Author: (Valenciennes, 1842)
FBname: Mesopotamian barb
Comments: Occurs in lakes, streams with fast and slow-moving water currents and in clear and muddy water.  Bottom fish that feeds on aufwuchs which it scrapes from the substrate with the horny sheet of the lower lip.  Its diet consists of algae, aquatic invertebrates, and detritus (Ref. 13609).  It spawns between January and March in small streams where it deposits its eggs on gravel.  Tasteless fish, and the spawn is toxic (Andrey Marlin, pers. comm., 2003).