Discovered non-eye fish in Iraq

Scientists at the German Institute of Freshwater Ecology Leibniz have discovered blind fish, completely without eyes in Iraqi Kurdistan. These mutated fish swim to the surface of the underground stream and soon they are eaten by birds.

Eyeless fish Eidinemacheilus proudlovei.

Biologists named the fish Eidinemacheilus proudlovei, a member of the salmon family . Unlike loach, they have no eyes, no scales and colorless skin. International biologists hypothesize that these underground stream fish feed on the bacterial membrane that adheres to the walls of the deep caves.

Dmitrij Paladov, an officer of the Department of Aquatic Sciences at MGU University, Russia, commented that blind fish, sometimes completely without eyes, are not new to biologists. In Syria, the Caucasus, Turkmenistan also found such fish. When the water rises, they float to the surface. In the process of evolution, the fish lose sight because when they live underground, they no longer need eyes.

They seek food thanks to bodies along the side. In principle, fish species have unique sensing organs along the hull on the body to help feel the flow of water but in the underground fish species, these bodies are very developed. Russian scientists have also recently found such a blind fish in western Georgia and are currently working on identifying its genome.