Systematic position
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes)
Order: Cypriniformes (Carps)
Family: Psilorhynchidae (Mountain carps)
Genus: Psilorhynchus
Species: P. balitora

Synonyms
Cyprinus balitora Hamilton, 1822
Psilorhynchus variegatus McClelland, 1839

Common/local names
English: Balitora minnow
Bangladesh: Balitora (বালিটোরা)

Distributions: Bangladesh, India (North Bengal and Assam, upper reaches of Jamuna river Gomti river at Lucknow), Myanmar and Nepal (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Conservation status: Data deficient in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh, 2000).

Morphology: Body robust and moderately elevated. Head small, conical with narrow and sub-ventral mouth. Dorsal inserted in advance of pelvics. Paired fins horizontally placed and anal fin short. Scales large. 30-34 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005; Talwar and Jhingran, 1991) scales on lateral line.

Body color of young specimens is gorgeous, with a very bright silvery ground with 6-8 dark spots on dorsum. A series of lateral blotches on same diagonal scale-rows as dorsal spots (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Caudal with 2 vertical bands which often break up into dusky patches (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Fin formula:
D. 2/8-9; P1. 6-7/9-10; P2. 2/5-6; A. 2/7 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005)
D iii 8; A ii 5; P v-viii 7-9; V ii 7 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Maximum length: 4.8 cm (Rahman, 1989 and 2005).

Habitats: Hill streams and rapids, especially with rocky bottom (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Found in Mohananda river (Tetulia, Panchagar) and Korotoa river (Bhajanpur, Dinajpur) of Bangladesh (Rahman, 1989 and 2005).

__________________________________________________________

REFERENCES

Hamilton F (1822) An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches. Edinburgh & London. An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches.: i-vii + 1-405, Pls. 1-39.

IUCN Bangladesh (2000) Red book of threatened fishes of Bangladesh, IUCN- The world conservation union. xii+116 pp.

McClelland J (1839) Indian Cyprinidae. Asiatic Researches 19(2): 217-471, Pls. 37-61.

Rahman AKA (1989) Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 1st edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, pp. 74-75.

Rahman AKA (2005) Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 2nd edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, pp. 90-91.

Talwar PK and Jhingran AG (1991) Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries, Vol. 1, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi-Calcutta, pp. 438-439.

 


Visited 1,041 times, 1 visits today | Have any fisheries relevant question?
Balitora minnow, Psilorhynchus balitora (Hamilton, 1822)

Visitors' Opinions

Shams Galib

Shams works in freshwater ecosystems, primarily on fish diversity in terms of their availability, and richness; he is also interested in aquatic invasive species and their impacts on ecosystem. Email: thegalib@gmail.com. More...

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.