Ripon barbel

The Ripon barbel, Labeobarbus altianalis, is a large ray-finned freshwater fish of the carp family, Cyprinidae, native to East Africa. It is a notably large barb, with a maximum recorded total length of 90 centimetres. It lives in Lake Victoria and its drainage basin and in neighbouring parts of the East African Rift, including lakes Edward, George, Kyoga and Kivu, the Ruzizi River down to its delta, and the upper and middle Kagera River, so its range reaches Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Its habitats run from the inshore waters of lakes to rapidly flowing rivers. It is an omnivore that eats water plants, molluscs and fishes, and people catch it for sport and food, with the Kagera River population of some commercial importance. Its classification has been unsettled: the old placement in the genus Barbus was provisional, several formerly separate species and many proposed subspecies have been merged into it, and some authorities place it in Labeobarbus. The IUCN does not consider it threatened.