''Tor khudree'', the Deccan mahseer, Khudree mahseer, or black mahseer, is a

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. The term excludes seawater and brackish water, but it does include non-salty mi ...

fish of the carp family found in major rivers and reservoirs of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. Found throughout

, following large-scale introductions of artificially-bred fish across the country Mahseer breeding and conservation and possibilities of commercial culture. The Indian experience. (by Ogale, S.N.)
/ref> (annex 2), but found of the largest size and in the greatest abundance in mountain or rocky streams.Day, F. (1889) Fauna of British India. Fish. Volume 1.
The fish as originally described by Sykes in his November 1838 paper 'On the Fishes of the Dukhun' as Barbus khudree, is a silvery-bluish coloured fish, with blood red fins or fins tipped with a bluish tinge. The type locality is the

Mula-Mutha River The Mula-Mutha is a river in India, formed by the confluence of the Mula and Mutha rivers in the city of Pune, Maharashtra state, which later flows into the Bhima River, which itself is a tributary of the Krishna River and finally empties int ...

close to the Indian city of

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

, a part of the

Krishna River The Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau is the third-longest in India, after the Ganga, Ganga and Godavari. It is also the fourth-largest in terms of water inflows and river basin area in India, after the Ganga, Indus and Godav ...

basin.
Although there have been efforts to artificially breed this mahseer since the early1970's, there is no way to determine if these fish are Tor khudree, as the populations within the type locality have gone extinct.Pinder, A.C., Britton, J.R., Harrison, A.J. et al. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-019-09566-y It has been reported that the fish moves to upper reaches of small streams to spawn, which is a common spawning strategy of mahseer. They feed on plants, fruits, insects, shrimps and molluscs and may be grown in ponds. They are predatory, and even prey on smaller mahseer. While large fish of over a metre and 45 kg in weight have been recorded, such sizes are no longer found in the type locality. In the River Cauvery, fish to over 30 kg are being caught in recent years.

Description

The lips are thick, with an uninterrupted fold across the lower jaw, and with both the upper and lower lips in some specimens produced in the mesial line. The maxillary pair of

barbels In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whisker like sensory organ near the mouth (sometimes called whiskers or tendrils). Fish that have barbels include the catfish, the carp, the goatfish, the hagfish, the sturgeon, the z ...

are longer than the

rostral Rostral may refer to: Anatomy * Rostral (anatomical term), situated toward the oral or nasal region * Rostral bone, in ceratopsian dinosaurs * Rostral organ, of certain fish * Rostral scale The rostral scale, or rostral, in snakes and other sca ...

, and extending to below the last third of the eye. Fins the dorsal arises opposite the ventral, and is three fourths as high as the body; its last undivided ray is smooth, osseous, strong, and of varying length and thickness. Himalayan, Bengal, and Central Indian specimens generally have the spine strong, and from one half to two thirds the length of the head, it rarely exceeds this extent. In Canara, Malabar, and Southern India, where the lips are largely developed, the spine is very much stronger and as long as the head excluding the snout.

Pectoral Pectoral may refer to: * The chest region and anything relating to it. * Pectoral cross, a cross worn on the chest * a decorative, usually jeweled version of a gorget * Pectoral (Ancient Egypt), a type of jewelry worn in ancient Egypt * Pectora ...

as long as the head excluding the snout ; it reaches the ventral, which is little shorter. Anal laid flat does not reach the base of the caudal, which is deeply forked.

Lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

complete, 2 to 2.5 rows of scales between it and the base of the ventral fin ; 9 rows before the dorsal. Colour silvery or greenish along the upper half of the body, becoming silvery shot with gold on the sides and beneath. Lower fins reddish yellow. These two fish (photo, right) from brood stock of Tor khudree sampled at Karnataka state fishery department hatchery at Harangi reservoir demonstrate the difficulties of making correct identifications. One is a slim-bodied fish with a more golden body and orange-coloured fins, the other is deep-bodied with a silver-grey body colouration and blue fins. Both are genetically identical to the stocks known as Tor khudree sourced from the Tata Power hatchery at Lonavla, Maharastra.

Status

Conservation

''T. khudree'' has also been recently reported as one of the winter exclusive fishes in the Chambal river basin of Central India (Madhya Pradesh). Ranching and creation of a winter-time freshwater protected area have been recommended at Ghatbilod (Indore, Madhya Pradesh) dedicated for conservation of this Mahseer species.

Record catches

H. S. Thomas in his ''Rod in India'' quotes a note by G. P. Sanderson:Thomas, H. S. 1897. The Rod in India. W. Thacker and Co.
Note: the head and skin of this fish were moved from Bangalore Museum and are now held in the Regional Museum of Natural History Mysore. A research visit by a team from Mahseer Trust determined, through taxonomic investigation, that this fish was clearly an endemic

Tor remadevii ''Tor remadevii'', the orange-finned mahseer, also known as the hump-backed mahseer, is a Critically Endangered species of freshwater fish endemic to the Western Ghats of India. It is restricted to the Kaveri river basin. It can be distinguis ...

, not an introduced Tor khudree.

References

External links

Fish details
* https://www.mahseertrust.org/ {{Taxonbar, from=Q3595855 khudree Fish described in 1839 Freshwater fish of India Freshwater fish of Sri Lanka Cyprinid fish of Asia Endangered fauna of Asia Taxa named by William Henry Sykes Symbols of Madhya Pradesh