Taxonomy & naming
Paracobitis salihae was formally described in 2020 by Cüneyt Kaya, Davut Turan, Fahrettin Kalayci, Fitnat Güler Bayçelebi and Jörg Freyhof, in the journal Zootaxa (4838(4): 525–534). It belongs to the family Nemacheilidae, the stone or brook loaches — the largest family of loaches, and the group of small, hardy, current-loving fish that dominate cool, clear Eurasian streams. Genetic work in the description found the species separated from its nearest relative, Paracobitis zabgawraensis, by 19 nucleotide substitutions, supporting its status as a distinct species rather than a regional variant.
The species is named for Saliha Kaya (1939–2015), the mother of the lead author Cüneyt Kaya — a personal dedication rather than a descriptive Latin epithet. As with many recently split nemacheilid genera, the taxonomy of Paracobitis and its relatives (once folded into broader genera such as Noemacheilus or Nemacheilus) has been substantially revised in recent decades; the Catalog of Fishes is the authority for the currently valid combination, Paracobitis salihae.
Morphology
Paracobitis salihae is a small stone loach, built like its congeners: an elongate, cylindrical body tapering toward a narrow caudal peduncle, a flattened head and underslung mouth suited to picking at the substrate, and barbels for locating food by touch in fast, often turbid water. The original description distinguishes it from its closest relative by a truncate (squared-off, rather than forked or rounded) caudal fin and a dark-brown, vermiculate or marbled body pattern — an irregular, worm-like mottling typical of cryptic stream-bed camouflage in this genus.
Like other nemacheilids it is essentially scaleless or bears only minute, deeply embedded scales, leaving the skin exposed — a trait that matters for husbandry and disease sensitivity in any loach. Detailed measurements and maximum size were not reported in the sources available for this profile; congeners in Paracobitis are generally small stream fish, typically well under 4 in, but a specific figure for P. salihae is not yet confirmed and should not be guessed at.
Habitat
The species is known only from the Göksu River, part of the western upper Euphrates drainage in southern Turkey (Anatolia) — making it the westernmost known population of the genus Paracobitis, whose other members range across Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Central Asia. Members of this genus typically live in clear, fast-flowing, oxygen-rich streams and rivers, and the Göksu population is presumed to follow that pattern, though specific published data on its temperature and pH preferences were not found in the cache used for this profile.
Because detailed environmental data for this exact species have not been located, water parameters below are inferred conservatively from the habits of related Paracobitis species — cool, clear, flowing water — rather than asserted as measured fact. This is a genuinely data-sparse species: it was described only in 2020, is restricted to a single river system, and has not yet been the subject of extensive follow-up field or captive study.
Feeding
No diet-specific data for Paracobitis salihae were found in the available sources. By analogy with other small Nemacheilidae, including its own genus, it is reasonably inferred to be a benthic micro-predator, picking small invertebrates — insect larvae and other small aquatic prey — from the streambed of fast, clear water. This should be treated as an informed inference from the family and genus, not a confirmed fact specific to this species; no aquarium feeding data exist because the species is not established in the hobby.
Mating
No published information on courtship, spawning behaviour, or sexual dimorphism in Paracobitis salihae was found. The species was described from preserved specimens for taxonomic purposes, and as a narrow-range, recently described stream endemic it has not been the subject of reproductive-biology study. What can be said comes from the general pattern in Nemacheilidae: stone and brook loaches in this family are egg-scatterers that spawn over gravel in flowing water, without pairing behaviour or nest construction, but this is a family-level generalisation rather than an observation of this species.
Breeding
There is no record of Paracobitis salihae being bred or even maintained in the aquarium hobby; it is not in trade. Following the pattern typical of Nemacheilidae, its likely reproductive mode is an egg-scatterer over gravel in fast-flowing water, with no parental care once eggs are released — but for this species that mode is inferred from its family, not confirmed by direct observation. Stone and brook loaches as a group are rarely bred in captivity even where they are kept, and a Critically Endangered, single-river endemic like this one is realistically a conservation-and-field-study subject rather than an aquarium-breeding candidate.
In the aquarium
Paracobitis salihae is not a hobby fish. It is not known to be in the aquarium trade, has no established husbandry record, and — given its Critically Endangered status and restriction to a single, dam-threatened Turkish river — should not be collected or kept outside of conservation or research contexts. Nothing here is written as a stocking recommendation.
For context, its relatives in Nemacheilidae generally require the conditions typical of stone and brook loaches wherever they are kept: cool-to-moderate, clear, well-oxygenated, flowing water, a sandy or gravel substrate, and (like most loaches) near-scaleless skin that makes them sensitive to copper-based medications and full-strength treatments. Anyone encountering a fish sold under this name should treat the claim with real scepticism, given the species has no established trade presence.
Conservation
Paracobitis salihae was assessed at the time of its 2020 description as Critically Endangered (CR). Its entire known distribution is the Göksu River in the western upper Euphrates drainage of southern Turkey, and the principal identified threat is dam construction within that river system — a single point of failure for a species with, so far, no other documented population. As the westernmost known Paracobitis, it also carries biogeographic significance disproportionate to its tiny range.
Because the species was described so recently and its range is so restricted, conservation priorities are straightforward in outline even if the underlying biology is not: protecting the Göksu River's flow and water quality from further impoundment, and further field survey to establish whether any additional populations exist. There is no aquarium trade in this species to raise separately as a pressure; the threat here is entirely habitat-driven.