Oreonectes anophthalmusZheng

The front part of the body is thick and long, cylindrical, slightly flat, and the back part is flat. The head is wide and round, flat. The mouth is inferior and arc-shaped. The lips are smooth, and the center of the lower lip is slightly concave. There are 3 pairs of whiskers (2 pairs of snout whiskers and 1 pair of mouth whiskers). The eyes are degenerate and no longer exist. There is a short spur between the front and rear nostrils, the rear aperture is large, and the front aperture has a short tube. The body is scaleless, and there are several lateral line holes in the front. When the dorsal fin is alive, the body is translucent and slightly flesh-red, and the fins are transparent. After fixation, the body is grayish white.
The body is naked and scaleless. There are several lateral line holes on the front side of the body. When alive, the whole body is translucent and slightly flesh-red. The eye sockets are filled with fat globules. The fins are colorless. After formaldehyde fixa

Distributed in Taiji Cave, Wuming County, Guangxi, China, it lives in underground rivers in the cave.

The eyeless loach is named Oreonectes anophthalmusZheng in Latin. The eyeless loach found in Wuming is one of the earliest blind fish species found in my country. It is the second eyeless and pigmentless loach reported in the world. The number is extremely small. The eyeless loach has a very high status in the study of species germplasm system evolution.

Eyeless loach is a cave fish with high requirements for the ecological environment. It lives in underground rivers in caves with clear water and low water temperature. Living in the special habitat of caves is the result of long-term adaptation.

Listed in the second level of the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China".

Protect wild animals and stop eating game.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!