Riverine Fish Species

Types of riverine fishes

Fishes occurring in Indian riverine are grouped into resident species, local migrants and long distant migrants species from migratory habits

Resident species

• Fish species that prefer to remain confined within the local territories.
• This type includes Cyprinus carpio, Notopterus spp., Channa spp., Mastacembelus spp., Garra spp, Osteobrama spp, Puntius spp, Labeo spp, Cirrhinus spp, Mystus spp, Clupisoma spp, etc.

Cyprinus carpio                                                                    Notopterus notopterus

Caecomasta moori                                                           Channa striata

Cirrhinus cirrhosus                                                              Clupisoma garua

Garra spilota                                                                             Labeo rohita

Mystus bimaculatus                                                               Osteobrama belangeri

Puntius chola

Local migrants

• Fish species that perform seasonal migrations within short distances for feeding, breeding and others habits.
• This type comprises of mahseer, Indian Major Carps, large and medium sized catfishes (like Bagarius bagarius), Salmons, and Trouts.

Bagarius bagarius                                                                Brown trout

Golden mahseer                                                                                        IMC

Indian Salmon Eleutheronema tetradactylum

Long distant migrants

• Fish species that perform regular annual migrations for feeding or spawning or both.
• This type consists of
• Indian shad (Hilsa ilisha) - an anadromous fish,
• Freshwater eel (Anguilla spp.) - a catadromous fish and
• Catfish (Pangasius pangasius) - migrate from river to estuary).

Anguilla spp                                                                             Pangasius pangasius

Tenualosa ilisha