Study of fish fauna and productivity of Loni reservoir , Tq . Kinwat ( Maharashtra )

Indian reservoirs preserve a rich variety of fish species, on the basis of studies conducted so far, large reservoirs on an average harbour 60 species of fishes; of which 40 species contribute to the commercial fisheries. Indian major carps occupy a prominent place among the commercially important fishes. More recently, number of exotic species have contributed substantially to commercial fisheries. Being basically a carp country both the indigenous and exotic carps, catla, rohu, mrigal, silver carp, grass carp and common carp, account for a great bulk of the production.


Introduction
Fishes of the inland water bodies of the Indian sub-continent have been subject to study since last century, 19,14,22,23,37,50,. Indian water resources are diversified, as they are plentiful. Lakes and reservoirs contribute the single largest inland fishery resources both in terms and size and production potential.
Ichthyfauna of a lake basically represents the fish faunal diversity and their abundance. Indian lake preserve a rich variety of fish species which support the commercial fisheries. The present study deals to observe the fish diversity in reservoir Loni, Taluka Kinwat of Maharashtra State.
Indian reservoirs preserve a rich variety of fish species, on the basis of studies conducted so far, large reservoirs on an average harbour 60 species of fishes; of which 40 species contribute to the commercial fisheries. Indian major carps occupy a prominent place among the commercially important fishes. More recently, number of exotic species have contributed substantially to commercial fisheries. Being basically a carp country both the indigenous and exotic carps, catla, rohu, mrigal, silver carp, grass carp and common carp, account for a great bulk of the production.

Material and Methods
Present work carried out in the reservoir Loni in Kinwat taluka of Maharashtra state. This work conducted during the year 2009-10. Area of reservoir is 142 hectors.
The fishes collected from the reservoir every month by repeated netting and preserved in 4% formalin for further studies. The fishes were identified up to species level with the help of Day, Jayaram, Qureshi and Tamot 14, 22, 36,50. The fish productivity was calculated with the help of the following formula as described by

Result and Discussion
This reservoir has diversity of fish fauna with 15 species (Table 1). The major carps catla, rohu, mrigal are dominated due to their seed stocking. The other group of fishes found in reservoir are murrels (4 species), cat fishes (4 species), snake fishes (2 species), and other food fishes (2 species).
The major carps, murrell (3 species), cat fishes (4 species), snake fishes (1 species) and other fishes (1 species). All fishes useful as food fishes except Gambusia, which is a larvivorous fish. Out of 15 species found in this reservoir 12   The present productivity of fish observed in Loni Reservoir was much less than small and minor reservoirs but it shows close association with large reservoirs, which were observed by Srivastava and Tamot 43 Pong dam 4.1 to 25.08 kg/ha/yr, Rihand -3.7 to 14.24 kg/ha/yr, Tenughat -0.53 to 1.471 kg/ha/yr, Kangsabati -0.55 to 1.10 kg/ha/yr, Kodana 6 kg/ha/yr. Gandhisagar 0.52 to 13.3 kg/ha/yr, Hirakud -10.5 kg/ha/yr, Santhamur 3.5 to 11 kg/ha/yr, Tungabhadra 5.54 kg/ha/yr. Pilit 08 -35.30 kg/ha/yr and Shardarsagar 42 to 56 kg/ha/yr. The fis production of 7 kg/ha/yr in Nizamsagar, 8 kg/ha/yr in Bhadha and 6 kg/ha/yr in Panam reservoirs.The present fish production was much less than Indian and different states reservoirs average production. The present production was many times less than the average fish productivity in Indian reservoirs, 29.70 kg/ha/yr. Dehadrai 15 & Gowda ,18 recorded only 15.6 kg/ha/yr in Hirakud reservoirs and 5.10 kg/ha/yr in other major reservoirs in Orissa and concluded that there was scope for increase the yield rate to 100 kg/ha/yr by proper management.
The present yield of fish from the Loni reservoir shows close relationship 8.82 kg/ha/yr. It has been estimated that the catch rate from large, medium and small reservoirs is as low as 11.43, 12.30 and 49.90 kg/ha/yr respectively with a gross average of 29.70 kg/ha/yr 15 . Data collected by CIFRI suggests that the fish production potential of reservoirs is much higher, ranging from 50-75 kg/ha/yr for medium and large reservoir fisheries, till recent past, and inadequate implementation of management norms are the main cause for the present poor production from Indian reservoirs. Sreenivasan 45 estimated the production potential of Indian reservoirs at 100 kg/ha/yr. Even according to a conservative administrative estimate the potential yield of Indian reservoirs is around 50 kg/ha/yr. Burli and Sontakki 7 reported that low fish production (4-6 kg/ha/yr) was noticed in Malaprabha and Ghataprabha reservoirs of Karnataka, though the fish seed is stocked. This is due to the poor management practices in reservoirs. Tamot 47 has studied the fish production of irrigation reservoirs of Madhya Pradesh and the production is only 70 kg/ha/yr. Bandyopadhyay et al 5 reported that after the introduction of Indian major carps and exotic carps in Manipur waters, dramatic change in the fish production was observed Gowda 18 reported the productivity of reservoirs of Karnataka as 30 kg/ha/yr with a total water spread area of 2.10 lakh ha (73 reservoirs). The increase was due to stock monitoring, fishing efforts in the reservoirs marking use of improved gears would enhance fish production. Srivastava and Tamot 43 reported that based on the primary production studies PFY (Potential Fish Yield) of Tawa reservoir would be around 84 kg/ha/yr and observed only 33% of PFY. They further reported that there is still enough scope of increasing fish yield even to 50% to 60% of PFY, which could be achieved easily through scientific management norms. Das 8 reported that a large gap existed between fish yield potential (383.3 kg/ha/yr) and actual harvest (80 kg/ha/yr) in Yerrakalva reservoir, West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. He opined that there is an ample scope of increasing fish production which could be achieved by sustainable management norms.The same trend may apply to enhance the fish production.