Fish of Somalia: sharks, rays and 30 other orders

In short

On 12 November 2026 the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the international open database of species records, held records of 523 fish (excluding the perch-like order) species with Somalia as the country, in 43 groups (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia).

The largest groups by number of species on record are (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy):

• Scorpaeniformes: 58
• Myctophiformes: 57
• Stomiiformes: 49
• Tetraodontiformes: 37
• Anguilliformes: 29
• Lophiiformes: 28
• Aulopiformes: 27
• Pleuronectiformes: 27
• Beloniformes: 20
• Clupeiformes: 20

Most often recorded

The species with the most GBIF records from Somalia are Barbopsis devecchii (45), Lampanyctus macropterus (43), Blue Notho (36), Nannobrachium indicum (29), Spotted Triggerfish, Ocean triggerfish, Rough triggerfish, Spotted oceanic triggerfish (29), Tropical two-wing flyingfish (28) (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia).

233 of the 523 species have a single record from Somalia (same source).

Named after Somali places

2 species on this list carry Somalia or a Somali place in their scientific name, for example Cociella somaliensis, Parailia somalensis (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy).

Species under threat

The IUCN Red List places these species in a threatened category (GBIF species API, IUCN Red List category):

• Critically Endangered: Tana Labeo, Scalloped Hammerhead, Common eagle ray, Eagle Ray, Halavi ray, Clubnose guitarfish, Smalltooth sawfish, Dwarf Gulper Shark (IUCN via GBIF)
• Endangered: pricklebelly blaasop, snaggletooth shark, blackspotted catshark, Shortfin mako, Zebra shark, Dumb gulper shark (IUCN via GBIF)
• Vulnerable: Somalian Cavefish, Phreatichthys andruzzii, Barred Nothobranch, Small Scaled Nothobranch, Palmqvist's nothobranch, Uegitglanis zammaranoi, pigeye shark, Silky Shark, Milk Shark, speckled catshark, Lesser Guitarfish, Marbled torpedo, Marbled Electric Ray, Spotted torpedo (IUCN via GBIF)

The perch-like fish are on Fish of Somalia: perch-like species.

How to read this list

A species is on this list when GBIF holds at least one record of it from Somalia. A record can be a museum specimen more than a century old, a sighting shared by an observer, or a specimen cited in a scientific paper. Some records are old and a few may be misidentified, so this is a list of records, not of what lives in Somalia today. Names follow the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, which can lag behind the newest research.

Red List summary

• Critically Endangered (CR): 7
• Endangered (EN): 6
• Vulnerable (VU): 12
• Near Threatened (NT): 5
• Least Concern (LC): 370
• Data Deficient (DD): 70
• Not Evaluated (NE): 53

Categories are from the IUCN Red List as published through GBIF (GBIF species API, IUCN Red List category).

Largest families

• Myctophidae: 55 species
• Stomiidae: 22 species
• Scorpaenidae: 20 species
• Macrouridae: 15 species
• Exocoetidae: 14 species
• Cyprinidae: 14 species
• Gonostomatidae: 13 species
• Synodontidae: 12 species
• Ophidiidae: 12 species
• Platycephalidae: 12 species

Full list (523 species)

Each name links to its Calankii page where one exists, otherwise to its GBIF species page. "Records in Somalia" is the number of GBIF occurrence records with Somalia as the country, counted on 12 November 2026 (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia). The same rows, with Wikidata ids and more columns, are in the open data file species-recorded-in-somalia.csv.

This list is in 4 parts: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

This list is in 4 parts: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4

Sources

• GBIF occurrence search, country Somalia
• GBIF Backbone Taxonomy
• IUCN Red List of Threatened Species