260 New Freshwater Fish Species Discovered in 2024

March 4, 2025 Jeremy Gay

Conservation group SHOAL has released its annual New Species Report, highlighting the 260 new species of freshwater fish described in 2024.

New Species 2024 is designed to draw attention to the 260 freshwater fish species described throughout the year, while celebrating the taxonomists who work on describing them. You can’t conserve something that doesn’t have a name, or worse, if nobody knows that it even exists.

New Species 2024 does carry considerable ichthyological weight, being a collaboration between SHOAL, the IUCN Freshwater Fish Specialist Group, and the California Academy of Sciences. As well as highlighting the newly described species, it also dives deep into a selection of fish species and showcases some of their adaptations.

The class of 2024 includes:

Berlin’s Bloodworm Eel, a blind eel uniquely adapted to life in the mud
Adriana’s Pearlfish, discovered just meters from a tourist path, a stone’s throw from the mighty Iguazú Falls, Argentina.
Two species of disc characin, including one named after Lord Sauron from Lord of the Rings.

Of the 260 freshwater fish first described in 2024, there are:

137 from Asia
84 from South America
28 from Africa
4 from Europe
4 from North America
3 from Oceania

Aquarium fish

The 260 species are from 140 genera, many of them being suitable aquarium fish. The extensive list includes new Beaufortia, Channa, Characidium, Corydoras, Danio, Garra, Hyphessobrycon, Hypostomus, Leporinus, Macropodus, Mastacembelus, Moenkhausia, Myloplus, Nannocharax, Oryzias, Panaqolus, Parauchenoglanis, Phenacogaster, Pimelodella, Pseudacanthicus, Pseudomugil Pseudotropheus, Rineloricaria, Telmatochromis , Triportheus, and Yunnanilus, to name just a few genera with species already in the aquarium trade. There are of course many obscure, coldwater or threatened species that wouldn’t or shouldn’t become available to aquarists, but it still amazes how, despite massive urbanization, just how many new fish species were still being discovered in the world in 2024.

There are thought to be 35,000 extant species of fish on earth, with over 15,000 species being freshwater. Here’s to an ichthyologically fruitful 2025.