Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 August 2022 | 14(8): 21739–21741
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7853.14.8.21739-21741
#7853 | Received 30 January 2022 | Final
received 09 August 2022 | Finally accepted 13 August 2022
Drape Fin Barb Oreichthys crenuchoides (Schäfer, 2009) (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) a new
fish species report for Nepal
Tapil Prakash Rai
Department of
Environmental Science, Mechi Multiple Campus, Bhadrapur Municipality-8, 57203, Jhapa,
Nepal.
Turtle Rescue and
Conservation Centre, Arjundhara Municipality-9,
57205, Jhapa, Nepal.
Editor: J.A. Johnson,
Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, India. Date
of publication: 26 August 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Rai,
T.P. (2022). Drape Fin Barb Oreichthys crenuchoides
(Schäfer, 2009) (Cypriniformes:
Cyprinidae) a new fish species report for Nepal. Journal of Threatened
Taxa 14(8): 21739–21741. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7853.14.8.21739-21741
Copyright: © Rai 2022. Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: TK Co.
Competing interests: The author
declares no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: I thank TK Co. for
financially supporting the research work and its publication. Additionally,
thanks to Martyrs Memorial Park/SUMMEF and the Turtle Rescue and Conservation
Centre (ARCO-TRCC) for cooperation and facilitation in the fieldwork.
With
more than 6,000 rivers, Nepal is one of the most biodiverse rich countries in
terms of freshwater fish diversity (Shrestha 2008; Khatri et al. 2020). To
date, a total of 240 species of fish have been reported from Nepal (Froese
& Pauly 2021). Of the 240, 118 species were
recorded from the Morang District that adjoins with Jhapa
District in the west (Subba et al. 2017). Kharel (2013) conducted an extensive survey of fishes in
the Budoholi Wetland in Jhapa
District and recorded 43 species of fish. Globally, the big-sized freshwater
fishes have declined by 94%, and 30% of all freshwater fish species are
threatened with extinction according to the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (World Wildlife Fund 2021).
The
Budoholi Wetland (‘Budo
Holi’) is formed by the old course of the Aduwa River and is irregularly
extended from the north-west inlet to the south-east in the outlet (Rai et al.
2006). The wetland is located in Arjundhara
Municipality-9 (26.67390N, 88.01460E; 148 m) of Jhapa District in southeastern Nepal (Image 1) and is
managed by Martyrs Memorial Park under the Sukhani
Martyrs Memorial Foundation (SUMMEF). Once this wetland was a marshy area but
it became a lacustrine habitat due to the construction of the dam by the Park.
Just below the outlet of the main body of water, a natural pond occurs, which
is popularly known as the Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre (TRCC) Natural
Lake (Image 2). This natural pond has luxuriant aquatic flora and fauna and is
strictly protected for rearing softshell turtles by TRCC. The maximum depth of
the pond is 100 cm, which has a muddy substrate, and sunlight that penetrates
to the bottom.
During
the fish survey, two sets of foldable umbrella fishing traps, with six sides
that each have a hole in them were used to trap fish in the natural pond.
Chopped pieces of chicken and puffed rice were used as bait in the trap. On 10
September 2021 the traps were set by submerging them in the pond and kept there
overnight. Except for one specimen, all the fish captured in the traps were
identified using standard identification keys for Nepali fish species (Shrestha
2008; Froese & Pauly 2021).
The
unknown specimen was identified as Drape Fin Barb Oreichthys
crenuchoides (Image 3) in consultation with
ichthyologists and available ichthyology literature from adjacent areas of neighbouring India. This small cyprinid fish was first
described by Schäfer (2009) from the Jorai River in West Bengal, India. The total length (TL) of
the captured specimen was measured as 47 mm, which is the largest known
specimen to date (Schäfer 2009). It has a prominent
dorsal fin, the snout is blunt with a large black blotch at the base of the
caudal fin, and the black spot or blotch on the anal fin is absent. Drape Fin
Barbs typically have 11–13 rows of pores on the cheeks, 17–19 + 2 scales in
longitudinal series, and seven scales in transverse series (Schäfer
2009).
Drape
Fin Barbs are considered ‘Data Deficient’ according to the IUCN Red List (Ng
2010) and this record from Nepal will help in better understanding its spatial
distribution. Habitat loss, water pollution, and excessive fish harvesting are
the main threats observed in the study area.
For
images - - click here for full PDF
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