Taxonomy & naming
Oxynoemacheilus zagrosensis was described in 2014 by Kamangar, Prokofiev, Ghaderi and Nalbant in Zootaxa, as one of three new Oxynoemacheilus species erected from the Choman River basin in a single paper. It was distinguished from its congeners both morphologically and by Cytochrome b molecular sequencing, and a later molecular validity study (Ghaderi et al., in FishTaxa) reconfirmed it as a distinct, valid species within the genus.
The genus Oxynoemacheilus sits in the family Nemacheilidae, the stone and brook loaches — a group that has been repeatedly reshuffled as the old catch-all genera Nemacheilus and Noemacheilus were split apart over the past two decades into Oxynoemacheilus, Schistura, Triplophysa, Barbatula and others. The Catalog of Fishes is the authority for the current combination, and it lists this species under Oxynoemacheilus. The species epithet references the Zagros Mountains, the range in which its home drainage lies.
Morphology
As a member of Nemacheilidae, O. zagrosensis has the family's typical build: a small, slender, cylindrical body, a subterminal mouth suited to picking food off the streambed, and — as in many of its relatives — an erectile suborbital spine, a small defensive spine housed in a groove below the eye. Its skin, like other stone loaches, is essentially scaleless or covered only in minute embedded scales, a detail relevant to how sensitive such fish are to medications.
The holotype measured 2.5 in SL, with paratypes ranging from 1–3 in SL, putting this species in the modest size range typical of Nemacheilidae. Beyond the diagnostic characters used to separate it from its congeners in the original description, detailed morphological data — colour pattern in life, fin ray counts, precise proportions — has not been compiled in accessible form; this remains a data-sparse species outside the technical taxonomic literature.
Habitat
The species is known from the type locality on the Shooei River (Jemli, station 9) near Baneh, in Iranian Kurdistan, at coordinates roughly 35°58′01″N, 45°42′43″E. This places it within the Choman River basin, a sub-basin of the wider Tigris drainage, in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains — a region of fast, clear, rocky streams typical of Nemacheilidae habitat across the Middle East and Anatolia.
No dedicated water-chemistry study of this stream has been published, so specific temperature, pH and flow figures are not available. Based on the well-documented habitat preferences of related Oxynoemacheilus species from similar Middle Eastern drainages — cool-to-moderate, well-oxygenated, fast-flowing water over rock and gravel — this species most likely occupies the same kind of clear mountain stream, but that inference should not be mistaken for confirmed data on this exact population.
Feeding
No dietary study exists for O. zagrosensis specifically. Nemacheilid stone loaches in general, including closely related Oxynoemacheilus species studied from comparable Anatolian and Middle Eastern streams, are bottom-foraging micro-predators, picking small aquatic invertebrates — insect larvae and small crustaceans — off rocks and gravel in fast current.
There is no basis in the available sources to describe this species' diet with any more precision, and no aquarium feeding records exist since the fish is not known to be in the trade. Any diet described for it should be understood as inference from its family and genus, not direct observation.
Mating
No courtship or spawning behaviour has been documented for this species. It has never been kept or bred in captivity, and no field study of its reproductive biology has been published. What can be said comes only from the broader pattern seen across Nemacheilidae: stone and brook loaches are egg-scatterers that release eggs directly over gravel and stones in flowing water, without pairing behaviour or nest-building, typically timed to seasonal flow and temperature cues.
Whether O. zagrosensis follows that pattern precisely — timing, fecundity, any habitat shift for spawning — is unrecorded. This is one of the many nemacheilid species whose reproductive biology is simply unknown.
Breeding
There are no aquarium breeding records for Oxynoemacheilus zagrosensis, and none would be expected: this is a narrow-range stream endemic that has not entered the ornamental trade. Based on the general pattern in Nemacheilidae, the expected mode is an egg-scatterer over gravel and among stones in fast-flowing water, with no parental care of eggs or fry.
That expectation, however, is drawn from the family as a whole rather than from any direct observation of this species. Stone and brook loaches like this one are rarely bred even in the rare cases where they do reach hobbyist hands, and for O. zagrosensis the honest summary is simply that its breeding biology has not been studied.
In the aquarium
Oxynoemacheilus zagrosensis is not a species in the aquarium trade. No hobbyist care reports, tank photographs or husbandry notes exist for it in the sources consulted, and nothing here should be read as tested aquarium guidance for this exact fish.
For context, closely related Oxynoemacheilus species from comparable Middle Eastern and Anatolian streams are small (roughly 1.5–3 in), coolwater-to-moderate stream fish that would need strong flow, high oxygenation and a rocky substrate to thrive — the same care principles that apply to stone and brook loaches generally, including caution with medications given their near-scaleless skin. Anyone encountering this species would be dealing with a genuinely undescribed-in-the-hobby fish, not a stocked aquarium species.
Conservation
Oxynoemacheilus zagrosensis has not been assessed on the IUCN Red List and is recorded here as Not Evaluated rather than assigned a guessed status. As a narrow-range endemic known only from the Choman River basin near Baneh in Iranian Kurdistan, it fits the broader pattern of Nemacheilidae stream endemics that have never received a conservation assessment despite potentially restricted ranges.
No information on population trends, specific threats, or protective measures for this species or its home stream has been published in the sources available. Any assessment of its conservation status would require dedicated fieldwork and an IUCN Red List review that has not yet taken place.