Cobitis narentana is a species of ray-finned fish in the true loach family (Cobitidae). It is found in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. This fish was long believed to be part of the widespread Spined Loach (C. taenia).

Cladistic analysis of DNA sequence data (nDNA RAG-1 and S7 ribosomal protein intron 1, and mtDNA cytochrome b) confirms that it is properly treated as full species. It belongs to a group including C. bilineata, C. dalmatina and an undescribed species from the Bosnian-Croatian border region. The Adriatic endemics separated from the ancestors of C. bilineata, today widespread immediately south of the Alps, around 6–5.5 million years ago. This was during the Messinian salinity crisis, when drainage basins throughout the Mediterranean region changed their course. C. dalmatina appears to be quite similar to C. narentana as regards the mitochondrial DNA sequence, but the nuclear DNA sequences differ far more. This typically occurs in cases of hybridization between distinct but related species. In the present case, C. narentana would have mated with C. dalmatina males, perhaps during some Pliocene glacial.

Its natural habitats are rivers, freshwater lakes and freshwater marshes of the Neretva River basin. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Footnotes

References
 
  (2008): Cobitis species. Version of 2008-MAY-03. Retrieved 2008-AUG-15.
  (2008): The molecular diversity of adriatic spined loaches (Teleostei, Cobitidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 382–390.  (HTML abstract)

Cobitis
Messinian
Fish described in 1928
Taxa named by Stanko Karaman
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Endemic fauna of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Freshwater fish of Europe
Endemic fish of the Neretva basin
Fish of Bosnia and Herzegovina