Sylhet Hara, Erethistes jerdoni (Day, 1870)

Systematic position
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii  (Ray-finned fishes)
Order: Siluriformes (Catfishes)
Family: Erethistidae (Erethistid catfishes)
Genus: Hara
Species: H. jerdoni

Synonym:

Hara jerdoni Day, 1870

Common/local names
English name: Sylhet Hara
Bangladesh: Kutakanti (কাটাকুন্তি)

Distributions: Bangladesh and India (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991)

Conservation status: Not threatened in Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh, 2003).

Morphology: Body elongated ventral side flattened. Head depressed. Mouth small. Body inferior or sub-terminal. (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Eye small. Body not rough. Barbel four pairs. Dorsal spine strong. caudal fin forked, upper lobe longer then lower lobe. Color brownish (Rahman, 1989), yellowish brown (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). Irregular bands present on body, caudal, anal and pelvic.

Head 3.3-3.7 in SL, 4.2-4.7 in TL, Height 3-3.6 in SL, 3.6-4.6 in TL (Rahman, 1989 and 2005).

Fin formula:
D. I/5; P1. I/6; P2. 6; A. 8; C. 12 (Rahman, 1989 and 2005)
D I 5; A iv-v 5- 7; P I 4-5; V i 5 (Tawlar and Jhingran, 1991)

Maximum lengths: 3.5 cm (Rahman, 1989 and 2005) and 3.7 cm (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Habitats: Inhabits in rivers and beels of Bangladesh; distributed in  Sylhet, Mymensingh Tangail and Chandpur. (Rahman, 1989 and 2005). Inhabits slow-moving hillstreams, with sandy bed bearing aquatic weeds and decaying leaves (Tawlar and Jhingran, 1991).

Feeding habit: It feeds on insects, larvae and benthic detritus (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991).

Economic importance: No interest to fisheries (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991). It is harvested in large quantities with other fishes from the river of Sylhet, Maymensingh, Tangail and Chandpur, has no market value and usually thrown away (Siddique, 2007).

Ecological role: Control water pollution by consuming aquatic detritus (Siddique, 2007).

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REFERENCES

Day F (1870) Notes on the genus Hara. Journal and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal v. 39 (pt 2, no. 1): 37-40, Pl. 4.

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. 226-227.

Rahman AKA (2005) Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh, 2^nd edition, Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000, pp. 249-250.

Siddique KU (ed.) (2007) Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh Freshwater fishes Vol. 23, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 300 pp.

Talwar PK and Jhingran AG (1991) Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries, Vol. 2, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi-Calcutta, pp. 669-670.

 

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