RESEARCH ARTICLE

Ichthyofauna of India (1758-2024): review, analysis, and annotated checklist

Cheremmcheri Ramakrishnan Sreeraj, Arya Sen, Laishram Kosygin Singh, Honey Unnikrishna Pillai & Chelladurai Raghunathan

India is well-known for its abundant and varied fish species, a result of its great variety of aquatic environments. The earliest reference to fishes in Indian writing is found in Vedas and Puranas. The taxonomic knowledge on the fishes of India started with the father of taxonomy, Linnaeus in 1758, whose works included many fishes from Indian waters, although others are mistakenly tagged as "Habitat in India". For this review, a total of 958 articles in the literature were used. The compilation of records and resulting analysis of the ichthyofauna of India yielded a total of 3,967 species of fishes belonging to 1,197 genera, 287 families, and 60 orders. Among the various states, Tamilnadu had the highest fish diversity with 1,919 species followed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with 1,544 species, and Kerala with 1,202 species. Of the 3,967 species, 2,173 species occur exclusively in marine habitats, plus 401 found in both marine and brackish water (and not in fresh water). Only 20 species are limited to brackish waters. In comparison, 1,026 species are restricted to freshwater habitats, plus 125 species found in both fresh and brackish-water habitats. In addition to these, 223 species of euryhaline fishes occupy all three habitats. Overall then, in marine waters a total of 2,797 species can be found; in brackish waters a total of 768 species can be found; and a total of 1,374 species occur in fresh waters. The most diverse fish family in India is Cyprinidae, with 337 species, followed by Gobiidae (250 species) and Sisoridae (148 species). A total of 59 families are monotypic and 204 families are represented by fewer than 10 species. Among the numerous new fish species described from India over more than 250 years of research, currently 1,561 species remain taxonomically valid as of July 2024. A complete list of Indian ichthyofaunal literature citations is presented at the end of the article.

CITATION:

Sreeraj, C.R., Sen, A. Singh, L.K., Pillai, H.U. & Raghunathan, C. (2025) Ichthyofauna of India (1758-2024): review, analysis, and annotated checklist. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 44, 1-87. (with Appendix pp 88-330)

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16878992

publication date: 14 August 2025