; they are fished and farmed across Eurasia. In land-locked countries in particular, cyprinids are often the major species of fish eaten, although the prevalence of inexpensive frozen fish products made this less important now than it was in earlier times. Nonetheless, in certain places they remain popular for food as well as recreational fishing, and have been deliberately stocked in ponds and lakes for centuries for this reason.[2]
Several cyprinids have been quite introduced to waters outside their natural range to provide food, sport, or biological control for some pest species. The common carp and the grass carp are the most important of these, for example in Florida.[3][4] In some cases, these have become invasive species that compete with native fishes or disrupt the environment, carp in particular can stir up the riverbed reducing the clarity of the water making it difficult for plants to grow.[5]
Numerous cyprinids have become important in the aquarium hobby, most famously the goldfish, which was first imported into Europe around 1728 but was cultivated by the Chinese well before then.[6] Other popular cyprinids kept in aquarium include the barbs, danios and rasboras.
The zebra danio or zebrafish (Danio rerio) is the standard research animal for studying developmental genetics.[7]
It is the largest family of fresh-water fish, with about 2,420 species of cyprinids in about 220 genera. The family belongs to the order Cypriniformes.
The bold black text indicates which subfamily the listed genera belong to. There is debate as to how many subfamilies exist in this family and to which subfamily certain genera belong to.
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Veterinary Dictionary. The Veterinary Dictionary. Copyright © 2007 by Elsevier. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cyprinid". Read more |
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