Fish taxonomy is a dynamic and emerged field. This manual is mainly intended to strengthen the finfish taxonomy in reality among the students as well as teachers and therefore this practical manual contains the fishes from coastal, pelagic, demersal, and oceanic environments of India. At the same time, this manual is not intended to be a thorough taxonomic fish ID guide for all the species. It is hoped that this would be great help in assisting students by providing a more comprehensive species level description in understanding any variation in the species composition. In this manual, all the methods used in the identification of marine fish species are given in detail. Morphological and mertistic characters are explained with adequate effort and standard methods followed in finfish taxonomy. The latest taxonomic nomenclature are used and adopted and modifications, if any to fish taxonomy, will be updated and revised in subsequent editions. A number of illustrations were adapted from various sources and this will make easy to handle the practical with technical words. The author is thankful to Dr. Stephen A. Dembner, Chief, Publishing Policy and Support Branch, FAO for granting the use of copyright materials to prepare this book.
