All fish / Cyprinidae

Ghor garra

Garra ghorensis

Also known as ghor garra, dead sea garra, jordan garra

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This is a small, slim garra with a brownish, lightly mottled body, a pale belly and a sucking disc under the mouth that it uses to graze on rocks. Specialist keepers of cyprinids and conservation programmes keep it because it is rare and endangered in the wild, and because it is an active algae grazer.

Care at a glance

Care level

Moderate

Temperament

Peaceful

Adult size

8 cm

Temperature

18 to 28 °C

pH

7 to 8.2

Smallest tank

100 litres

Keep as

Group of 5 or more

Diet

Omnivore: grazes algae and biofilm, also takes sinking pellets, wafers, blanched vegetables and small frozen foods

Swims

Bottom of the tank

Lifespan

4 to 7 years

Water

Freshwater

Wild range

Southern Dead Sea basin in Jordan and Israel (Wadi Hasa, Wadi Ibn Hammad and nearby springs)

Breeding

It scatters its eggs over gravel and stones and gives no parental care. Breeding is rarely reported in home aquariums, but conservation facilities in Jordan have kept and bred it.

Good to know

The IUCN lists it as Endangered because it has a very small range that is threatened by water abstraction, so only buy captive-bred fish. It needs clean, well-oxygenated water with some current, and it is easily confused with the more widespread Garra rufa.