Gobionidae

Kuljanishvili, Tatia, Epitashvili, Giorgi, Freyhof, Jörg, Japoshvili, Bella, Kalous, Lukáš, Levin, Boris, Mustafayev, Namig, Ibrahimov, Shaig, Pipoyan, Samvel & Mumladze, Levan, 2020, Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Journal of Applied Ichthyology 36 (4), pp. 501-514 : 509

4.9 | Gobionidae

Gobio artvinicus was described from the lower Coruh River in Turkey and is expected to occur also in the Georgian part of the same river. The species is widespread in the Georgian Black Sea basin, where it is at least confirmed to the north to the Rioni River. Gudgeons are alien in the Kura and Aras River drainage. Gudgeons discovered in the Metsamor River (Armenia) in 1998 and identified as Gobio gobio by Pipoyan (1998) might also belong to G. artvinicus . The fish found in the Tashir and Debed rivers (The Kura river drainage) in Armenia are also morphologically similar to G. artvinicus. Own (unpublished) sequence data identify the Gobio species alien in the Kura in Georgia and Azerbaijan as G. artvinicus and the species might be widespread also in the Aras.

The species identity of other Gobio species in the region remains unclear. Gobio caucasicus was described as Gobio lepidolaemus var. caucasica by Kamensky 1901 based on a syntype series from three rivers: the Rioni in the Georgian Black Sea basin, the Podkumok in northern Dagestan, and the Sulak in southern Dagestan, both in the Caspian Sea basin. Furthermore, Gobio holurus was described from the Terek River drainage, also in the Caspian Caucasus. Kottelat and Freyhof (2007) treat G. holurus as a valid species and Turan, Japoshvili, Aksu, and Bektaş, (2016) treat G. caucasicus as a valid species. Our own (unpublished) molecular data suggest that at least two species (excluding G. artvinicus ) might be involved in the Caucasian gudgeon complex and both seem to occur in the Black Sea as well as in the Caspian Sea basin in northern Caucasus and both are closely related, if not conspecific with adjacent species as Gobio kubanicus , G. krymensis and G. brevicirris . Further study is needed to unambiguously resolve the Caucasian gudgeon complex in the future.

Pseudorasbora parva was accidentally introduced together with Chinese carps fry (e.g. Hypophthalmichthys nobilis , H. molitrix or Ctenopharyngodon idella ) from Asia followed the establishment of viable populations throughout the region ( Bogutskaya et al., 2013; Gabrielyan, 2001; Naseka & Bogutskaya, 2009; Ninua & Japoshvili, 2008; Pipoyan, 2012; Pipoyan & Arakelyan, 2015). The species is still expanding its range in the study area and recently it was discovered in closed mountain lake Kartsakhi (N41.216 E43.231) in the Javakheti highland (Southern Georgia) (own unpublished data).