Which is the most primitive freshwater fish species?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Ah, misunderstood you for a minute. Yeah, that first diagram shows the evolutionary progression pretty well. It also shows how they're all distantly related, which is cool.
 
Okay, here's a phylogeny that I copied from the previously mentioned book:

Phylogeny of the Actinopterygii.png

As you can see, Polypteriformes (reedfishes and bichirs) is the most basal, e.g. primitive, of the pictured groups of fishes. Next comes Ancipenseridae (sturgeons) and Polyodontidae (paddlefishes), and those are followed by Semionotiformes (gars and their extinct relatives). Amiiformes (bowfin) is the last group of fishes before Teleostei, which is comprised of the remaining 96% of the fishes.

EDIT: It appears that I was uploading this post as similar diagrams were being posted. Yay for more info!

Phylogeny of the Actinopterygii.png
 
It should be noted that the phylogeny that I posted is the one that is most commonly accepted and taught while the one from Primitive Fishes is actually the more accurate from a genetic standpoint.

Here's a diagram of that phylogeny in order to hopefully make it a bit more clear:

Phylogeny of the Actinopterygii (Other).png

Cladistia = bichirs and reedfishes, Chondrostei = sturgeons and paddlefishes, Ginglymodi = gars, Halecomorphi = bowfin, Teleostei = the rest of the fishes.

We could just make this the random ancient fish info thread, haha.

Indeed, we could do that.

Phylogeny of the Actinopterygii (Other).png
 
lol yeah ,but its all real interesting. thanks for all the info

so does this mean that freshwater stingrays represent the most ancient fish in the hobby?
 
lol yeah ,but its all real interesting. thanks for all the info

so does this mean that freshwater stingrays represent the most ancient fish in the hobby?

Well, some people have kept lampreys before (I know that I have), but, yes, freshwater stingrays are definitely the most ancient fishes that are commonly kept.
 
I just found my Jurassic Fishes book, it has a lot of interesting info about the timeline of fish evolution.
 
are there any other freshwater Chondricthyes that ppl keep?

really u've had lampreys? how does that work? ive heard they are parasite like
 
are there any other freshwater Chondricthyes that ppl keep?

As far as I know, no one keeps any of the other freshwater Chondricthyes.

really u've had lampreys? how does that work? ive heard they are parasite like

Yes, I had some least brook lampreys (Lampetra aepyptera) that I caught during the Ichthyology class that I took last summer around this time. I had them for a few weeks before most of them expired; I fed the rest of them to my gars and bichirs since I knew that the rest would die soon, too. These ones are non-parasitic and were filter-feeders that mostly stayed buried in the sand in their aquarium, so they definitely were not the most exciting fishes that I've ever owned.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com