Tag Archives: Acanthobrama

Acanthobrama centisquama Heckel

Orontes Bream (Acanthobrama centisquama)

The Orontes Bream, aka. Long-spine Bream, described in 1843; it was restricted to Lake Amik in Turkey as well as some water bodies in the Ghab Plain in Syria, which both obtain their water from the Orontes River.

Lake Amik was drained in the 1940 to obtain land for growing cotton but also to eliminate malaria; and the swampy areas in the Ghab Plan were drained in the 1950s, more or less for the same reasons.

The Orontes Bream is now most likely completely extinct.

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Depiction from: ‘M. Goren; L. Fishelson; E. Trewavas: The cyprinid fishes of Acanthobrama Heckel and related genera. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology 24(6): 293-315. 1973’

The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

(under creative commons license (4.0))
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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edited: 30.04.2021

Acanthobrama tricolor (Lortet)

Damascus Bream (Acanthobrama tricolor)  

The Damascus Bream was described in 1883; it was restricted to water bodies on the Golan Heights in Syria; most of which are now either dried up or heavily polluted.

The last specimens were found in the late 1980s in the Masil al Fawwar river system, it might now be completely extinct.

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edited: 30.04.2021

Acanthobrama hulensis (Goren, Fishelson & Trewavas)

Hula Bream (Acanthobrama hulensis)  

The Hula Bream was described in 1973; it was endemic to the swampy- and freshwater areas of Lake Hula in northern Israel.

The species reached a length of 23 cm; it was a bottom feeder which fed on mollusks and zooplankton.

When the lake was drained in the 1950s to obtain land for agriculture, this fish species died out; the last specimens were found in 1975.

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edited: 30.04.2021