Labeobarbus is a genus of large African barbs in the carp family Cyprinidae, best known in southern and eastern Africa as the 'yellowfish': big-bodied river cyprinids with thick lips and, in most species, teeth reduced to pharyngeal plates for crushing food rather than barbel-equipped mouths. The atlas covers 126 species spread across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Angola, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Uganda, tracking a genus that has radiated widely across African river systems and, especially in the Ethiopian highlands, into isolated lake basins. Size varies enormously, from around 2 in in small stream forms to nearly a metre (39 in) in the largest river giants, among the biggest cyprinids found anywhere on the continent.
The larger Labeobarbus, like the smallmouth yellowfish (L. aeneus) and the Upper Zambezi yellowfish (L. codringtonii), are prized sportfish across southern Africa rather than aquarium subjects: strong-swimming, long-lived river fish that grow far too large for a home tank. Several Ethiopian highland species have diversified within single lake or crater systems in a pattern that has drawn comparisons to the region's better-known cichlid radiations. Conservation status is mixed. The atlas tally includes 10 Vulnerable and 5 Endangered species plus one Extinct, alongside a large Data Deficient and Not Evaluated share, consistent with a genus whose remote highland and river populations are still being properly surveyed.