Paraschistura is a genus of small stone loaches in the family Nemacheilidae, split out of the much larger Schistura to hold species from the arid interior of Southwest and Central Asia, matching the atlas's coverage of Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, and parts of China and India. Like other nemacheilids, they are slender, scaleless or fine-scaled bottom-dwellers with a subterminal mouth and barbels, living in the cool, often spring-fed streams that thread the Iranian plateau and adjoining mountain ranges. The atlas covers 25 species, from about 1.5–4.5 in.
Paraschistura is essentially unknown in the aquarium trade and is of scientific rather than hobby interest, valued more for what it reveals about the biogeography of an arid, hydrologically fragmented region than for aquarium appeal. A meaningful share of the assessed species carry a threatened IUCN rating, consistent with a genus built from small, isolated stream and spring populations that can be cut off entirely by drought or water extraction; a large share of the genus has not yet been formally assessed at all.