{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "@id": "https://badiyaa.com/iraq-blind-cave-fish-haditha-groundwater/#article", "mainEntityOfPage": "https://badiyaa.com/iraq-blind-cave-fish-haditha-groundwater/", "headline": "Two blind fish are known only from groundwater near Haditha in Iraq, and one has not been recorded since 1983", "description": "A 2012 survey found one Iraqi sinkhole dry and only the Iraq blind barb in the other; the Haditha cavefish, under two inches long, is listed as possibly extinct.", "datePublished": "2026-11-09T00:47:00+00:00", "dateModified": "2026-11-09T00:47:00+00:00", "author": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Badiyaa Editorial Desk", "url": "https://badiyaa.com/author/editorial-desk/" }, "publisher": { "@type": "NewsMediaOrganization", "@id": "https://badiyaa.com/#organization", "name": "Badiyaa", "url": "https://badiyaa.com/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://badiyaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/badiyaa-logo-color-600x60-1.png", "width": 600, "height": 60 }, "email": "badiyaavideo@gmail.com", "publishingPrinciples": "https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/", "correctionsPolicy": "https://badiyaa.com/corrections/", "actionableFeedbackPolicy": "https://badiyaa.com/contact/", "ownershipFundingInfo": "https://badiyaa.com/about/#ownership", "sameAs": [ "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61595518283625", "https://www.instagram.com/badiyaa.com.ai/", "https://www.threads.net/@badiyaa.com.ai" ], "parentOrganization": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Rezilient Digital", "url": "https://www.rezilientdigital.com/", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Fl No 3, Nav Shyam Sadan, Plot No 38, Pestom Sagar, Chembur", "addressLocality": "Mumbai", "addressRegion": "Maharashtra", "postalCode": "400089", "addressCountry": "IN" }, "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/rezilientdigital" ] } }, "isAccessibleForFree": true, "inLanguage": "en-US", "wordCount": 579, "image": [ "https://badiyaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/anah-haditha-lake-scaled.webp", "https://badiyaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/anah-haditha-lake-1024x576.webp" ], "articleSection": "Pets & Animals", "keywords": "cavefish, endangered species, Groundwater, Iraq", "articleBody": "Two blind fish found nowhere else on Earth live, or lived, in the groundwater beneath a shrine on the edge of the Iraqi town of Haditha. One of them has not been recorded since 1983. The missing one is Caecocypris basimi, the Haditha cavefish. The other, Garra widdowsoni, the Iraq blind barb, was still there when researchers last looked, in 2012, but in a much reduced habitat. The IUCN lists both as Critically Endangered, and the first carries the grim extra tag “possibly extinct.” A window into the dark Very little of their world can be seen. The site is the Sheik Hadid Shrine sinkhole, about 500 meters from the Euphrates on the northern edge of Haditha, in western Iraq. It is reached through a well a few meters down. The record kept by the cave biologist Graham Proudlove calls it “a small window” into the water table, and adds, under habitat, the words “Nothing known.” These are small animals. The original specimen of C. basimi, a mature female, measured 49 millimeters without the tail fin, a little under two inches. The first G. widdowsoni specimen came in at 47.5 millimeters. Each would sit comfortably across a credit card. Both show the classic trade-offs of life without light. Cavefish tend to lose eyes and pigment, which cost energy and give nothing back in the dark, and they rely on other senses to find food. The group is global: more than 200 species have been described, over 80 of them in China, yet many have ranges no bigger than a single cave. What the numbers show The timeline of these two fish is short and sobering. 1955: G. widdowsoni is formally described. 1965: a study of variation in the species is able to examine 69 specimens. 1977: the first specimen of C. basimi is collected. 1980: C. basimi is described as a new species and genus. 1983: the last records of C. basimi. 2012: the first comprehensive survey in 30 years finds only G. widdowsoni. That 2012 fieldwork found a second sinkhole, in the Haqlaniya valley, dry and fishless. Only the shrine sinkhole still held water, and its level had fallen badly. Local people told the surveyors that there had once been seven more such places, although the exact locations are not known. Where the water went The IUCN assessment points to water pumped from the well itself as the main threat, with falling groundwater and changes caused by a large dam built nearby on the Euphrates adding to the pressure. Species in stable underground habitats tend to cope poorly with that kind of shift. A rescue is hard to plan for a fish nobody can find. Reviewers writing in 2021 said of C. basimi: “This species seems not to have been found since the collection of the original materials and might be extinct.” The IUCN assessment leaves a sliver of hope, noting the species may be more widespread in the karst system than anyone knows, although other wells on the same aquifer have not produced it. Its place on the family tree is unsettled too. Researchers have not been able to assign it to a subfamily, and the 2021 reviewers suggested a rediscovered fish might prove to belong to the genus Mesopotamichthys. Settling that would take one thing the museums do not have: fresh material from a fish last recorded 43 years ago. Further reading Wikipedia: Iraq blind barb Wikipedia: Caecocypris Wikipedia: Cavefish Illustrative image. Image: Mahmoudalrawi, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.", "markdown": "https://badiyaa.com/iraq-blind-cave-fish-haditha-groundwater.md" }