Synonyms:
Cyprinus sophore Hamilton, 1822
Barbus stigma Day, 1878
Barbus stigma Shaw and Shebbeare, 1937
Barbus(puntius) sophore Bhuiyan, 1964
Barbus(puntius) sophore Qureshi, 1965
Puntius sophore Menon, 1974
Common name: Spotfin swamp barb
Local name: Punti, jati-punti
Taxonomy position:
Phylum- Chordata
Class-Oesteichthyes
Order- Cypriniformes
Family- Cyprinidae
Genus- Puntius
Fin formula:
D. 11 (3/8); P1. 15; P2. 9 (1/8); A. 8 (3/8). (Rahman, 2005)
D iii-iv 8-9; A iii 5; P i 14-16; V i 8 (Talwar and Jhingran, 1991)
Description of the species:
Mouth is small and terminal, snout without pores. Barbel is absent, lateral line is complete and composed with 24-26 sacles. Caudal forked. Dorsal fin is almost equidistant from the end of the snout and base of caudal. Gill openings are wide. Dorsal profile is more convex than abdomin. Pharyngeal teeth are present and arranged in rows. Colour silvery with grayish back. A dark blotch presents in the middle of dorsal and also at the root of the tail. A reddish grey blotch present on the operculum. Silvery with a round dark spot is present at the base of the dorsal fin and another one is present at the tip of the tail on the 23rd to 25th scales of the lateral line. (Rahman and Ruma, 2007; Rahman, 1989; Bhuiyan, 1964)
Habit and Habitat:
According to some authors it is larvivorous and according to others it is herbivorous. According to Mookerjee et. al., (1946), its food is 40% algae, 15% higher plants, 30% protozoa, 15% insects. It also feeds on diatoms, crustaceans, rotifers, fish remains, mud and sands.
Economic importance:
Puntius sophore is a very plentiful shoaling fish remaining appreciably smaller in domestic aquarium. This barb is also considered of medicinal value.
Ecological role:
Harmless, reduce water pollution.
Status and conservation
This species is available in Bangladesh and not listed as threatened in IUCN Red book of thereatened fish of Bangladesh by IUCN Bangladesh (IUCN Bangladesh, 2000).
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References:
Bhuiyan, A. L. 1964. Fishes of Dacca. Asiatic Society of Pakistan, Dacca. p 36.
Day, F. 1878. Fishes of India, being a natural history of fishes known to inhabit the seas and freshwaters of India, Burma and Ceylon. William Dawson & Sons Ltd., London, Vol. I: p 579.
Hamilton, F., 1822. An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches, Edinburgh & London, Fishes Ganges, plate 19, Fig 86.
IUCN Bangladesh. 2000. Red Book of Threatened Fishes of Bangladesh. IUCN- The World Conservation Union. xii+116 pp.
Menon, A. G. K. 1974, A Checklist of the Fishes of the Himalayan and the Indo-gangetic Plains. Inland Fisheries Society India, Barrackpore, p 40.
Mookerjee, H. K., Sen Gupta, S. N. and Roy Choudhury, D. N. 1946. Food and its percentage composition of the common adult food fishes of Bengal. Sci. & Cult. Calcutta. 12 (7): 247.
Qureshi, M. R. 1965. Common Freshwater Fishes of Pakistan. Government of Pakistan Press, Karachi. P.23.
Rahman, A.K.A. 2005. Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh (Second edition). The Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000. 394 pp.
Rahman, A.K.A. 1989. Freshwater Fishes of Bangladesh. The Zoological Society of Bangladesh, Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka-1000. p 133.
Rahman, A.K.A. and Ruma F. 2007. Puntius sophore (Hamilton, 1822). In: Siddiqui, K.U., Islam, M.A., Kabir, S.M.H., Ahmed, M., Ahmed, A.T.A., Rahman, A.K.A., Haque, E.U., Ahmed, Z.U., Begum, Z.N.T., Hasan, M.A., Khondker, M., and Rahman, M.M. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna of Bangladesh, Vol. 23. Freshwater Fishes. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, Dhaka. p.82.
Shaw and Shebbeare, 1937, The Fishes of Northern Bangal. Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal Science. p 42.
Talwar, P. K. and Jhingran, A. G., 1991. Inland Fishes of India and Adjacent Countries. Volume 1. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, Calcutta. p 288.
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