Triplophysa is a genus of fish in the family Nemacheilidae found mainly in and around the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China, as well as inland waters of the larger part of central Asia. They can be distinguished from other genera of Nemacheilidae by marked sexual dimorphism, including the development of nuptial tubercles on breeding males. Currently, the genus is a mixed assemblage of species. Some lineages have been identified and treated as subgenera (Hedinichthys, Indotriplophysa, Labiatophysa, Qinghaichthys and Tarimichthys), but as Wikipedia follows Fishbase for fish species all but Hedinichthys have been treated as subgenera in Wikipedia, although Kottelat in his revision of the loaches did recognise them as valid. FishBase, however, includes these in Triplophysa without specifying subgenera and treats the names given by Kottelat as synonyms.

Ecology

Triplophysa zhaoi holds the record for the lowest altitude for Asian fish: it is found at 50 m below sea level in swamps of the Lükqün oasis, in the Turpan Depression in Xinjiang. In the other end, Triplophysa stolickai holds the record altitude for Asian fish: it is found at 5200 m above sea level in hot springs near the Longmu Lake in western Tibet. Triplophysa dalaica has been used as model species to study adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia and 13 positively selected genes involved in hypoxia response have been identified. Some species are blind cave-dwellers.

Species

There are currently 148 recognized species in this genus: