Glyptothorax is a large genus of torrent catfish in the family Sisoridae, found across fast-flowing hill and mountain streams from the Himalayan foothills through South and Southeast Asia into southern China; the atlas records species from India, Nepal, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and China. Species in the atlas range from about 3–12 in. Like other sisorids, Glyptothorax has a distinctive thoracic adhesive apparatus — a grooved, sucker-like fold of skin on the chest — that lets it grip smooth rock in torrential current, an adaptation shared with unrelated hillstream fish that face the same problem of living in fast water.
Glyptothorax is a genus of scientific and regional interest more than an aquarium staple; its drab coloration, specialized high-flow requirements, and generally modest size keep it out of the mainstream trade, and none of the five species in the atlas carries an established common name apart from Glyptothorax trilineatus, known as the three-lined torrent catfish. Conservation status is largely unresolved — four of the five species in the atlas have not yet been formally evaluated, reflecting how much of this large, diverse genus still awaits dedicated survey work.