Santosh kumar Abujam*, Ram Kumar, Achom Darshan and Debangshu Narayan Das
An investigation on the captive rearing of different 11 hill stream ornamental fishes has been conducted in aquarium during October, 2015 to May, 2016. Fishes were provided with artificial food and small fine floating pellets for 2 or 3 times daily. The average weight and length of each species were recorded monthly. The highest mean weight gain (1.9%) was found in Devario aequipinnatus and lowest mean weight gain (-0.47%) was observed in Olyra praestigiosa. Similarly, the maximum percentage growth rate (0.137) was recorded in D. aequipinatus and minimum (-0.097) was in O. praestigiosa. It reveals that O. praestigiosa was not suitable in the aquarium condition. Further, it also found that all the experimented fish species can be considered as ornamental fishes as they can acclimatize in the aquarium condition except O. praestigiosa. The survivality rate for all species was found to be 100% except O. praestigiosa. The Student’s test (t) reveals that the initial and final weight was found to be significant at the 0.05 level in Garra sp. (t=-6.545); M. dibrugarensis (t=-8.211); L. guntea (t=-19); A. apangi (t=-7.053) and O. praestigiosa (t=-3.659). In case of the length, the initial and final was also significant in D. aequipinatus (t=-7.535); Garra sp. (t=-4.276); P. ticto (t=-3.449); M. dibrugarensis (t=-13.408); B. bendelisis (t=-4.392) and A. apangi (t=-10.292). The lowest water temperature (14ºC) was recorded in December and highest (27°C) in May; pH varied between 6.8 (April) and 7.6 (January). Dissolved oxygen (DO) was found within 6.55 ppm (medium size aquarium) to 7.91 ppm (cemented tank). Free carbon dioxide (FCO2) concentration (1.0 ppm) was almost same trend in both cemented tank and aquaria. Total alkalinity ranged from 65 to 76 and the maximum was observed in large aquarium and the minimum in stocking tank. The recorded values of water quality were found within the permissible limit.
