Largest family of fish
- Who
- Cyprinidae
- What
- 1,790 total number
- Where
- Not Applicable
- When
- October 2023
The largest zoological family of fishes is Cyprinidae, the carp family, whose members inhabit freshwater. It contains approximately 1,790 species, housed in 160 genera, as of October 2023. Among its most familiar members are the carps (including goldfishes), barbs, minnows and barbels. This means that this family represents about 5.3% of all extant fish species (c. 34,000).
The largest zoological family of marine fishes, meanwhile, is Gobiidae (the gobies), which contains over 1,400 species, housed in more than 160 genera.