Habits and medicinal value of the thick-lipped fish (Northwestern Plateau fish)

Gymnodiptychus pachycheilus (Gymnodiptychus pachycheilus) belongs to the order Cypriniformes, family Cyprinidae, subfamily Schizothorax, and genus Gymnodiptychus pachycheilus. Commonly known as: heavy-lipped croaker, mackerel, stone croaker.

The body is long and cylindrical, slightly flattened laterally, and the tail peduncle is thin and round. The head is tapered, the snout is prominent, and the snout ends in the middle of the upper lip; the mouth is lower and horseshoe-shaped. The lower jaw has no sharp horny edges. The lips are well developed. The left and right lobes of the lower lip are connected to each other in front, and the unconnected parts at the back are rolled inward. The front of the two lower lip lobes has an underdeveloped transverse membrane and no middle lobe; the posterior labial groove is continuous. The corners of the mouth must have one pair, relatively thick and short, with the end reaching approximately below the back edge of the eye. Most of the body surface is naked. Except for one row of large anal fins on each side of the anal fin, there are only 2-4 rows of irregular scales behind the shoulder straps above the base of the pectoral fins. The lateral line is straight and the dorsal fin has no spines. The body and head are yellowish brown or grayish brown, with dark brown spots evenly distributed, and there are also a few spots below the lateral line; the pelvic fins are grayish white or yellowish gray. The dorsal fin is light gray and the caudal fin is light red with small spots evenly distributed.

It inhabits the plateau wide valley rivers in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and Yellow River in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and other provinces, and is more common in river bends. It feeds on aquatic animals such as caddisfly larvae, amphipod shrimp and stonefly larvae, and also eats a small amount of plant debris. The reproductive season is April-May.

Growth is slow, and the average body length of 10-year-old fish is only about 44 cm. But the meat quality is good, the meat tastes delicious, and the yield is high. It is an important economic fish in the production area. The eggs are toxic and cannot be eaten. Care must be taken to remove them during processing. Its meat, bones and gallbladder have medicinal value and are used to treat women's diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, promote boils and suppuration, edema, heat and pain in sores, cataracts, burns and other diseases. Schizothorax fishes such as Gymnocypris eckloni and Schizopygopsis pylzovi, which are distributed in the same area, also have the same medicinal effect.

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