This dataset contains information on species presence in and at lakes in Northern Germany. Most of the lakes are gravel pit lakes. All lakes that contain "fish data" only are natural lakes (N=6). Depending on lake and biological taxa, lakes were sampled several times. This datasheet contains information on species presence from the first sampling event to represent roughly equal sampling efforts between the lakes. The complete database with all sampling events is available via www.fred.igb-berlin.de (DOI: 10.18728/igb-fred-807.0) Detailed metadata can be found in the Freshwater Metadatabase (http://data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/metadb/bf_mdb_view.php?entryID=FWM_38) and in the Freshwater Metadata Journal (https://doi.org/10.15504/fmj.2023.53).