Chagunius

There are currently three species which look almost identical and are most easily separated by collection details since their ranges do not overlap in nature; C. chagunio is endemic to the Ganges and Brahmaputra drainages and C. nicholsi to the Ayeyarwady/Irrawaddy.

Endemic to the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins and thus occurs in northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Type locality is 'the Yamuna River, and northern rivers of Behar and Bengal'. The distribution of the genus as a whole is interesting because these fish occupy the area that geographically separates Indian and Southeast Asia barbs and it has been theorised that they may represent an evolutionary 'link' species...