Clanwilliam yellowfish

The Clanwilliam yellowfish (Labeobarbus seeberi) is a large ray-finned fish of the carp family, Cyprinidae, found only in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It lives in tributaries of the Olifants River, among them the Doring River, and in streams of the Cederberg Mountains, where it prefers large and small rivers with moving water and deeper pools shaded by dense stands of Palmiet. Young fish are silvery with blotchy vertical bars, adults turn light brown, and breeding males go golden-yellow, which gives the species its common name. Adults eat larger invertebrates and algae, while the young take zooplankton and small aquatic invertebrates. Spawning runs from late spring to summer in shallow riffles. Stocks fell sharply from the 1940s to the 1970s after introduced smallmouth bass began eating the young, and damming, canalisation and farm runoff add to the pressure. The IUCN lists the species as Near Threatened and the Western Cape lists it as Endangered; a captive breeding station worked from 1976 into the 1990s.