Common
Name: Denison Barb, Bleeding Eye barb,Red-Lined Torpedo barb,rose line shark
Family:Cyprinidae
Genus:Puntis
Species:P.denisonii
Physical Description: Small mouths. Streamlined and bullet shaped with shimmering color of gold, green, yellow, red and black. A horizontal black stripe from nose, across the eyes to base of tail, another horizontal stripe on top of this of red extending only midway with an occasional yellow just in between and green-gold above this. The dorsal fin is touched with red and ends transparent with a yellow and black short stripe just before the tips. The underside is a soft Off-white. The fish attains a maximum length of 15 cm.
Habitat
Red line torpedo bard natively live in
sub tropical climate in water with a 6.8 pH, a
water hardness of 5-25 dGh and a temperature range of 65-79 °F. It
lives in fast flowing highly Oxygenated Rivers and loves to swim against the
flow in tanks with high flow from power heads.
It is a rare ornamental fish
species, popularly called Miss Kerala, found in the Western Ghats, Although the
government had banned the illegal collection of the fish, Red Lined Torpedo
Barb (Puntius denisonii), in 1999. The eight rivers of the Kerala state
including the Pampa, Achankovil, Chalakkudi, Chaliar, Manimala, Periyar and
Bhararthappuzha,which are home to Miss Kerala, Most of the ones seen in the
trade today originated from the Kozhikode Provenance of Kerala.
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| Puntis denisonii |
Spawining:
Spawning of P. denisonni
occurs during the months of November to April attains the sexual maturity in
the first years of its life. A total ban should be put to destructive fishing
practices and low enforcement enhanced, during the spawning season will reduce
the threats to the species. As an ex-situ conservation practices, development
of artificial breeding of the species have also been standardized by college of Fisheries Kerala University of
Fisheries and Ocean studies(KUFOS) Kerala, India under Marine products Export Development
Authority Project .
Conservations: The fish was declared endangered by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature, But as the demand for it is rising in the
International market many continue to export it from the northern Districts of
the state..The government of Kerala in Indian has banned fishing foe the
endangered barb Puntius denisonii. Fortunatly, increasing numbers of P.denisonii
are now being breed in captivity for ornamental fish trade, both India and
elsewhere.
Success:
It was a major export
revenue earner for the state in the ornamental fish export sector, with each of
these beauties ranking in at least Rs.1.500.However, the export spree and
absence of efforts at conservation led to the fish turning an endangered
species. Now, even as Kerala is struggling to artificially breed the Tropical
barb, United Kingdom’s Chester Zoo has successfully achieved the goal. Singapore,
Malaysia and Indonesia to be endanger in similar efforts. But according to
K.Krishnakumar, Research Associate with Bangalore based Ashoka Trust for research
in Ecology and Environment (AT REE), there is more hope for Kerala from the success
of two Chennai Based fish lovers, Rabi Venkatesh and Murali
The duo bought a few Miss Kerala
fish from Kerala and after acclimatizing them to Chennai. Injected hormones and
allowed them to breed in a tank specially made for the purpose.The result, Mr. Kishnakumar
says was 600 eggs in six hours. These were divided into two groups and in 15
hundreds of Miss Kerala These were divided into two groups and in 15 days of
Miss Kerala progenies were swimming around in the tank (Hindu
Daily,Thurdsay.Oct16,2008)
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| Miss Kerala |
