Ganges river gizzard shad, Goniolosa manmina (Hamilton, 1822)

Systematic position
Class: Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes)
Order: Clupeiformes (Herrings)
Family: Clupeidae (Shads, sprats, sardines, pilchards and menhadens)
Genus: Goniolosa
Species: G. manmina

Common/local names
English: Ganges river gizzard shad
Bangladesh: Chapila (চাপিলা), Goni Chapila (গনি চাপিলা), Mukh-chuka chapila (মুখ চোখা চাপিলা) and Khoira (খইরা).
India: Koroti (করোটি), Mackundi (মাকুন্দি) and Phophor (ফফর).

Synonyms
Chatoessus manmina (Hamilton, 1822)
Clupanodon cortius Hamilton, 1822
Clupanodon manmina Hamilton, 1822

Distributions: Bangladesh, India (Ganga and other rivers of Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam) and Sri Lanka (?) (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Freshwater of Sind and the districts watered by the Indus and its branches, also the affluent and main streams of the Ganges, Jamuna, Brahmaputra and Mahanoddi. Spread through the India and Assam, except the Deccan, southern and western India and Ceylon (Day, 1958)

Conservation status: Not threatened in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh, 2000)

Morphology: Body short and fairly deep and somewhat compressed. Mouth inferior and small. Abdominal profile more convex than that of dorsal. Upper jaw little expanded at tip, but distinctly turn down. Eyes with broad adipose lids. Dorsal origin opposite to pelvic origin. Slightly nearer to snout than to base of caudal. Pectoral as long as head excluding snout, reaching above the origin pelvics. Caudal deeply forked and lower lobe is longer than upper lobe. Scales moderate, thin , more or less adherent; 40 to 50 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991) or 55-60 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005) in lateral series. Total scutes 30-31: 17 pelvic, 13-14 post pelvic. Vertebrae 43 to 45 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Head 3.3-3.6 in standard , 4.2-4.7 in total length. Height 2.4-2.9 in standard, 3.1-3.7 in total length. Eye 3.2-3.5; snout 0.6-0.8, interorbital 1.0 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005).

Body color grayish along back, silvery on sides and below, opercle and cheek yellow, snout and interorbital dotted. Fins are yellowish. Dorsal and caudal with dark edges. With a dark spot behind gill-opening.

Fin formula:
D. 3/12-13; P1. 14-15; P2. 8; A. 24-25 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005)
D. iii-iv 11-13; A ii-iii 20-24; P i 14; V i 8 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991)
D. 4-15; P. 25; V. 8; A. 21-24 (Shafi and Quddus, 2001)

Maximum lengths: 14.1 cm from Karnafuli lake of Bangladesh (Rahman, 1989 and 2005) and 28 cm (Shafi and Quddus, 2001). 11.5 cm SL (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Habitats: Rivers and associated water bodies (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991), Rivers and estuaries of Bangladesh (Rahman, 1989 and 2005; IUCN Bangladesh, 2000; Shafi and Quddus, 2001). Found in large river systems of the Jamuna, Ganga, Brahmaputra and the Mahanadi (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Recorded from Padma river of Bangladesh (Samad et al., 2010).

Surface dweller. Prefers turbid water and areas with more aquatic vegetation (Shafi and Quddus, 2001).

Fishery information and importance: Abundantly caught from rivers and baors of Bangladesh during rainy season (Shafi and Quddus, 2001). A valuable food fish for human being and contributes in major inland catches.

________________________________________________________________

REFERENCES

Day, F. 1958. The Fishes of India: being a Natural History of the fishes known to inhabit the seas and freshwater of India., Burma and Ceylon. Reproduced in 1958 by William Dowson and Sons, London. 633 pp.

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

Rahman AKA. 1989. Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 1st edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, pp. 256-257.

Rahman AKA. 2005. Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 2nd edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, pp. 280-281.

Samad MA, Asaduzzaman M, Galib SM, Kamal MM and Haque MR. 2010. Availability and Consumer Preference of Small Indigenous Species (SIS) of the River Padma at Rajshahi, Bangladesh, International Journal of BioResearch 1(5): 27-31.

Shafi M and Quddus MMA. 2001. Bangladesher Matsho Shampad (Fisheries of Bangladesh) (in Bengali), Kabir publication. Dhaka, Bangladesh. p. 47.

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. 107-108.

Visitors' Opinions