On the freshwater fish fauna of Krishna River, Sangli District, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Freshwater fish fauna of Krishna River, Sangli district was studied from 2013 to 2017. A total of 73 species belonging to 10 orders, 22 families, and 49 genera were recorded, of which, 29 species are endemic to the Western Ghats and 11 species endemic to the Krishna River system. Labeo kontius, an endemic barb of the Cauvery River System was recorded for the first time from the Krishna River, Maharashtra. As per the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 54 species are assessed as ‘Least Concern’, four species as ‘Near Threatened’, three species as ‘Vulnerable’, five as ‘Endangered’, and two as ‘Data Deficient’. The conservation status of two species has not yet been assessed. Fish fauna of the Krishna River within the study area is threatened as a result of alien species, and several anthropogenic stressors such as pollution from industrial as well as agricultural sources, human settlements, and overfishing. Since, this small study area harbours 28 endemic and eight threatened species, their conservation should be given high priority.

Breeding of Indian Spiny Loach, Lepidocephalichthys thermalis (Valenciennes, 1846) under Captive Conditions

“…The species is found distributed in India and Sri Lanka (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991;Pethiyagoda, 1991;Ekaratne, 2000). In peninsular India, it is widely found mainly in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu (Wagh et al, 2018;Prasad et al, 2020;Kumbar et al, 2021;Thampy et al, 2021;Eldho and Sajeevan, 2022;Nagabhushan, 2022). The demand for common spiny loach is mostly met from the natural collection (Keskar et al, 2017).…”