Ornamental Fish Diversity From The Streams Of Doon Valley
Ornamental fishes are attractive colourful fishes of various characteristics, which are kept as pets in confined space of an aquarium or a garden pool for fun and fancy. Ornamental fish is one of the important items among the various types of commercially important fishes marketed nationally and internationally and are popularly known as “Aquarium Fishes” as they are usually kept in glass aquarium. Ornamental fishes are characterized by a wide diversity of colours and colour patterns (Ramamoorthy et al., 2010). 400 species of ornamental fishes belonging to 175 genera and 50 families are reported in Indian waters (Satheesh, 2002).
Fish diversity of Doon Valley was recorded during March, 2010 to February, 2012. Out of a total 56 species recorded from Doon Valley streams, a total number of 25 ornamental fish species were identified belonging to genera, families and orders. Cyprinidae family represented maximum number of fish species (10) followed by the family Channidae (4 species) and Osphronemidae (3 species each). The IUCN (2015 – 4) status outlines that 21 species are Least Concern, 1 Near Threatened, and 3 Not Assessed. It has become abundantly clear from the present study that these fishes have learnt to adapt themselves towards the changed ecological conditions, more particularly with reference to the organic enrichment. Measures are suggested to propagate these species for commercial purpose along the riverine banks in tanks having natural flow of water from the river concerned.
References:
Ramamoorthy K., Bhuvaneswari S., Sankar G. and Sakkaravarthi, K., Proximate composition and carotenoid content of natural carotenoid sources and its colour enhancement on marine ornamental fish Amphipriono cellaris (Cuveir, 1880) (2010). World J. Fish and Marine Sci., 2(6), 545 – 550.
Satheesh J. M. (2002). Biology of the clown fish, Amphiprionsebae(Bleeker) from Gulf of Mannar (Southeast coast of India). Ph.D. Thesis, Annamalai University, India, , pp: 1 – 159.
Deepali Rana, and S. K. Gupta (2017). Ornamental fish diversity from the streams of doon valley, Dehradun, Uttarakhand. Journal of Global Biosciences. 6(4). 4948-4953.