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Pic Credit : Nilanjan Mukherjee

from the Sankosh river at Gholani near Shalbari, Dist Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. Around 13" TL.









Pic Credit : Jibran


from the Bhagirathi river at Kalna near Shantipur, Nadia Dist, West Bengal. Around 17" TL.


The filaments on the pectoral fins of the second fish go well beyond the pelvic fin. Can this be attributed to size alone???

Shovelnose wrote: The filaments on the pectoral fins of the second fish go well beyond the pelvic fin. Can this be attributed to size alone???

Or individual variation. Or sexual dimorphism. I don't know. Otherwise, I'd say they are all the same species.

But I do know that the Indian “yarrelli” have relatively long extensions of the pectoral fins that the Southeast Asian ones do not.

Oh ok. Have you seen any specimens from Karnataka or Tamil Nadu???

Only a relatively young fish from Tamil Nadu. I might have examined a ca. 20 cm specimen from Karnataka also.

Oh great!!!!! Were these specimens consistent with the Indian "yarrelli" you have encountered HH??? Also, any idea about collection localities???

ooh, very interesting.

Are the 2nd batch of pictures definately Yarrelli?
Could they not be Bagarius Bagarius? Or is that not possible from this region?

The second fish is right now around 19" TL which is more than twice the size of the alleged from India. So I guess we can rule that out for now. From a rough estimate, the insertion of the dorsal and the adipose keys out with yarrelli for both the 'variants'.


I also hear some specimens have been showing up with differences in the shape and length of the snout in addition to other differences. Will post pics once I get them.

I could not readily assign all of the Indian Bagarius populations I have seen to different species and conclude that there is only one species on the subcontinent: Bagarius bagarius. I examined the specimen of B. bagarius from Bangladesh that Roberts examined (this is purportedly the only specimen of B. bagarius from the Indian subcontinent, all others being identified as B. yarrelli). I was unable to see the differences that Roberts claim exist between the two species. I therefore conclude the following:

There is one species in the Indian subcontinent and this is B. bagarius.

There are at least four species in Southeast Asia, and (at least) the Sundaic “yarrelli” are B. lica. The Indochinese “yarrelli” may or may not be the same species. If not, it has no name. The “dwarf” Indochinese species (the one everyone calls B. bagarius), if distinct, also has no name. There is, of course, B. suchus and B. rutilus, which are valid species.

Bagarius from Myanmar appear to be distinct from Indian and other Southeast Asian congeners and are again without a name, if demonstrated to be distinct.

Very interesting, hopefully there will be a revision soon.

Useful info. Thanks!!!

Silurus wrote:There is one species in the Indian subcontinent and this is B. bagarius.

And this is not a dwarf species right???

Sadly, I hear that the population in Karnataka is nearing extinction. There is no news on the species from Tamil Nadu (that I can find).

The Indian species is(are?) not “dwarf” in any way.

Alright. I will update the thread with more variants as and when I get pics of them.



Slightly OT : was imported by an LFS as Pygmy Bagarius last year. I always thought it would be a more apt trade name for .

Pic : Nilanjan

Specimen from the Bhagirathi at Nabadwip, Nadia district, West Bengal, India. Specimens from the same river in the same district are turning up with mild variations. The patterns and the extensions on the pectoral fin for one.

They are from different drainage, are they similar or differ?(Sorry for the picture quality)

The bigger specimen seems to have lesser dorsal to adipose distance when looking at the lateral view but the dorsal view negates this IMO. The dorsal also looks like it is situated closer to the head in the bigger specimen. Lets see what HH has to say about these.

Do you remember the picture you posted on the old Petfrd of the poisoned Bagarius??? There was one that was different from the others in the picture IFIRF. Could you post that picture once the ID's of these specimens are known please.