The freshwater fishes of Myanmar
Sven O Kullander, Carl J Ferraris, Fang Fang
Fishermen on Inle Lake, Shan States, Myanmar. Photo S.O. Kullander, 1994.
The freshwater fish fauna of Myanmar (formerly Burma) is one of the least known in South East Asia. We estimate that there are at least 300 fish species in Myanmar freshwaters. Many of these are apparently endemic. Since Day's major treatise of Indian fishes (Day, 1875-1888), Myanmar fish species are usually identified as the same as species better known from the Ganga or other parts of India, and considerable local endemism in Myanmar has gone unnoticed.The Myanmar fish fauna is already known to include many peculiar fish species. Among them is the miniature stickleback-like fish Indostomus paradoxus, first described from Indawgyi Lake in northern Myanmar. The species has been placed in its own order, and research into its phylogenetic position continues to yield ambiguous results. Another lake, Inle Lake, is renowned for its crystalline waters, leg-rowers, and many endemic species. Further exploration is likely to yield more species and information of global interest.
Systematic collections of Myanmar fishes are scarce, however. The Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM), however, has one of the world's best collections of Myanmar fishes, obtained from different sources in the 1930s, mainly by the Swedish entomologist René Malaise. NRM Researchers Sven O Kullander and Fang Fang have continued the description and exploration of Myanmar fishes, with emphasis on cyprinids. Catfish specialist Carl J Ferraris, Jr., of the All Catfish Species Inventory, prepared a guide to the commercial inland fishes of Myanmar for the FAO, and made several field studies in Myanmar, with particular attention to catfishes.Nga is the Burmese word for fish. Nga Myanmar Fishes is dedicated to a progress report presentation of our research into Myanmar fish diversity and also provides an online catalog for information about one of the world's least known fish faunas.Find out more:
Families
Habitats
Important literature on Myanmar fishes
About the Myanmar fishes web-site
All Catfish Species Inventory
A checklist of Myanmar fishes (marine and freshwater) based on occurence records in FishBase
Fish-links
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