Captive breeding technology and developmental biology of the indigenous ornamental fishes of the western ghats of India with view to their conservation and sustainability

Title : Captive breeding technology and developmental biology of the indigenous ornamental fishes of the western ghats of India with view to their conservation and sustainability

Abstract:

The Western Ghats is one among the four hotspots biodiversity of India. The WGs cover an area of about 129,037 km2 stretching to a length of 1,490 km along the western coast of India from Tapti Valley in the north (about 21°C16’ N) to Kanyakumari in the south (8°C19’ N), traversing through six coastal states of the country, viz., Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The southern and central division of WGs, which includes rivers and streams of Kerala, has been identified as one of the few sites in the world showing exceptional biodiversity and a high degree of endemism with respect to freshwater fishes. A comprehensive document of the freshwater fish diversity of WGs showed that about 300 species of freshwater fishes available in the system, 197 (about 67%) are endemic and 117 species are endemic ornamental fishes. Even though India is blessed with a rich diversity of fresh water fishes that are endemic to WG, the resource is not yet tapped properly for the purpose due to obvious reasons. The export trade of ornamental fishes in India is largely based on the indigenous ornamental fishes collected from the wild. Due to the indiscriminate exploitation, many of the fishes have become endangered. In this context arises the need of development of captive breeding technology for their hatchery production. So far breeding technology of 10 prioritised species of ornamental fishes have been developed and the details of them are presented in this paper. The fishes are Puntius denisonii, P.filamentosus, P.melanampyx, P. pookodensis, Garra mullya, Danio malabaricus, Pristolepis marginata, Chela fasciata, Nemacheilus traingularis, Nemacheilus semiarmatus. Biological parameters, water quality parameters and reproductive strategies of each species are discussed in the paper. Suggestions are also made on their in-situ and ex-situ conservation and sustainable harvest.

Biography:

Dr. T.V. Anna Mercy studied M.Sc. Marine Biology at Cochin University, Kerala, India. She received Ph. D from Kerala University in 1982. Her Ph. D work was on a unique Indian blind clariid fish Horaglanis krishnai Menon that dwells only in subterranean wells at Kottayam, Kerala. She became the Junior Assistant Professor at College of Fisheries, Kerala Agricultural University, Panangad in 1984 & became Professor in 2002. She pioneered research on Indigenous fresh water Ornamental Fishes of the Western Ghats of India, developed captive breeding technology for 15 prioritized fresh water species including Sahyadria denisonii , which is a much sought after ornamental fish in the international market. It is popularly known as “Miss Kerala”.  She has published about 100 research papers including 50 in peer reviewed journals and authored/co authored many books. Presented research papers on different aspects of  ornamental fishes in several international conferences at Brazil, Oregon, USA,  China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iceland, Netherland, China, Srilanka, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia and  Australia.