Tor mahseer

Care at a glance

Overview

The Tor mahseer is a giant schooling river fish and a lifelong, institution-scale commitment. It belongs in an indoor pond or public-aquarium system rather than a home tank, and it is for experienced keepers.

Caring for the Tor mahseer

Plan on 502 gal (1,900 L) only as a bare starting volume for a young Tor mahseer, with far more needed as it grows. It cruises the open middle water and needs enormous length. Lay rock and gravel on the bottom and leave vast open swimming distance.

Give it strong current and pristine, cool, oxygen-rich water, at 61 to 77°F (16 to 25°C) and a pH of 6.5 to 7.8. Keep it cooler in winter. Feed meaty and vegetable foods, such as large sinking pellets, prawn, mussel, earthworms, fruit and greens.

Tor mahseer are schooling fish, so keep them in a group. A Tor mahseer is mostly peaceful for its size and will not hunt fish it cannot swallow. It dwarfs almost any tank mate, though, so companions must be very large and equally hardy.

In the wild it moves upstream on the monsoon floods to spawn. It is spawned commercially for stocking, but it is not bred in home aquariums.

Good to know

Tor tor is the type species of the mahseer genus, Tor, in the carp family, Cyprinidae. It is known as the red-finned mahseer for its coppery-red fins over golden, heavily armored scales. Historic records credit fish to around two meters, though a modern adult of half that is already a very large fish. It commonly matures near 36 centimeters. It is a prized game and food fish.

In the wild

The Tor mahseer runs the fast, rocky foothill rivers of the Himalayan drainage, across India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. It schools and migrates through these rivers.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Deccan mahseer

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  39.4 in (100 cm) · 502 gal (1,900 L)

  39.4 in (100 cm)502 gal (1,900 L)64–79°F (18–26°C)

• 

  Emperor round-face barb

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• 

  Stracheyi mahseer

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• 

  Yellowcheek

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• 

  Shovelmouth barb

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• 

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  15.7 in (40 cm)264 gal (1,000 L)73–82°F (23–28°C)