Assam: Unique species of fish discovered in Dima Hasao district

Guwahati, March 22: A new fish has been discovered from Assam's Dima Hasao district by a three member fish specialist's team from North Eastern states of Manipur and Assam. The new fish called Garra clavirostris, a new cyprinid fish.

It is described from the Dilaima River, a tributary of the Brahmaputra in the Dima Hasao district, Assam by Thaosen Sarbojit of Haflong government college (Assam), Narengbam Roni and Prof Waikhom Vishwanath ofManipur University's life science department.

"The new species is distinguished from all its congeners in northeast India in having a combination of the following characters: a prominent unilobed club-shaped proboscis overhanging the depressed rostral surface, with 5–9 medium to large uni- to multi-cuspid tubercles on the anterior margin and 5–6 uni- to multi-cuspid tubercles on the anteroventral marginal aspect; a prominent transverse lobe on the snout, with 17-25 small- to large-sized multicuspid tubercles; and presence of a black spot at the upper angle of the gill opening," according to the experts.

With the new discoveries, Prof Vishwanath led fish researchers team has so far discovered more than 60 freshwater fish species since the discovery of Puntius jayaremi locally known as Heikak Nga in 1986.It may be mentioned that International Union for Conservation of Nature named Prof Vishwanath among its 19 member fresh water fish specialist group to study 18 fresh water region of the world.

Source: E Pao

Image Courtesy: Representational image used from internet sources