Fish Diversity in Achenkovil River, Kerala, India

2009·1.5 MB·

by  S Swapna

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Ichrhy. Bull. 7: 40-42. Bull. Mar. Sci. 43(2): 117-203.
Philip, K.P. (1994): Studiesonthe biology andfisheryofthefishesof Volta, G.S. (1796): Ittiolitologia verones del museo Bozziano ora
theFamilyPriacanthidae(Pisces:Perciformes)ofIndianwaters. annesso a quello del Conte Giovambattista Gazola e di altri
Ph.D. thesis, Cochin University of Science and Technology. gabinettidifossiliVeronesiconlaversioneLatina.2vols.Verona
169pp. (orignal not seen).
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SpeciesidentificationsheetsforfisherypurposewesternCentral Hist., ser.10. 18: 48-54.
Atlantic (fishingarea31),Vol. 4, FAQRome ,Unpaginated. Woodward, A.S. (1901): Catalogue of fossil fishes in the British
Smith, J.L.B. (1966): The rare big-eye, Pristigenys niphonia Museum Natural History. Part IV. British Museum, London.
(C&V1839),insouthAfrica.RhodesUniv.Dept.Ich., Occ. Pap. 636pp.
9: 97-102. Yoshino, T. & Tamotsu Iwai (1973): Pristigenys multifaciata, a
Starnes,W.C.(1988):Revisionphylogenyandbiogeographiccomments priacanthid fish from the Ryukyu Islands. Japan. J. Ichthyol.
on thecircumtropicalmarinepercoidfishFamily Pricanthidae. 20(2): 61-66.
10. FISH DIVERSITY IN ACHENKOVIL RIVER, KERALA, INDIA
S. SWAPNA1
‘51-KalpakaNagar,Pettahpost,Thiruvananthapuram,695024, Kerala, India.Email: [email protected]
Mm
Introduction The river has an average flow of about 2,287 3 and
Western Ghats, located along the south-westcoastline ultimately drains into theVembanadu lake system.
oftheIndiansubcontinentisextremelyrichinitsfishdiversity Despite the occurrence ofa large number ofstudies on
and endemicity (Gopalakrishnan and Ponniah 2000). The the riverine fish fauna in Kerala (Biju et al. 1998, 1999a, b;
perennial river, Achenkovil flows through the central Johnson and Soranam 2001; Kumar and Sushama 2001;
Travancore region in Kerala state and rises south of Sushama2003),therewaspaucityonthedocumentationoffish
Devarmalai in the Western Ghats at an elevation of about species and their distribution in Achenkovil river. Hence, the
700 m. The river in its course is joined by a number of presentstudywasundertakentocollectdataonspeciesrichness
tributaries such as Kanai Ar, Kail Ar, Chittar, Kakkad Ar. anddistributionofichthyofaunainAchenkovil riverbasin.
Fig. 1: Mapshowingthe sampling stations inAchenkovil RiverBasin, Kerala
104 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 106 (1), Jan-Apr 2009
:
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Table 1 DistributionoffishfaunainAchenkovil rivercollectedduring2004-2005
S.No. Order/Family Species Stations
1 II III IV
Order: Clupeiformes
1 Family;Clupeidae Dayellamalabarica(Day) - + + +
Order: Cypriniformes
2 Family:Cyprinidae Amblypharyngodonmetettinus(Valenciennes) + 4- + +
3 Amblypharyngodonmicrolepis(Bleeker) + -1- + +
4 Bariliusbakeri(Day) + 4- + +
5 Bariliusgatensis(Valenciennes) + 4- + +
6 Catlacatla(Hamilton-Buchanan) - 4- + -
7 Cyprinuscarpio(Linnaeus - + + -
)
8 Daniomalabaricus(Jerdon) + + + +
9 Garramullya(Sykes) + 4- + +
10 Gonoproktopterusdubius(Day) - 4- + -
11 Labeodussumieri(Valenciennes) - 4- + -
12 Labeorohita(Hamilton-Buchanan) - - + +
13 Osteobramabakeri(Day) - - + -
14 Parluciosomadaniconius(Hamilton-Buchanan) + 4- + +
15 Puntiusamphibius (Valenciennes) + 4- + +
16 Puntiuschola(Hamilton-Buchanan) - - + +
17 Puntiusdenisonii(Day) + - + +
18 Puntiusfasciatus(Day) + 4- + +
19 Puntiusfilamentosus(Valenciennes) + 4- + +
20 Puntiusjerdoni(Day) - 4- - -
21 Puntiussaranasubnasutus(Valenciennes) - 4- - +
22 Salmostomaboopis(Day) + 4- + +
23 Family:Balitoridae Balitoramysorensis(Hora) + + - -
24 Nemacheilusguentheri(Day) + 4- + -
25 Nemacheitustriangularis(Day) + - - +
26 Family:Cobitidae Lepidocephalusthermalis(Valenciennes) + - - -
Order: Siluriformes
27 Family: Bagridae Horabagrusbrachysoma(Gunther) - - - +
28 Mystusgulio(Hamilton-Buchanan) - 4- + -
29 Mystuskeletius(Valenciennes) - - + +
30 Mystusmalabaricus(Jerdon) + 4- + +
31 Mystusmenoda (Hamilton-Buchanan) - 4- - -
32 Mystusoculatus(Valenciennes) + - + +
33 Family:Siluridae Ompokbimaculatus(Bloch) - - + +
34 Ompokmalabarius(Valenciennes) - - + +
35 Family:Sisoridae Glyptothoraxhousei(Herre) + - - -
Order: Cyprinodontiformes
36 Family: Hemiramphidae Hyporhamphuslimbatus(Valenciennes) - - + +
37 Family: Belonidae Xenentodoncancila (Hamilton-Buchanan) - + + +
38 Family:Aplocheilidae Aplocheiluslineatus(Valenciennes) + 4- - 4-
Order: Perciformes
39 Family:Ambassidae Chandanama(Hamilton-Buchanan) - 4- + 4-
40 Parambassisthomassi(Day) - + + 4-
41 Family:Gerreidae Gerresfilamentosus(Cuvier) - - - 4-
42 Family: Nandidae Nandusnandus (Hamilton-Buchanan) - - + 4-
43 Pristolepismarginata(Jerdon) - 4- + -
44 Family:Cichlidae Etroplusmaculatus(Bloch) + 4- + 4-
45 Etroplussuratensis(Bloch) - 4- + 4-
46 Oreochromismossambicus(Peters) - - - 4-
47 Family:Gobiidae Awaousgutum (Hamilton-Buchanan) - - - 4-
48 Family:Anabantidae Anabastestudineus (Bloch) + - - 4-
49 Family:Channidae Channamarullus (Hamilton-Buchanan) - - + 4-
50 Channapunctatus (Bloch) - - + -
51 Channastriatus (Bloch) - - + -
52 Family:Mastacembelidae Mastacembelusarmatus (Lecepede) - - - 4-
+: presence; absence FunctionalgroupassignationaccordingtoTalwarandJhingran(1991)
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 106 (1), Jan-Apr 2009 105
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Material and Methods level recedes, brackish-water dwelling species like
Fishwerecollectedfromfourdifferentstations,namely Xenentodon cancila, Etroplus sp., Mastacembelus armatus
Thura, Konni, Pandalam and Payipad along the course of andAwaousgutumalsofrequentlyoccurredinthedownstream
Achenkovil river from February 2004 to January 2005 stations. Species like Salmostoma boopis, Puntius
(Fig. 1). The gears used were cast net and gill net. Catches filamentosus, Garramullya, Daniomalabaricuswerefound
from two types of gear were combined and fixed in 5% tobe distributedall along the river system.
formaldehydesolution.Allfishwereidentifiedusingstandard Total species richness and abundance was lowest for
keys (Talwarand Jhingran 1991; Jayaram 1999). Station 1. Only twenty-two species from a total offifty-two
werelisted.Dominantspeciesobservedatthisstationincluded
Results and Discussion Puntiusfasciatus and Garra mullya. Thirty species were
In the present study, among the 52 species of fishes recordedfromStation2. Maximumabundance wasshownby
recorded and identified (Table 1), 39 species were typically Salmostoma boopis. Maximum species occurrence (thirty-
freshwater fauna and 3 were typically marine fauna. Fish eight)wasseenatStation3.SpeciessuchasPuntiusamphibius
speciesthoseareabletoinhabitbothinestuarineandriverine andP.filamentosusoccurredinhigherdensity.Theavailability
habitat were also observed. Species such as Bariliusbcikeri, ofdifferenthabitattypesmightattributetoanincreaseinspecies
Osteobramabakeri Horabagrusbrachysoma Glyptothorax compositionatthisstation.Thirty-sevenspecieswererecorded
, ,
housei Pristolepismarginata andDayella malabarica were fromStation4.MaximumabundancewasrecordedforPuntius
,
endemictoKerala. Whileassessingthe statusoffish species amphibiusandP.filamentosus. Similarly, marine species like
as per IUCN, under the threatened category, Dayella Parambassis thomasii were also found to be high. Habitat
malabarica and Ompok malabarius were critically preference and adequate environmental conditions made this
endangered while Gonoproktopterus dubius, Labeo stationafish abundantarea.
dussumieri, Puntius denisonii, Horabagrus brachysoma, From the studies, it is clear that RiverAchenkovil is
Mystus malabaricus, Mystus oculatus and Glyptothorax rich in terms of diversity and abundance of fish fauna.
housei were endangered, Catla catla, Puntius jerdoni, However, in the light ofarising habitat destruction process
P. chola,Puntiussaranasubnasutus,Nemacheilusguentheri, such as sand mining day by day, proper management
Ompok bimaculatus Nandus nandus and Pristolepis measures must be adopted to protect the existing faunal
,
marginatawerevulnerable.Thecompositionandabundance wealth.
of fish species varied between the sampling sites. Smaller
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
cyprinidssuchasPuntiusfasciatus,Nemacheilustriangularis
andPuntiusdenisoniiwerecommonintheupstreamsampling
stations like Station 1 and2.While largerspecieslikeLabeo I thank Dr. P.K. Abdul Azis, Professor (Retd.),
sp., Cyprinus carpio and Catla catla were common in the DepartmentofAquatic Biology andFisheries, University of
downstream stations like Stations 3 and 4. When the water Keralaforencouragement.
Biju,C.R., R.K.Thomas&A.C.R. Kumar (1998): Glyptothoraxlonah G. Gopalakrishnan (Eds): Endemic Fish Diversity ofWestern
(Sykes)- an additiontothe ichthyofaunaofKerala.J. Bombay Ghats.NBFGR,Lucknow.
Nat. Hist. Soc. 95: 519. Jayaram, K.C. (1999): The Freshwater Fishes of the Indian Region.
Biju,C.R.,T.K.Raju&C.R.AjithKumar(1999a):Distributionoffish NarendraPublishingHouse,New Delhi,509pp., 13pis.
in the Manjeswaram river, Kasargod (Kerala). J. BombayNat. Johnson, J.A. & R. Soranam (2001): A new species ofHoralabiosa
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Gopalakiushnan,A. &A.G. Ponniah (2000): Cultivable. Ornamental, Talwar, P.K. & A.G. Jhingran (1991): Inland Fishes of India and
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