Valencia is a small genus of European killifish, the sole genus in family Valenciidae, confined to a scatter of freshwater springs, streams, and coastal lagoons in Spain, Greece, and Albania - one of the few killifish lineages native to Europe rather than the tropics. The atlas covers 3 species, 2–3 in, small and unremarkably shaped surface feeders that have persisted in these isolated Mediterranean waters since long before the rest of the killifish order diversified in Africa and the Americas.
Valencia sits mostly outside the mainstream aquarium trade and is kept, when at all, by specialist killifish and native-European-fish enthusiasts rather than general hobbyists - but the genus carries real weight as a conservation priority, with all 3 species (the Spanish toothcarp V. hispanica, the Greek toothcarp V. letourneuxi, and V. robertae) flagged for CARES. Across the genus the IUCN tally runs 2 Critically Endangered and 1 Vulnerable, squeezed into small, fragmented ranges under pressure from habitat loss, water abstraction, and introduced species such as mosquitofish.
The genus's restricted, spring-fed habitats and long isolation from other Cyprinodontiformes make it an unusual case among European freshwater fish, and its ongoing decline has made it a recurring subject of captive-breeding and habitat-protection programmes aimed at keeping these narrow-range endemics from following other isolated Mediterranean fish lineages toward extinction.