Author(s): Biplab Kumar Das, Hiranya Chamuah Saikia

Abstract: Garra is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. These fish are one example of the log suckers, sucker mouthed barbs and other cyprinids commonly kept in aquaria to keep down algae. The genus was established by Buchanan-Hamilton in 1822 [7] as a subgenus of Cyprinus. Garras are slim cyprinids with a flat belly and a sucking mouth; their shape indicates that they are at least in tendency rheophilic. They are distinguished from other cyprinids by a combination of features: As in their closest relatives, their lower lip is expanded at its posterior rim to form a round or oval sucking pad, the vomero-palatine organ is much reduced or completely lost, the pectoral fins have at least the first two rays enlarged and usually unbranched, the supraethmoid is wider than long when seen from above, and the cleithrum is narrow and elongated to the front. Garras are not or barely noticeably sexually dimorphic and generally cryptically coloured benthic freshwater fish. They are omnivorous, eating alga, plankton and small invertebrates that they suck off substrate like rocks or logs. There are five species of Garra are recorded in River Siang of Arunachal Pradesh, these are Garra annandalei, Garra gotyla gotyla, Garra kempi, Garra lissorhynchus and Garra mcclellandi.

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