Inland Fisheries

Ichthyofauna

The ichthyofauna of a reservoir basically represents the faunal diversity of the parent river system. Large reservoirs on an average harbour 60 species of fishes, of which at least 40 contribute to the commercial fisheries. The fast growing Indo- Gangetic carps, popularly known as Indian Major Carps, occupy a prominent place among the commercially important fishes. More recently, a number of exotic species have contributed substantially to commercial fisheries.

Broad catagorisation of the species is as follows:

The Indian major carps: Labeo rohita, L. calbasu, L. fimbriatus, Cirrhinus mrigala, Catla catla

The mahseers: Tor tor, T. putitora, T.khudree, Acrossocheilus hexagonolepis

The minor carps including snowtrout and peninsular carps: Cirrhinus cirrhosa, C. reba, Labeo kontius, L. bata, Puntius sarana, P. dubius, P. carnaticus, P. kolus, P. dobsoni, P. chagunio, Schizothorax plagiostomus, Thynnichthyes sandkhol, Osteobrama vigorsii

Large catfishes: Mystus aor, M. seenghala, Wallago attu, Pangasius pangasius, Silonia silondia, S. childrenii

Featherbacks: Notopterus notopterus, N. chitala

Airbreathing catfishes: Heteropneustes fossilis, Clarius batrachus

Murrels: Channa marulius, C. striatus, C. punctatus, C. gachua

Weed fishes: Ambassis nama, Esomus danrica, Aspidoparia morar, Amblypharyngodon mola, Puntius sophore, P. ticto, Oxygaster bacaila, Laubuca laubuca, Barillus barila, B. bola, Osteobrama cotio, Gambusia chapra

Exotic fishes: Oreochromis mossambicus, hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Cyprinus carpio specularis, C. carpio communis, Gambusia affinis, Ctenopharyngodon idella