Hypselobarbus mussullah

Appearance

Hypselobarbus mussullah is a large cyprinid that has a laterally compressed body that is just over a quarter as deep as it is long (standard length). With a steep dorsal profile forming an obvious hump that runs to the base of the dorsal fin and then slopes gently away to the caudal fin. The dorsal fin origin is just in front of the origin of the pelvic fins and the dorsal fin is concave on its upper margin, with a strong, smooth and stiff spine. The caudal fin is deeply forked with small tubercules on the rays.

It can grow to a maximum total length of 150 cm (59 in) and a weight of 90 kg (200 lb).

Range and habitat

H. Mussullah is endemic to the Western Ghats in southern India. It occurs in isolated pockets and the species' distribution is extremely fragmented and the total area of the species range is probably less than 500 km2 (190 sq mi). This species shows a preference for the deeper stretches of clear, fast flowing large jungle streams and rivers in upland areas.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

In crisis

When this species was classified under Tor mussulah, it was considered synonymous with the orange-finned mahseer (Tor remadeviae), a highly endangered species endemic to the Kaveri basin, unlike the humpback that is endemic to the Krishna basin.

Hypselobarbus mussullah is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Hypselobarbus mussullah, Wikidata item Q6403532. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.