Identification of native fishes of western Azarbaijan province - phase 1: northern water source

The aim of this research was to identify fish species distributed in the water resources located at West- Azarbaijan province. Sampling was done seasonally, from 14 sampling sites in main branches of different rivers including Aras, Zangmar, and Ghator. Fish samples catched with different tools, fixed in 10 % formalin, and finally transferred to the laboratory for biological investigations. The identified fish were 25 species belonging to 8 fish family comprising of Cyprinidae, Balitoridae, Cobitidae, Siluridae, percidae, poecilliidae, Gobiidae, Salmonidae. Among them, cyprinidae family had the highest percentage of diversity. There were 2 species from Balitoridae and 1 species from the rest of other family.