They are inland water fishes commonly called Eurasian daces. This genus unites the Ponto-Caspian chubs and daces. Southern redbelly daces have a varied diet, including algae, diatoms, and invertebrates. The riffle daces are a basal lineage in an insufficiently resolved clade of American Leuciscinae. This, like most fishes called "daces", belongs to the family Cyprinidae, mostly in subfamily Leuciscinae.