Osteological Variation of Caudal Skeleton of Some Barbs from Tripura
Arun Kumar *
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, College of fisheries, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Lembucherra, Tripura (W) -799210, India.
Lekiningroy Dann
Department of Fisheries Resource Management, College of fisheries, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Lembucherra, Tripura (W) -799210, India.
Mudeet Saxena
Department of Aquatic Environment Management, College of fisheries, TNFU, Tuticorin, India. Tamilnadu- 628004.
Ashutosh Lowanshi
College of Fisheries Science and Research Centre, Etawah, U.P. 206001, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Most barbs belong to family Cyprinidae comprising of small to medium sized fishes, distributed mostly in tropical habitats of Asian countries. Osteological study of genus Puntius (P. chola, P. sophore, P. conchonius and P. ticto) and genus Barbonymus (B. gonionotus) were studied to evaluate their caudal skeleton. The specimens were collected from different rivers of Tripura using various fishing gears like cast net, scoop net and gill net. In the present study, presence of four hypural was noticed in the upper lobe and two on the lower lobe in all the species. The morphology of hypurals exhibited variations which attribute to divide these barb species into two groups: one group where first hypural is wider, followed by fourth hypural and in other group, with wider first hypural, followed by third hypural. Lepidotricks attachment to first neural spine also exhibited some variations among the species.
Keywords: Osteology, caudal skeleton, barbs, Tripura