A small fish that lives in streams. The body is prolonged, laterally compressed, silvery gray with reddish coloration, with blue transverse stripes. The mouth is large, with concave upper and lower jaw margins. The males have extended anal fin rays and are brightly colored during the reproductive season. Head elevated behind the head, caudal peduncle thin, abdomen rounded. Head large and rounded. The snout is short, slightly broad, and slightly pointed at the tip. Mouthparts of the horse mouthed fish are broad, terminal, and sloping downward, the maxilla extends backward beyond the vertical line below the middle of the eye, and there is 1 inconspicuous protuberance at the anterior end of the lower jaw that coincides with the maxillary depression. There is a notch on each side of the maxillary margin, which is embedded in the protrusion of the mandible, resembling a horse's mouth, hence the name "Horse's Mouth Fish". The corners of the mouth have a pair of short whiskers. The eyes are small. The scales are fine and densely packed, with the lateral line recurving significantly above the pectoral fins, extending backward along the lower part of the body, and gradually rising to the middle of the caudal peduncle after the anal fins. Dorsal fin short, beginning slightly behind center of body and posterior to beginning of ventral fin; pectoral fins long; ventral fins short; anal fin well developed, reaching to base of caudal fin; caudal fin y forked. Dorsum gray-brown, abdomen gray-white, with blue-black longitudinal stripes in the mid-axis of the body; reproductive males have an orange-red coloration on the underside of the head, pectoral and ventral fins, and abdomen. The head, pectoral fins and anal fins of males have pearly stars, and the 1st to 4th branchial fins of the anal fins are especially extended; the body color is more vivid.

Inhabiting the upper reaches of rivers, it prefers to live in bodies of water with clear currents and low water temperatures. Even in the same river, there are few similar to its Chek Lap fish. Swimming agile, good jumping, gluttony, and even change the body size and extreme obesity. For small omnivorous fish.

The weight of the horse mouth fish is generally about 50 grams, 100-150 grams of weight is not common, for small fish, adult fish body length of only 100 to 200 millimeters. Body extension, lateral compression, large mouth, the lower jaw has a protuberance at the front end of the sides of the concave, just with the upper jaw; sexually mature males anal fin bar significantly longer, the muzzle, pectoral fins and anal fins with a well-developed chasing the star, distributed from the Heilongjiang River to the Pearl River in the eastern Asian basins. It lives in mountain streams and rivers. It is ferocious, feeding on insects and small fish, and its young fish feed on zooplankton. In East China, the sexual maturity is early, 1 winter age can be mature. breeding between March and June. At this time, white stars appear on the head, pectoral fins and anal fins of males, and the body color is more vivid. It has a large population in some mountainous areas and has some economic value.

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