List Of Freshwater Fish Species Native To India

Homegrown Staff

The Mahseers are an iconic group of fish found throughout the fast-flowing rivers of south and southeast Asia. Characterised by their large scales, attractive appearance and potentially vast size, the mahseers have long been afforded saintly status as ‘God’s fishes’. They are also known to anglers as some of the world’s hardest fighting freshwater game fish, earning them the reputation of “tigers of the water.”

The Pearl Spot, popularly known as ‘Karimeen’ in Kerala is an indigenous fish extensively found along the east and south-west coasts of Peninsular India. It is cultivated in ponds in both brackish water and freshwater environments. It is abundantly available in the lakes of Kerala, especially the Ashtamudi Lake in Kollam, Vembanad Lake and the Vellayani Lake in Thiruvananthapuram.

Trout is a species of freshwater fish closely related to salmon and can be found in the Himalayan region of India. Lake Trout and most other trout live in freshwater lakes and rivers exclusively, while there are others, such as the steelhead, a form of the coastal rainbow trout, that can spend two or three years at sea before returning to freshwater to spawn (a habit more typical of salmon).

This graceful Indo-Gangetic riverine species is the natural inhabitant of the riverine system of northern and central India, and the rivers of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. In India, it has been transplanted into almost all riverine systems including the freshwaters of Andaman, where its population has successfully established.