evidence: The present study reports on the presence of the Amazon sailfin catfish in the Shatt al-Arab River at Basrah, Iraq, where 175 individuals of P. pardalis were collected in 2017. This is the first record of this species from the freshwater system of Iraq in general and from the Shatt al-Arab River in particular. The Shatt al-Arab River, which originates from the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is the main surface water source in lower Mesopotamia and serves around three million people, the majority of which live in the city of Basrah (Mahmood & Feachem 1987). The river is widely used for human consumption, agricultural, trade and industrial activities, transportation, electric power plants, and recreation. This river suffered from a massive regression in water quality related to the decline in rates of discharge from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Al-Mahmood et al. 2015) as a result of several hydrological constructions in the riparian countries (Partow 2001) and of the diversion of the Karun River into Iranian territory (Hameed & Aljorany 2011). The average rate of discharge in the upper part of the Shatt al-Arab River declined from 207 m3/s in 1977–1978 to 60 m3/s in 2014 (AlaidanI 2014). The decrease of freshwater inflow into the estuary has allowed saltwater to intrude about 80 km upstream from the river mouth (Abdullah et al. 2016).