Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 July 2019 | 11(9): 14212–14215

 

 

New record of Blue Perch Badis badis (Anabantiformes: Badidae) from Godavari River basin of Telangana State, India

 

 Kante Krishna Prasad 1 & Chelmala Srinivasulu 2

 

1,2 Natural History Museum and Wildlife Biology & Taxonomy Lab, Department of Zoology, University College of Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana 500007, India.

2 Systematics, Ecology & Conservation Laboratory, Zoo Outreach Organization, No. 12 Thiruvannamalai Nagar, Saravanampatti, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641035, India.

1 kpmanjeera@gmail.com, 2 chelmalasrinivasulu@gmail.com (corresponding author)

 

 

 

doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4820.11.9.14212-14215  |  ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3FA2F572-DD33-431B-91AE-5D6795CA1466

 

Editor: Neelesh Dahanukar, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, India.                 Date of publication: 26 July 2019 (online & print)

 

Manuscript details: #4820 | Received 13 January 2019 | Final received 24 June 2019 | Finally accepted 01 July 2019

 

Citation: Prasad, K.K. & C. Srinivasulu (2019). New record of Blue Perch Badis badis (Anabantiformes: Badidae) from Godavari River basin of Telangana State, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(9): 14212–14215. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4820.11.9.14212-14215

 

Copyright: © Prasad & Srinivasulu 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: University Grant Commission, New Delhi.

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: We acknowledge the Head, Department of Zoology, University College of Science, Osmania University, Hyderabad for providing facilities and encouragement. We extend our sincere thanks for the study and collection permission (Rc.No.10873/2015/WL-2; Dated:16.09.2015) and support by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Telangana State Forest Department and District Forest Officers, Sangareddy  and Mancherial Districts for conducting the present study. KP acknowledges the research funding from UGC, New Delhi. We thank Gundena Devendar, Gandla Chetan Kumar and the staff of Forest Department of Sirpur and Sangareddy District for field assistance.

 

 

 

Abstract: Badis badis (Hamilton, 1822), a freshwater fish species, has been reported for the first time from the Godavari River basin of Telangana State, India.  One specimen of B. badis was collected from a stream near Mubarakpur Village in Sangareddy District (Manjeera sub-basin) and another from a stream near Sirpur (T) Town in Asifabad District (Wardha sub-basin), Telangana State, India.  This publication provides information about B. badis occurrence in India, a short description of the collected specimen, and a discussion on its habitat and threats.

 

Keywords: Asifabad, Chameleon Fish, freshwater fish, Manjeera River, Percomorpha, Sangareddy, Wardha River.

 

 

 

Badis badis (Hamilton, 1822) is a freshwater fish which exhibits remarkable colour patterns on its body with blue iridescent marks on the fins.  Due to its attractive and colourful pattern, it is used as an ornamental fish species and exploited in the aquarium trade (Gupta et al. 2016).  This fish belongs to the family Badidae and is commonly known as Blue Perch or Chameleon Fish.  Badidae is distributed in southern Asia, from Pakistan to India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Myanmar, and Thailand (Kullander & Britz 2002; Schindler & Linke 2010; Britz & Kullander 2013; Froese & Pauly 2018).  Globally, Badidae comprises of two genera, namely Badis (22 species) and Dario (seven species) (Kullander & Britz 2002; Fricke et al. 2018; Froese & Pauly 2018).  In India, members of Badidae are distributed in the river basins of the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, Yamuna in Himachal Pradesh, Brahmaputra in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh (Menon 1999; Geetakumari & Kadu 2011; Valdesalici & van der Voort 2015), Meghna in Meghalaya (Britz & Kullander 2013), Tuivai in Manipur (Vishwanath & Shanta 2004), Mahanadi in Odisha (Menon 1999; Jayaram 2010), Godavari in Chhattisgarh (Karmakar & Datta 1998) and Madhya Pradesh (Yadav 2005, 2006), Tunga (Britz & Ali 2015) and Sharavati in Karnataka (Dahanukar et al. 2015), and Penna (Chembarampakkam Tank) in Tamil Nadu (Knight & Devi 2009).

A few records are available regarding the distribution of B. badis in peninsular India, namely in the Godavari River basin of Maharashtra (Day 1878), Chhattisgarh (Karmakar & Datta 1998), and Madhya Pradesh (Yadav 2005, 2006), the Mahanadi River basin in Odisha (Menon 1999), the Pennar River basin in Tamil Nadu (Knight & Devi 2009), and the Tungabhadra River basin in Karnataka (Dahanukar et al. 2015).  Devi & Indra (2003) reported this species from the Eastern Ghats, but the exact location is not known.  In this paper, we report the occurrence of B. badis for the first time in the Manjeera and Wardha sub-basins of the Godavari River basin in Telangana State, India.

 

Material and Methods

We followed random sampling during the surveys conducted in the streams across the Sangareddy and Asifabad districts, Telangana, to study fish diversity.  Fish were collected using cast nets with the help of fishermen.  Collected specimens were photographed, labelled, and preserved in 4% formalin.  Meristic and morphometric measurements were taken following Jayaram (2010) and Armbruster (2012).  Morphometric measurements were taken point to point to the nearest 0.1mm using Mitutoyo digital callipers.  Morphometric values, except the total, standard, and head length, were expressed in percentage of the standard length of the fish.  Additionally, subunits of the head were expressed as percentage of head length.  Identification of the fishes was done based on Kullander & Britz (2002), Jayaram (2010), and Froese & Pauly (2018).  Specimens (NHM.OU.F-26-2015 and NHM.OU.F-01-2017) were deposited in the Natural History Museum, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.

 

Result

We collected two specimens of B. badis from Telangana, India (Fig. 1).

 

Genus Badis Bleeker, 1853

Badis badis (Hamilton, 1822)

Materials examined: Telangana State, India: NHM.OU.F-26-2015, 13.x.2015, stream near Sirpur-(T) Town, Wardha sub-basin, Asifabad District, 19.4840N & 79.5940E, 161m, coll. Kante Krishna Prasad, Gundena Devender & Gandla Chethan Kumar; NHM.OU.F-01-2017, 28.iv.2017, stream near Mubarakpur Village, Manjeera sub-basin, Sangareddy District, 17.6390N & 78.0230E, 508m, coll. Kante Krishna Prasad & Hyderaboni Laxman.

Distinguishing characters: Badis badis is distinguished from its other congeners in the combination of the following characters: body moderately elongated in shape, compressed on the lateral sides; vertical bars on lateral side; abdomen rounded.  Head large, laterally compressed; snout blunt.  Specific dark blotch on superficial part of cleithrum; operculum with one sharp spine; a small blue spot rounded by a black ring on each shoulder; base of the scales shine silver.  Scales of moderate size, ctenoid.  Lateral line incomplete; lateral line runs unto the posterior of dorsal fin; lateral line row scales 28.  Dorsal fin with 16–18 hard spines and 7–8 branched rays, prominent black blotches along dorsal fin base, and middle with narrow white edge.  Pectoral fins with one soft ray and 10 branched rays; pelvic fin with one hard ray and five branched rays.  Anal fin with three spines and six branched rays.  Caudal fin rounded.  Detailed morphometric measurements, ratios, and meristic counts are presented in Table 1.

Habitat: At Sirpur, a lone specimen of B. badis (Image 1A) was collected in a stream consisting of submerged boulders and small pebbles with sand silt as substratum.  The riparian vegetation on both sides of the stream was dominated by Pink Morning Glory Ipomoea sp. and Lesser Cattail Typha sp.  The stream was polluted with organic waste dumped through sewer lines from a nearby village.  The species was collected from a ditch in the streambed with Water Thyme Hydrilla sp. and Tape Grass Vallisneria sp.  The place where the species was captured was in the shadow of riparian vegetation.  In the stream, Laubuka laubuca (Hamilton, 1822), Pethia ticto (Hamilton, 1822), Puntius chola (Hamilton, 1822), and Systomus sarana (Hamilton, 1822) were observed.

At Mubarakpur, another lone specimen of B. badis (Image 1B) was collected in a stream with sand silt as substratum and dominated by emergent vegetation of Water Thyme Hydrilla sp., Water Lily Nymphaea sp., Lotus Nelumbo sp., Water Cabbage Pistia, Dense Flower Knotweed Polygonum sp., and Tape Grass Vallisneria sp.  The riparian vegetation included Babool Acacia sp., Pink Morning Glory Ipomoea sp., Algaroba Prosopis sp., and Lesser Cattail Typha sp. on both the banks.  This species shared its habitat with Esomus danrica (Hamilton, 1822), Pethia ticto (Hamilton, 1822), Pseudambassis lala (Hamilton, 1822), Puntius chola (Hamilton, 1822), and P. sophore (Hamilton, 1822).

Habitat loss due to sand mining and pollution due to organic wastes from sewers were the major threats to B. badis at Sirpur, Wardha sub-basin; no threat was observed at Mubarakpur of Manjeera sub-basin.

 

Discussion

Badis badis originally described as Labrus badis from the lowlands of the Ganges and Brahmaputra drainages in northeastern India by Hamilton (1822).  Later, it was reported by Day (1878) from Bombay and Madras presidencies (which also includes the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, and Tamil Nadu) without proper location information.  Although B. badis was recorded in peninsular India (Karmakar & Datta 1998; Menon 1999; Devi & Indra 2003; Yadav 2005, 2006; Knight & Devi 2009; Dahanukar et al. 2015), the exact localities were not provided by most workers.  The Telugu vernacular name ‘Kundala’ or ‘Ka-sundara’ for this fish was first provided by Day (1878) in his works from Bombay and Madras presidencies.  Until now, the exact locality record of B. badis in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh is lacking.  This fish was not reported by earlier workers, though Barman (1993) opined that this may occur in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.  This may have been due to its solitary nature and behaviour of hiding in aquatic vegetation.  Knight & Devi (2009) also expressed the same opinion about this fish in Tamil Nadu.  We too noticed this behaviour in both areas.

We noticed the colour variation of this species in both clear water and polluted water (Image 1).  The fish captured in the stream polluted with organic waste at Wardha River sub-basin (Image 1A) showed dirty red and black coloured vertical bands amalgamated on the lateral side of the body.  Its overall appearance was black with blue iridescence on the fins.  On the other hand, the fish captured in the stream with clear water at Manjeera River sub-basin (Image 1B) showed a bright red-coloured body with six black vertical bands alternatively on the lateral sides.  Earlier, Day (1878) too reported a similar colour variation in the species in clear and dirty waters.  The specimens from Telangana differed from the earlier report from southern India, particularly from Tamil Nadu, with respect to the circumpeduncular scale count (16 vs. 19–20; Knight & Devi 2009).

The occurrence of B. badis in the Manjeera and Wardha sub-basins of the Godavari River reveals that this species could be more widespread than currently known.  There is a need for the study of the distribution and population trend of this species (Chaudhry 2010) to enrich scientific knowledge and to understand its threat status. 

 

 

Table 1. Morphometric characters and meristic counts of Badis badis from Wardha and Manjeera sub-basins, Telangana State, India.

Morphometric characters

Specimen voucher NHM.OU.F-26-2015

Specimen voucher NHM.OU.F-01-2017

Total length (mm)

34.3

36.3

Standard length (SL, mm)

27.9

28.9

Head length (HL, mm)

7.6

8.0

% of SL

Body depth

31.2

35.3

Head length

27.5

27.7

Head depth

22.4

24.6

Head width

13.7

14.6

Eye diameter

11.2

9.8

Snout length

4.5

5.0

Inter orbital width

8.0

7.9

Dorsal fin base length or dorsal fin width

57.4

56.6

Pre-dorsal distance

29.9

31.5

Dorsal fin length at branched rays

17.0

18.3

Dorsal fin spine length

11.7

18.9

Dorsal fin origin to hypural distance

70.2

70.8

Pectoral fin length

23.7

23.6

Pelvic fin length

24.8

26.2

Caudal peduncle length

18.6

16.3

Caudal peduncle depth

14.9

16.5

Pre pelvic distance

33.4

34.2

Pre anal distance

66.2

68.8

Anal fin base length

17.8

19.7

Anal fin length

30.1

34.5

% of HL

Head depth

81.6

89.0

Head width

50.1

52.9

Eye diameter

40.7

35.4

Snout length

16.5

18.1

Inter orbital width

29.1

28.7

Meristic counts

Lateral line row scales

28

28

Between lateral line and dorsal fin scales

3

3

Between lateral line and ventral fin scales

8

7

Between lateral line and anal fin scales

7

7

Transverse scale rows

11

10

Predorsal scales

8

7

Prepelvic scales

7

6

Preanal scales

21

20

Dorsal fin rays

XVI+8

XVII+7

Pectoral fin rays

i+10

i+10

Pelvic fin rays

I+5

I+5

Anal fin rays

III+6

III+6

Caudal fin rays (principal)

14

14

Caudal fin rays (procurrent)

6

6

Circumpeduncular scales

16

16

 

For figure & image  - - click here

 

 

References

 

Armbruster, J.W. (2012). Standardized measurements, landmarks, and meristic counts for cypriniform fishes. Zootaxa 3586: 8–16.

Britz, R. & S.O. Kullander (2013). Dario kajal, a new species of badid fish from Meghalaya, India (Teleostei: Badidae). Zootaxa 3731(3): 331–337. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3731.3.3   

Britz, R. & A. Ali (2015). Dario huli, a new species of badid from Karnataka, southern India (Teleostei: Percomorpha: Badidae). Zootaxa 3911(1): 139–144. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3911.1.9  

Barman, R.P. (1993). Pisces. Freshwater fishes, pp89–334. In: State Fauna Series 5, Fauna of Andhra Pradesh, Part I. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 334pp.

Chaudhry, S. (2010). Badis badis. In: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T168335A6478454. Downloaded on 12 November 2018. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-4.RLTS.T168335A6478454.en  

Dahanukar, N., P. Kumkar, U. Katwate & R. Raghavan (2015). Badis britzi, a new percomorph fish (Teleostei: Badidae) from the Western Ghats of India. Zootaxa 3941(3): 429–436. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3941.3.9

Day, F. (1878). The Fishes of India: Being a Natural History of the Fishes known to inhabit the Seas and Fresh waters of India, Burma and Ceylon. Vol. 1. Bernard Quaritch, London, xx+778pp.

Devi, K.R. & T.J. Indra (2003). An updated checklist of ichthyofauna of Eastern Ghats. Zoos’ Print Journal 18(4): 1067–1070.  https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.ZPJ.18.4.1067-70

Fricke, R., W.N. Eschmeyer & R. van der Laan (eds.) (2018). Catalog of Fishes: Genera, Species, References. Available online at https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp. Accessed on 22 November 2018.

Froese, R. & D. Pauly (eds.) (2018). Fish Base. Available online at www.fishbase.org (version Feb 2018). Accessed on 18 June 2018.

Geetakumari, K. & K. Kadu (2011). Badis singenensis, a new fish species (Teleostei: Badidae) from Singen River, Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 3(9): 2085–2089. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2531.2085-9  

Gupta, S., S.K. Dubey, R.K. Trivedi, B.K. Chand & S. Banerjee (2016). Indigenous ornamental freshwater ichthyofauna of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, India: status and prospects. Journal of Threatened Taxa 8(9): 9144–9154. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.1888.8.9.9144-9154  

Hamilton, F. (1822). An Account of the Fishes found in the River Ganges and its Branches. Archibald Constable & Company, Edinburgh, 405pp.

Jayaram, K.C. (2010). The Freshwater Fishes of the Indian Region, 2nd Edition. Narendra Publishing House, Delhi, xxxi+616pp.

Karmakar, A.K. & A.K. Datta (1998). On a collection of fish from Bastar District, Madhya Pradesh. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Miscellaneous Publication, Occasional Paper 98: 1–50.

Knight, J.D.M. & K.R. Devi (2009). On a record of Badis badis (Hamilton) (Teleostei: Perciformes: Badidae) from Tamil Nadu. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 106(2): 329–330.

Kullander, S. & R. Britz (2002). Revision of the family Badidae (Teleostei: Perciformes), with descriptions of a new genus and ten new species. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters 13(4): 295–372.

Menon, A.G.K. (1999). Check list: fresh water fishes of India. Records of the Zoological survey of India, Occasional Paper 175: 1–366.

Schindler, I. & H. Linke (2010). Badis juergenschmidti—a new species of the Indo-Burmese fish family Badidae (Teleostei: Perciformes) from Myanmar. Vertebrate Zoology 60(3): 209–216.

Valdesalici, S. & S. van der Voort (2015). Four new species of the Indo-Burmese genus Badis from West Bengal, India (Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Badidae). Zootaxa 3985(3): 391–408. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3985.3.4  

Vishwanath, W. & K. Shanta (2004). A new fish species of the Indo-Burmese genus Badis Bleeker (Teleostei: Perciformes) from Manipur, India. Zoos’ Print Journal 19(9): 1619–1621. https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.ZPJ.1201.1619-21  

Yadav, B.E. (2005). Pisces, pp231–296. In: Fauna of Melghat Tiger Reserve, Conservation Area Series 24. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 500pp.

Yadav, B.E. (2006). Pisces, pp137–160. In: Fauna of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, Conservation Area Series 25. Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, 309pp.