| Main Ref. | Teimori, A., H.R. Esmaeili, D. Erpenbeck and B. Reichenbacher, 2014 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | |
| Different appearance | |
| Different colors | different colors in juveniles and adults |
| Remarks | Males usually possess 7-11 vertical flank-bars, their dorsal, anal, caudal, pelvic and pectoral fins are white but with a dark pigmentation on the base of the 1st-4th dorsal rays (vs. 7-9 dark circular blotches on their flanks, starting behind the operculum and extending until the base of the caudal fin in females, similar to the males, their dorsal, anal, caudal, pelvic and pectoral fins are white). Both males and females display a yellowish dorso-posterior part of the eyes. |
| Striking features | |
| Body shape lateral | fusiform / normal |
| Cross section | |
| Dorsal head profile | |
| Type of eyes | |
| Type of mouth/snout | |
| Position of mouth | |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Distinguished from all other species of Aphanius by the following combination of characters: completely without scales; caudal fin slightly forked; males with dark pigmentation at the base of the four anterior dorsal rays; single row of tricuspid teeth with the two lateral cusps shorter than the middle one; rounded otolith with short rostrum and antirostrum of almost equal length; reduction in biomineralization of caudal skeleton such as thin epural bone; 157 (vs. A. dispar) and 170 (vs. A. ginaonis) molecular characters in the 12S mt-DNA and tRNA-Val (Ref. 96446). Description: males with 9-12 and females with 9-11 dorsal-fin rays; males and females with 9-11 anal-fin rays; males with 12-15 and females with 13-15 pectoral-fin rays; males and females with 5-6 pelvic-fin rays; males with 12-16 and females with 14-16 gill rakers (Ref. 96446). |
| Ease of Identification |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | |
| Pored lateral line scales | |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | |
| Scale rows below lateral line | |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | 12 - 16 |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | |
| total | 26 - 27 |
| Attributes | no striking attributes |
| Fins number | 1 |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal |
| Ventral | |
| Spines total | |
| Soft-rays total | 9 - 12 |
| Adipose fin | absent |
| Attributes | more or less truncate |
| Fins number | |
| Spines total | |
| Soft-rays total | 9 - 11 |
| Pectoral | Attributes more or less normal |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays 12 - 15 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes more or less normal |
| Position abdominal before origin of D1 | |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays 5 - 6 |