Journal of the Indian Fisheries Association 31, 24, 81-85 81 STUDIES ON FECUNDIT-Y OF PUNTIUS SARANA (HAM.) IN RELATION Somdutt and Santosh Kumar * CIFE Center, Powarkheda (M.P.) *Ex-Vice Chancellor, Hari Shanker Gour Vishvidhyalaya, bagar (M.P.) ABSTRACT A total of forty three mature female of Puntius sarana (Ham.) ranging from 24 mm to 32 mm in length and 12 to 482 gin weight were used for present studies. The relationship between fecundity with respect to toal length (TL), total weight (TW) and ovary weight (OW) was found to be linear. The coefficient of co-relation ir' of the above relationships was found to be.5947,.5761 and.9837 respectively. All these values are highly significant (P=O.Ol) indicating a close relationship between these parameters. However, as indicated by value of 'r' (.9837), the fecundity is more closely related to ovary weight and hence the ovary weight may be a better index of fecundity than the total length or weight. Keywords: Punitius sarana. fecundity, total length, total weight and ovary weight The regression studies are more INTRODUCTION common for TL-TW relationship and such studies are on a limited scale with respect to fecundity. Some important studies incorporating fecundity are due to Clark (1934), Begenal (1967), Sinha (1975), Chonder (1977) Joshi and Khanna (198), Varghese (198), Nautiyal (1985) and Kiran and Puttaiah (23). Thus, present studies will further add to the knowledge of relationship between fecundity and above stated body parameters. Puntius sarana (Ham.) is a common Indian fresh water teleost widely distributed throughout India except peninsular India, South of Krishna river (Jayaram, 1981). This species is an important candidate species of reservoir fishery in India. Sinha (1972) reported that in experimental catches in Loni reservoir, this species countributes 6.8% of the average catch and ranks fourth in this reservoir fishery. The present study on fecundity and the related body parameters viz. TL, TW & OW of this species may help in management of reservoir fishery as these parameters are important indices of fecundity which in turn indicates the potential of auto - recruitment of this species. MATERIAL AND METHODS For present study a total 62 mature female specimens of P. sarana (ranging 22-322 mm in length) caught in the month of May and June, 199 from Helali
82 SOMDUTI' AND SANTOSH KUMAR reservoir (M.P.) viere studied. The females dissected and their ovaries were examined to determine the maturity stages following the I.C.G.S. Scale (Wood, 193). Out of these 43 ripe (stage VI) ovaries were selected for fecundity studies. These ovaries were fixed in 5% formaline. After a week's preservation, ovaries were taken out, washed wl.th tap water, wiped of their moisture with blotting paper and cleared of the extra connective tissues and superficial blood vessels. Then they were weighed on a physical balance to the nearest milligram (mg). For counting, the ova were separated by fine needle and brush keeping the ova mass dipped in Gilson's solution in a watch glass. Fecundity was calculated from counts of mature ova only. Maturity of ova, was further ascertained by microscopic determination of ova. diameter by using ocular micrometer. The ova diameter ranged from.865 to 1.17 mm, which falls within the range of mature ova (Sinha, 1975). Mature ova from three random sub samples of the ovary ofknown weight were counted and the fecundity was determined by using the following formula (Sinha, 1975). w X (N1 + N2 + N3) F =--------- (W1 + W2 + W3) Where F = fecundity, W = total weight of ovary; W1, W2, W3 and N1, N2, N3 are the weight and ova counts respectively of each sub sample. The corresponding length and weight of the above stated 43 female specimens were measured as per standard method (Dwivedi and Menezes, 197 4) up to the nearest millimeter (mm) and gram (g) respectively. The total length of the specimens ranged from 24-322 mm and total weight ranged from 12-482 g. The relationship between fecundity and totallep.gth, total weight and ovary weight were calculated by using least square regression analysis (Bagenal, 1967). RESULTS The results are give below for each relationship separately. Relationship between toal length (TL) and fecundity (F): The scattered diagram of total length (x) and fecundity (y) was found to be linear (Fig.1a). The relationship between tota:llength and feundity was worked out to be F = -1652.633+856.595 TL The value of correlation coefficient 'r' was found to be.5947 for the above relatjonship. The value of 'b' 856.595(2.93) was found to be significant at 1% (P=.1) when tested by 't' test and 'r' (.5947) was also. found to be highly significant (P=.1) Thus, indicating a close and Positive correlation between TL and F. Relationship between Total weight (TW) and fecundity (F) : The scattered diagram between total wflight and fecundity suggests a linear relationship between these parameters (Fig.1b). The value of regression coefficient
STUDJES ON FECUNDITY OF PUNTIUS SARAN A (HAM.) IN RELATION 8 3 :~ 2, -r-------~----... Cl Cll 'l5 15,.s ~ 1. : c ::s t ~ 5, I ro~o----2~~----3~o--~ TctallenQth (mm) 6, 4, 2, '-------,---...----r-----', 1 2 3 Total W&ighl(g) Fig. 1c. Fecundity X OVary weight l I 'b' and constant 'a' calculated empirically. From the value of 'b' and 'a' the following linear regression equation was worked out. F = -13416.9 + 276.5837 TW The above value of 'b' 276.5837(2.4418) was found to be highly significant when 't-test' was applied. The value of 'r' was calculated to be.5761 for above relationship. This value of 'r' was also found to be highly significant (p=.1) indicating positive correlation between TW and F. Relationship between Ovary weight (OW) and fecundity (F) : A linear relationship was obtained for the ovary weight (x) and the fecundity (y) (Fig. lc). The values of 'b' & 'a' for the above relationship were determined empirically and the regression equation was worked out as ;.. Iii Ill Ill... 5., >-."!::.. c :I I&. 25,!111 2. "!SD.W~ 1<1,1111 5a.OIICI 11 F = 854.1417 + 2267.982 OW The value of 'r' was found to be.9837 which is highly significant (p=.1) indicating a close and positive linear relationship between ovary weight and fecundity. Fig. 1 : Scatter diagrams of relationship between fecundity, total length, total weight and ovary weight of Puntius sarana (Ham.). DISCUSSION Different relationships have been found to exist between fecundity and above body parameters by various workers. Linear relationship between facundity and total length was observed by Chonder (1977),
84 SOMDUTT AND SANTOSH KUMAR Singh et al. (1982), Singh and Shrivastawa (1982), Kiran and Puttaiah (23). However, Sinha (1975) found a curvilinear relationship between fecundity and TL in P. sarana of Loni reservoir (M.P.) The relationship between fecundity and body weight was found to be linear by Gupta (1968), Sinha (1975), Hodgkiss and Man (1978), Singh and Shrivastava (1982), Kiran and Puttaiah (23). It was reported to be curvilinear by Yuen (1955) and Varghese (198). Most of the workers noticed a linear relationship between the fecundity and ovary weight viz. Bhatnager (1964) in Lab eo dero and L. bata of Bhakara reservoir, Sinha (1972) in P. sarana of Loni reservoir and Kiran and Puttaiah (23) in Chela untrachi of Bhadra reservmr. The values of co-relation coefficient 'r' in present study indicate that ovary weight is very closely related to fecundity (r=.9837) than total length (r=.5947) and total weight (r=.5761). Hence ovary weight is a better index of fecundity than total weight or total length of the fish. The present results agree with studies of kiran and Puttaiah (23) on Chela unrtrachi. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors are thankful to Fisheries Development Corporation of M.P., Bhadbhada, Bhopal for providing fishes for the present studies. REFERENCES Bagenal, T.B., 1967. A short review of fish fecundity, pp 89-111, In Gerking, S.D.(ed). The Biological Basis of Fresh Water Fish production. Blackwell Scientific, Oxford. p. 495. Bhatnager, G. K., 1964. Observations on the spawning frequency and fecundity of certain Bhakra reservoir fishes. Indian J. Fish., 11(1): 485-52. Chonder, S.L., 1977. Fecundity and its role in racial studies of Gadusia chapra. Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 86: 245-254. Clark, F.N., 1934. Maturity of the California sardine (Sardinella caerulea), determined by ova diameter measurement, Fish. Bull., 42: 1-4!1. Dwivedi, S.N. and Menezes, M.R., 197 4. A note on the morphometry and ecology of Brachionous orientalis (Bloch and Schenider) in the estuary of Goa. Geobios, 8: 8-83. Gupta, M.V., 1968. Studies on the taxonomy, biology and fishery of ribbon fishes (Trichiuridae) of the Hooghly estuarine system. 3 Biology of Trichiurus patului (Gupta). Proc., Zool. Soc., 21: 35-5. Hodgkiss, I.J. and Man, H.S., 1978. Reproductive biology of Sarotherodon mossambicus (Cichlidae) in Plover cove Reservoir, Hongkong, Env. Biol. Fish., 3(3): 287-279. Jayaram, K.C., 1981. The fresh water fishes of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh,
STUDlES ON FECUNDITY OF PUNT/US SARANA (HAM.) IN RELATION 85 Burma and Sri Lanka. Zool. Survey oflndia. Calcutta. XXII+475+XIII pls. Joshi, S. N. and Khanna, S. S., 198. Relative fecundity of Labeo gonius (Ham.) from Nanak Sagar reservoir. Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 89: 493-53. Kiran, B.R. and Puttaiah, E.T., 23. Fecundity studies on Chela untrachi (Day) from Bhadra reservoir, Karnataka, J. Inland Fish. Soc., 35(2): 41-44. Nautiyal, P., 1985. Fecundity of the Garhwal Himalayan masheer Tor putitora (Ham.) J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 82(2): 253-257. Singh, H.R., Nautiyal P. and Dobriyal A.K., 1982. Fecundity of a hill stream minor carp, Puntius chilinoides (Me Clelland) from Garhwal Himalaya, Proc. Indian Acad Sci., 91(5): 487-491. Singh, V. and Shrivastava, P., 1982. Fecundity study of three Indian major carps, Catla catla, Cirrihina mrigala and Labeo rohita, Indian J. Zool., 11(1): 3-36. Sinha, M., 1972. Observations on the biology of Puntius sarana (Ham.) of Loni reservoir (M.P.). J. Inland Fish. Soc., 4: 12-131. Sinha, M., 1975. Observations on the biology of ['untius sarana (Ham.) of Loni reservoir (M.P.) J. Inland Fish. Soc., 7: 49-57. Varghese, T.J., 198. Fecundity of Coilia dussumieri Valenciennes. Proc. Ind. Natn. Sci. Acad., B 45v (1): 114-119. Wood, H., 193. Scottish herring shoals. Prespawning and spawning movements. Rep. Fish Bd. Scot., Sci. Invest., 1: 1-71. Yuen, H.S.H., 1955. Maturity and fecundity of big eye tuna in the pacific. Spec. Sci. Rep. U.S. Fish Wild. Serv. Fish., 15: P 3.