Morphomeristic Characters and Length-Weight Relationship of Wild and Cultured Mola Carplet, <i>Amblypharyngodon mola</i> (Hamilton, 1822)

Abstract

The present study was conducted to check the disparity between wild and cultured stock of Amblypharyngodon mola using the bio-morphometric data and meristic characteristics such as length-weight relationship (LWR) and relative gut length (RGL). A total of 656 specimens were collected using drag net and cast net for a period of one year from Daya river and about 226 fish individuals were collected from hatchery bred stock of ICAR-CIFA, Bhubaneswar, India. No significant (P> 0.05) differences were observed in five meristic and twenty-two morphometric characters of wild and cultured stocks of mola. The estimated regression line showed a better relationship between the total length (TL) to standard length, fork length, pre-dorsal and post-dorsal length, orbit diameter (r2 value). Further, a negative allometric growth was also noticed in both stocks with the b value of 2.988 and 2.844 with r2 value of 0.915 and 0.923 in the wild and hatchery bred stocks respectively. Analysed length and weight were highly significant (P<0.01). The TL max of 9.1 cm was recorded in present study which is higher than that reported in Fish Base.