Study of Some Morphometric and Meristic Traits of Chirru Snowtrout (Schizothorax esocinus) from River Jhelum, Kashmir, India

Abstract

A study was conducted to analyze morphological characteristics of a Schizothoracid species: Schizothorax esocinus collected from three sites of river Jhelum in Kashmir. S. esocinus is locally known as “Churru” and forms an important food element of the local population., Schizothorax esocinus is one of the most important species in the genus Schizothorax and it has continued to contribute immensely to the nutritional needs, economic growth and development of the Kashmir valley. Furthermore, this fish is very sensitive to any environmental changes so it acts as bioindicator of aquatic pollution. A total of 180 samples were taken for the study of the morphometric and meristic characters utilzing ethnic fishing gears. Thirteen conventional morphometric characters examined in the present study, showed high co-efficient of determination (R2) values ranging from 0.55 to 0.91 for district Srinagar from 0.56 to 0.92 for district Anantnag, and 0.56 to 0.98 for district Baramulla signifying that the traits were highly correlated to each other. Out of six meristic characters examined, two characters were not remarkably different (p>0.05). The fin formula of S. esocinus was devised as D, I + 5-10, P, I + 7-11, C, I + 15-23, A, I + 3-7, LL, 55-170. This study is purely aimed at studying the morphology and meristics of S. esocinus and not at estimating the length-weight relationship or condition factor.