ICHTHYOFAUNAL DIVERSITY OF RIVER PANJKORA, DISTRICT DIR LOWER, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA - Z. Hasan; S. Ullah; S. B. Rasheed; A. Kakar; N.Ali (Journal of Animal and Plant Sciences, 2015)
The study was conducted to determine the fish diversity in River Panjkora, Dir Lower from April to September 2012. A total of 781 individuals of fish representing 25 species, belonging to five families were caught during the study period. The fish fauna in the river was dominated by species belonging to the family Cyprinidae (49.93%) followed by Nemacheilidae (27.52%). Families Channidae, Sisoridae and Mastacembelidae constituted 10.88%, 10.37% and 1.28% respectively. Most dominant species were Crossocheilus diplocheilus (15.492%) followed by Garra gotyla (15.1%) and Cyprinus carpio (8.194%). These species were abundant especially during the months of May and July. Ctenopharyngodon idella (Family: Cyprinidae), Triplophysa microps (Family: Nemacheilidae) and Schistura macrolepis (Family: Nemacheilidae) were the least existing species with 0.128%, 0.512% and 1.152% abundance respectively. Physico-chemical parameters of water were also monitored, mean values of which were as follows; temperature (21.275°C), pH (7.325), dissolved Oxygen (8.975mg/L), electric conductivity (201.675µs/cm), total dissolved solid (127.912 mg/L), total suspended solid (129.857 mg/L), total hardness (118.75 mg/l), free CO (4.3 mg/L), turbidity 2 (1.34NTU), salinity (0.0075 mg/L), Ca hardness (77.5 mg/L), Mg hardness (43.25 mg/L), Sodium (5.1 mg/L), Potassium (2.825mg/L), total alkalinity (98 mg/L), Chloride (15.93mg/L) and nitrates (0.035mg/L). Over all Simpson’s diversity value (1-D= 0.92031) and Simpson’s Reciprocal index value (1/D= 12.54936) indicates that River Panjkora is quite diverse concerning fish species richness and evenness. species are facing threats because of deterioration in their
Keywords: journal article; River Panjkora; Physico-chemical parameters; fish diversity