Sawfish
Sawfish are primarily found in coastal marine and estuarine brackish waters, but they are euryhaline (can adapt to various salinities) and also found in freshwater. The largetooth sawfish, alternatively called the freshwater sawfish, has the greatest affinity for freshwater. For example, it has been reported as far as up the Amazon River and in Lake Nicaragua, and its young spend the first years of their life in freshwater. In contrast, the smalltooth, green and dwarf sawfish typically avoid pure freshwater, but may occasionally move far up rivers, especially during periods when there is an increased salinity. There are reports of narrow sawfish seen far upriver, but these need confirmation and may involve misidentifications of other species of sawfish.
Sawfish
Relatively little is known about the reproductive habits of the sawfish, but all species are ovoviviparous with the adults females giving birth to live young once a year or every second year. In general, males appear to reach sexual maturity at a slightly younger age and smaller size than females. As far as known, sexual maturity is reached at an age of 7–12 years in "Pristis" and 2–3 years in "Anoxypristis". In the smalltooth and green sawfish this equals a total length of , in the largetooth sawfish at , in the dwarf sawfish about , and in the narrow sawfish at . This means that the generation length is about 4.6 years in the narrow sawfish and 14.6–17.2 years in the remaining species.