Scaphesthes macrolepis

The body is relatively slender and laterally flattened. The back is slightly raised and the abdomen is round. The head is slightly long. The snout is blunt; the snout covers the edge of the upper jaw under the skin, only the upper lip at the corner of the mouth is exposed, and there is an obvious fissure at the junction with the preorbital bone. The mouth is inferior, with a transverse fissure, the corner of the mouth is slightly bent backward, and the mouth fissure is relatively wide. The lower jaw is exposed with a sharp keratin front edge. The lower lip is limited to the corner of the mouth, and the length of the post-labial groove is close to 1/2 of the eye diameter. There are two pairs of very small whiskers. The nostril is in the front upper corner of the eye, slightly closer to the front edge of the eye than the tip of the snout. The eyes are medium-sized, located in the middle and upper part of the head, and their upper edges are in a horizontal line with the upper corners of t

It is distributed in the middle and upper reaches of the Jialing River and Han River systems, the upper reaches of the Huaihe River, the Weihe River system, the Yihe River, the Luo River, the Hutuo River in the upper reaches of the Haihe River and the streams of Mount Tai in Shandong.

The Latin name of the multi-scale white snapper is Scaphesthes macrolepis, and the foreign name is Largescale shoveljaw fish, with no subspecies.

The multi-scale white snapper is a warm-temperate freshwater fish. It lives in high mountain streams with clear water and sandy and gravelly bottom at an altitude of 270-1500 meters. It has a narrow distribution range. For example, the Taishan population can be found in all the water flows from the main peak of Taishan, but it is not found below 270 meters above sea level. There is a saying that "it is not beyond Mata in the east and not beyond Matao in the west" (Mata and Matao are both names of local villages). It often hibernates in springs in mountain lava cracks and caves. After October, it hibernates in springs and emerges in mid-April of the following year. The time of emergence is mostly concentrated in the second half of the night. When emerging from the spring, it heads down and tails outward, and emerges in groups. It usually leaves the hibernation place within 8-10 days. The growth rate is slow, especially after 10 years old. The survival water temperature is 4-26℃. It will be frozen to death when it is lower than 2℃ and will be killed by heat when it is higher than 28℃. The optimal water temperature for growth and reproduction is 18-24℃.

The multi-scaled white-armored fish is omnivorous, mainly feeding on aquatic insects with thin body walls (such as larvae or adults of chironomids, larvae or cocoons of black-lined caddis silkworms, nymphs of white-striped mayflies, larvae of caddis silkworms, black ants) and other invertebrates, and also feeds on algae (such as spiral water spirals and short-haired green moss). When feeding on algae on the surface of gravel, it first shovels with its lower jaw, then turns its body over and puts the bait into its mouth.

Male fish reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 and female fish at the age of 4, with a carrying capacity of 6,000 to 12,000 eggs, and is a one-time spawning type, with the spawning period from late April to late July. It lays eggs in streams with gravel bottoms. The first eggs are plump and free, orange-yellow or light yellow, and hatch on the gravel.

Listed in the "Red List of Threatened Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN 2007 ver 3.1) - Least Concern (LC).

Listed in the "China Biodiversity Red List - Vertebrate Volume" (Inland Fish) - Vulnerable (VU).

Listed in the "Second Class Protected Animals in Beijing, China".

Listed in the second class of the "National Key Protected Wildlife List" of China in 2021 (only for wild populations).

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