Research Journal of Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences ___________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6535 Vol. 1(7), 1-4, August (2013) Res. J. Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sci. International Science Congress Association 1 Morphometric and Meristic Study of Golden Mahseer (Tor Putitora) from Jhajjar Stream (JandK), India Langer S, Tripathi N.K. and Khajuria B. Department of Zoology, University of Jammu, Baba Sahib Ambedkar Road, Jammu, JandK, INDIAAvailable online at: www.isca.in Received 22nd May 2013, revised 25th July 2013, accepted 19th August 2013Abstract A study on the morphometric characters and meristic count of Himalayan Mahseer (Tor putitora) was conducted in foot hill section of River Chenab (Jammu and Kashmir). Different samples of mahseer were examined for the study of morphometric and meristic count. Some deviations, with regard to a few morphometric parameters and meristic count have been observed that have been duly discussed in the following discussions. Positive correlation has been observed between total length and external body parts. Thus, population appeared to be relatively uniform in all the characters examined, thus following an isometric pattern. Keywords: Tor putitora, meristic count, morphometric characters and isometric growth.Introduction Golden mahseer (Tor putitora) is the most important commercial fish of Jammu and Kashmir. It is considered an important game fish by anglers1 and inhabits the montane and submontane regions, streams and rivers in mid hills stretch of Himalayan region. Identification of a species one of the important and authentic step of research works for identifying a specimen . These measurements include total, standard, body weight and condition factor 3. It is also suitable study for recognising the degree of reproductive maturation without sacrificing the animal. Morphometric studies are not only essential to understand the taxonomy but the variation in its features are probably related to the habit and habitat among the variants in this species. The present study is designed with objective to analyse these measurements for Tor putitora. Methodology Mahseer sampling was done from March 2012 to Feb. 2013 in Jhajjar stream (Tributary of river Chenab) of Jammu. During this period monthly sampling of fishes was carried out with the help of cast net. A total of 60 specimens of mahseer were collected from different sections of Jhajjar stream. The collected fish specimens were preserved in 10% formalin for further studies. All the characters were measured to the nearest millimetres and weighed on electric balance to nearest gram. All counts and measurements are taken following Day and Jayaram 6,7,8. The fishes were categorised into three groups accordingly on the basis of their total length as shown in table 1 and the abbreviation of all the body parameters to be calculated is as given in table-2. Table-1 Length groups of Mahseer Length Group Length (cms) Length Group I Length Group II Length Group III 8cm – 12 cm 12 cm – 16 cm 16 cm – 20 cm Result and Discussion A total of 60 specimens ranging from 9.2 cm to 18 cm total length (TL) and 9.9gm to 60 gm body weight (WWPS) were used for morphometric and meristic studies. All the morphometric parameters of Tor putitora revealed a proportional increase in total length of fish under study in all three groups as shown in table 3. The morphometric ratio measured among all the three length groups showed isometric growth with increasing body length. A partly change in growth rate was found in MBL of group I GM of Group II and AFB, HD, RBL, MBL, ED, DFB, PFL, VFL and AFB of Group III and is probably because of range effect of grouping. Similar results have been reported by Hazarika et al. in hill trout Barilius bendelisis from river Buroi of Assam. Apart, our observations are also in accordance with those made by Zafar etal.10 in Tor putitora from foot hill river Korang, Pakistan. The meristic count including LLS, ALSS, BLSS, PdS, DFR, PFR, VFR, AFR and CFR were counted and are presented in table-4. Since all the parameters are almost constant in all the length groups of fish with different body length, therefore conclude that meristic count is independent of body length. Interestingly, one major meristic character i.e. DFR exhibit a sharp deviation from those recorded by Zafar et al.10 in Tor putitora in foot hill river Korang, Pakistan , which in present case has been observed to be [11(2/9)] while the number recorded by the above referred author happen to be [12(4/8)]. Same is the case with LLS in all the three Research Journal of Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences ________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6535Vol. 1(7), 1-4, August (2013) Res. J. Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sci. International Science Congress Association 2 groups of present study which follows a range of 24-29 where as those reported by Zafar et al.10 in Tor putitora in Korang River were reported to be 17. The relationship between total length and external body parts is studied. A positive correlation (table-5) is found in all parameters except PdL in length group I, AFL of length group II as well HL, ED, PFL, MBL and AFB of length group III showed negative correlation with TL and thus showed significant correlation. The most highly correlated body parameters in relation to TL are PdL (0.9550) of length group I, SL (0.9722) of length group II and PFB (0.9891) of length group III whereas least correlation for MBL (0.2573) of length group I, ED (0.2433) of length group II and MBL (0.3991) of length group III. The PFL of length group III is highly negatively correlated (0.9816) all the morphometric characters examined, all exhibit a significant positive correlation (p0.001) which indicate isometric growth in all organs of Tor putitoraunder natural condition. Table-2 Abbreviations of morphometric and meristic characters S. No Body parameters Abbreviations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Weight of preserved specimen Total length Fork length Standard length Pre-dorsal length Pre-pectoral length Head length Body length Body depth Snout length Upper jaw length Lower jaw length Gape of mouth Rostral barbel length Maxillary barbel length Eye diameter Dorsal fin length Dorsal fin base Pectoral fin length Pectoral fin base Ventral fin length Ventral fin base Anal fin length Anal fin base Caudal fin length Caudal fin base Lateral line scales Pre-dorsal scales Above lateral line scales Below lateral line scales Dorsal fin ray Pectoral fin ray Ventral fin ray Anal fin ray Caudal fin ray WWPS TL FL SL PdL PpL HL HD BD SNL UJL LJL GM RBL MBL ED DFL DFB PFL PFB VFL VFB AFL AFB CFL CFB LLS PdS ALLS BLLS DFR PFR VFR AFR CFR Research Journal of Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences ________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6535Vol. 1(7), 1-4, August (2013) Res. 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International Science Congress Association 3 Table-3 Morphometric characters of Mahseer (Tor putitora) Measurement (cm) Length group I Length group II Length group III Mean Median Standard deviation Mean Median Standard deviation Mean Median Standard deviation WWPS 12.613 11.05 2.870 28.426 27.05 8.976 50.75 49.5 6.800 TL 10.686 10.75 0.734 13.546 13.5 0.995 16.575 16.15 0.960 FL 9.283 9.45 .698 15.450 11.7 0.966 14.525 14.35 0.928 SL 8.36 8.4 0.664 0.719 10.55 0.905 13.325 13.15 0.842 PdL 4.3 4.4 0.387 5.546 5.5 0.492 6.775 6.75 0.170 PpL 4.393 4.4 0.382 5.646 5.65 0.470 6.925 6.9 0.585 HL 2.503 2.55 0.299 2.880 3.1 0.710 3.675 4 0.939 HD 1.673 1.7 0.183 2.257 2.3 0.299 2.825 2.75 0.189 BD 2.153 2.2 0.185 2.696 2.7 0.299 3.275 3.15 3.359 SNL 0.863 0.9 0.147 1.203 1.3 0.148 1.65 1.55 0.387 UJL 0.683 0.7 0.079 0.216 0.811 0.8 1.2 1.15 0.216 L JL 0.603 0.6 0.115 0.141 0.696 0.7 1 0.95 0.141 GM 0.616 0.6 0.101 0.163 0.8 0.8 1.1 1.1 0.163 RBL 0.765 0.8 0.080 0.842 0.8 0.096 1 1.1 0.2 MBL 0.79 0.8 0.092 0.823 0.8 0.103 1.05 1.05 0.129 ED 0.586 0.6 0.073 0.692 0.7 0.056 0.75 0.75 0.057 DFL 2.186 2.15 0.223 2.7 2.7 0.229 3.3 3.2 0.270 DFB 1.117 1.1 0.098 1.430 1.4 0.193 1.775 1.8 0.05 PFL 1.75 1.7 0.130 2.088 2 0.216 2.4 2.45 0.141 PFB 0.463 0.4 0.076 0.580 0.6 0.063 0.725 0.7 0.05 VFL 1.576 1.6 0.110 1.904 1.85 0.283 2.2 2.2 0.081 VFB 0.513 0.5 0.100 0.611 0.6 0.076 0.65 0.65 0.05 AFL 1.716 1.7 0.064 1.965 1.9 0.244 2.375 2.35 0.095 AFB 0.816 0.6 0.425 0.953 0.8 0.328 1.225 0.95 0.727 CFL 2.343 2.4 0.240 2.838 2.8 0.236 3.3 3.35 0.244 CFB 0.973 1.0 0.117 1.292 1.2 0.135 1.625 1.6 0.15 Table-4 Meristic characters of Tor putitora Meristic characters Length group I Length group II Length group III Lateral line scales 25-28 24-29 26-27 Pre-dorsal scales 8-10 7-8 8-9 Lateral line transverse scales 3.5/3.5-4.5/2.5 3.5/3.5-4.5/2.5 3.5/3.5-4.5/2.5 Dorsal fin rays 11(2/9) 11(2/9) 11(2/9) Pectoral fin rays 14-16 14-15 15-16 Ventral fin rays 8-9 8-9 8-9 Anal fin rays 7 7-8 7-8 Caudal fin rays 22-25 23-25 23-25 Fin formula: D11(2/9)P14-16V8-9A7(2/7)Ll24-29LlTr3.5/3.5-4.5/2.5 Research Journal of Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sciences ________________________________________ ISSN 2320 – 6535Vol. 1(7), 1-4, August (2013) Res. J. Animal, Veterinary and Fishery Sci. International Science Congress Association 4 Table-5 Morphometric relationship between total length and other external morphological features Relationship Length group I Length group II Length group III TL/WWPS 0.4885 0.6650 0.8407 TL/FL 0.9344 0.9664 0.9501 TL/SL 0.9457 0.9722 0.9530 TL/PdL 0.9550 0.9624 0.9297 TL/PpL 0.9277 0.9587 0.8494 TL/HL 0.6667 0.5941 0.5827 TL/HD 0.6410 0.8430 -0.160 TL/BD 0.7605 0.8567 0.9342 TL/SNL 0.5367 0.5896 0.9722 TL/UJL 0.6483 0.6160 0.9157 TL/LJL 0.3082 0.6011 0.9816 TL/GM 0.5414 0.3797 0.8501 TL/RBL 0.4505 0.4228 0.3991 TL/MBL 0.2573 0.3514 0.2285 TL/ED 0.5813 0.2443 -0.6912 TL/DFL 0.7407 0.8277 0.9483 TL/DBF 0.7427 0.5865 0.3991 TL/PFL 0.6753 0.8360 -0.9816 TL/PFB 0.3714 0.4712 0.9891 TL/VFL 0.6717 0.5847 0.7225 TL/VFB 0.3749 0.2707 -0.5109 TL/AFL 0.5120 0.7437 0.9333 TL/AFB 0.3032 -0.2358 -0.2612 TL/CFL 0.4253 0.4623 0.5242 TL/CFB 0.8403 0.6467 0.8618 Conclusion The morphometric and meristic counts exhibit isometric pattern and confirmed that the test specimen is Tor putitora. Acknowledgement The author is thankful to Prof. Seema Langer and Prof. N.K. Tripathi, Department of Zoology, University of Jammu, for providing all the facilities for this study and their guidance. References 1.Shrestha T.K., Behaviour of Golden Mahseer Tor putitora(Ham.) in nature and captivity, J. Freshwat. Biol., (2), 209-2019 (1996) 2.Nayman, Growth and ecology of fish population, J. Anim. Ecol., 20), 201-219 (1965) 3.Naeem M., Salam A., Gillani Q. and Ishtiaq A., Length-weight relationship off Notopterus notopterus and introduced Oreochromis niloticus from Indus River, Southern Punjab, Pakistan J. Appl. Ichthyol.,26(4), 620 (2010)4.Cavalcanti M.J., Monteiro L.R. and Lopes P.R.D., Landmark based morphometric analysis in selected species of Serranid fishes (Perciformes: Teleostei), Zool. Stud.,38(3), 287-294 (1999) 5.Day F.,The fauna of British India, including Ceylon ad Burma: Fishes, Vols. 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