T.T. Ajith Kumar

National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources | NBFGR · Peninsular and Marine Fish Genetic Resources Centre

Gymnothorax tamilnaduensis sp. nov. , a new species of short brown unpatterned moray, is described, based on four specimens ranging from 272–487 mm total length collected from the trawl bycatch landings at Mudasalodai fish landing centre, off Cuddalore coast, Tamil Nadu, southeast coast of India. The new species is distinguished by the following co...

A new species of deep-water conger eel, Rhynchoconger bicoloratus sp. nov., is described herein based on three specimens collected from the deep-sea trawlers landing at Kalamukku fishing harbour, off Kochi, Arabian Sea, from a depth beyond 200 m. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by having the following combination of characters:...

The False Pike Conger Eel, Congrhynchus talabonoides Fowler, 1934 (n = 5) was reported for the first time from the southwest coast of India, Arabian Sea, previously the species was known only from Taiwan, Philippines and Andaman Sea. Diagnostic characters for the species have been provided. Further, the mitochondrial COI gene was generated and the...

Fish stocks that are grown under diverse environmental conditions have different biometric relationships and growth patterns. The biometric length-weight relationship (LWR) is an essential fishery assessment tool, as fish growth is continuous and depends on genetic and environmental factors. The present study attempts to understand the LWR of the f...

A new species of Conger eel is described from a single specimen (569 mm total length) collected off Kanyakumari, Southwest coast of India, Arabian Sea. The following characters distinguish the new species from other congeners: dorsal-fin origin behind the pectoral-fin tip; head larger, 18.5% TL; longer predorsal length 24.0% TL; relatively shorter...

A new species of the alpheid genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798, Alpheus sulcipalma sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on the specimens collected from the intertidal zone of Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, India at 0.5–1.0 m depth. This species belongs to the A. edwardsii group by absences of tooth in the orbital hoods and presence of compressed m...

This study was performed to evaluate the optimum dietary lipid requirement during the juvenile stage of clownfish, Amphiprion ocellaris. Fifteen days old A. ocellaris (initial body weight of 19.4 ± 0.057 mg) were fed with different proportions of lipid-enriched diets (5, 10, 15, and 20%) using the oil extracted from microalga Nannochloropsis salina...

Band fishes are relatively rare, have no economic value and are often caught in by-catch. Acanthocepola indica has been reported herein for the first time from the coast of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andaman Sea, India based on five specimens, adding to the cepolid diversity of the region. The species is described with detailed meristic and morph...

The magnificent shrimp Ancylomenes magnificus (Bruce, 1979) is a sea anemone associated marine ornamental species exploited from Indo-Pacific waters, as of its attractive colouration. However, there is no information available on its population characters and reproductive parameters (length-weight relationships, fecundity, sex ratio, and maturity s...

The ‘cleaning rock pool’ shrimp commonly inhabit the shallow waters of reef and crevices regions at 0.5-3.0 m depth. Recent exploration conducted off the Gulf of Mannar and Agatti Island yielded the species, Urocaridella antonbruunii (Bruce, 1967) from the bottom curve of the coral boulder at a depth of 0.5-1.0 m. This is the new record for the Gul...

The Canarytop Wrasse, Halichoeres leucoxanthus Randall & Smith 1982, previously distributed from Maldives, Myanmar, Christmas Island (Australia), Thailand and Western Indonesia was recorded for the first time from Indian waters on the basis of six specimens (measures 53.1–66.3 mm SL) collected from the Gulf of Mannar, East coast of India. The speci...

The parasitic isopod Nerocila serra Schioedte and Meinert, 1881 is redescribed based on a gravid female lectotype (here designated) from the Swedish Museum of Natural History and additional material from Indian waters. Nerocila pulicatensis Jayadev Babu and Sanjeeva Raj, 1984 is here placed into synonymy with N. serra. Ovigerous females of N. serra...

The two monotypic genera of micropredatory cymothoid isopods, Alitropus H. Milne Edwards, 1840 (Aegidae White, 1850) and Barybrotes Schioedte and Meinert, 1879 (Barybrotidae Hansen, 1890), are revised and their species redescribed from India. Alitropus typus is distinguished by its slender and elongate body, broadly triangular cephalon with the ant...

This study is based on integrative taxonomy and reports a new fish species Dussumieria modakandai sp. nov. from India. The new species differs from three valid species within the genus by combination of characters such as longer maxilla (9.1–9.9% SL vs. 8.7% in D. elopsoides, 6.3–8.5% in D. acuta) and 1 or 2 rows of small conical teeth on palatine...

Tachaea spongillicola Stebbing, 1907 has not been widely reported and no case is recorded of its potential predation of freshwater fish. The present study reports the occurrence of T. spongillicola preying on freshwater fish Pangasius silasi Dwivedi et al., 2017 (Pangasiidae) and causing detectable mortalities in its new host. The general morpholog...

Caridean shrimps are large and greatly diverse group of the order Decapoda that are commercially important to fishery sector and ornamental trade. In the present study, we have documented spawning frequency, incubation period and fecundity of various caridean shrimps in captivity. These shrimps are including Lysmatahochi, Thor hainanensis, Ancyloca...

A new species of the genus Alpheus Fabricius, 1798, A. mannarensis sp. nov. is described and represented based on the materials collected from the shallow and rocky reefs, Gulf of Mannar (Thoothukudi waters), Southern India. This is the first report of Alpheus species from the Gulf of Mannar region. The new species is assigned to the Alpheus brevir...

The velvet shrimp under genus Metapenaeopsis Bouvier, 1905 is a highly diverse group, falls under the family Penaeidae. The exploratory survey conducted at Bangaram Island, Lakshadweep, India during February 2020, few specimens of Metapenaeopsis were collected from the intertidal regions at the depth of 1-2 m. Further analysis revealed that, Metape...

A new species of congrid eel, Ariosoma melanospilos sp. nov., is described from two specimens collected as bycatch landings of deep-sea trawlers at Colachel fish landing centre, off Kanyakumari, the southwest coast of India. The new species is distinguishable from all the known congeners in having two spots on both sides of the mid-dorsal temporal...

Ornamental fish culture and aquarium keeping have become a booming sector worldwide. It has been observed that a number of stakeholders are involved in introducing exotic ornamentals in India as well, as the takers are interested on variants and new species. Most of the exotic ornamental fishes are also being domesticated in India, since the demand...

Lakshadweep is the smallest Union Territory in India and is located in the Arabian Sea at 8° to 12°30” north latitude and 71° to 74° east longitude. It is located at a distance of 220 - 440 km from Kerala. Lakshadweep islands were formed by the continuous growth of corals on the volcanic tops of the Indian Ocean ridge stretching from the Maldives t...

The present study was designed to investigate the efficiency of lipid‐enriched brood stock diets on the reproductive performance, such as fecundity, egg volume, fatty acid profile of newly extruded (stage 1) embryos and the starvation threshold of the newly hatched larvae of the marine ornamental ‘hinge‐beak’ shrimp Rhynchocinetes durbanensis Gordo...

A new species of the genus Urocaridella Borradaile, 1915, Urocaridella arabianensis n. sp. is described and illustrated based on fifty-five specimens collected from the reef regions of Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, Arabian Sea. Urocaridella arabianensis n. sp. is morphologically close to U. pulchella Yokes & Galil, 2006, reported from the Mediterrane...

The length-weight relationship of a newly described catfish Pangasius silasi Dwivedi et. al., 2017 was studied from 88 specimens collected from the native distribution range of the species i.e. Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, Telengana, India. The total length and weight of the sampled fishes ranged from 290 to -590 mm and 240 to 2300 g respectively. Results...

Bathymyrus simus, B. smithi and B. echinorhynchus are the three species recognised worldwide under the genus Bathymyrus. Of these, B. smithi and B. echinorhynchus have been reported in the Indian Ocean. Two specimens of Bathymyrus simus were collected from the Bay of Bengal, one from the by-catch of trawler at Nagapattinam fishing harbour, Tamil Na...

The present study reports the new records of two species of the hippolytid shrimp genus Lysmata Risso, 1816 in the water off Lakshadweep Islands, India from the Arabian Sea, viz. Lysmata hochi Baeza & Anker, 2008 and Lysmata amboinensis (De Man, 1888) with more taxonomic information. Moreover, L. hochi is the first distributional report from the In...

The recent collection of Palaemonid shrimps from Agatti Island, Lakshadweep, Arabian Sea, have provided further additions to the Indian marine fauna. In the manuscript, a new species, Periclimenella agattii sp. nov. is described and illustrated. The new species is morphologically most similar to P. spinifera among other congeners, but it strongly d...

The efficacy of supplementation diet with 0, 2.5, 5, and 10 g kg-1 of Excoecaria agallocha aqueous leaf extract on innate immune response, survival, and disease resistance was reported in clownfish, Amphiprion sebae against Vibrio alginolyticus. The mean weight gain (MWG), specific growth rate (SGR), and protein efficiency ratio (PER) did not signi...

The present study reports the first record of the rearfin flying fish, Cypselurus opisthopus (Bleeker, 1865), in the south-eastern Arabian Sea based on a single specimen caught by a commercial trawler off the Kerala coast. Hitherto unknown in the waters off Indian coast, this is the first occurrence of this species in the Indian EEZ, suggesting the...

The present study reports the new record of Thor hainanensis Xu & Li, 2014, on the basis of material from Agatti Islands in the Lakshadweep, India. This species was recently described from Hainan Island, China. Relationship of this species to two closely related species (T. paschalis and T. amboinensis) is discussed in this manuscript. Similarly, t...

The present study, evaluated the effect of enrichment of the rotifer Brachionus plicatilis with the microalga Nannochloroposis salina, amino acid derivative L-carnitine and commercially available S-presso (SELCO). The study also evaluated the effect of enriched rotifers in larval rearing of Amphiprion clarkii in terms of metamorphosis, pigmentation...

The present study was performed to identify the tail rot disease causing bacterium in marine ornamental fish, Amphiprion sebae. Bacteria were isolated from the infected immune organs and tail region of A. sebae. Five different bacterial isolates (S1-S5) with different shape, size and colour were chosen for the infection study. The isolated strains...

Little is known about the biology of Indo-West Pacific ornamental crustaceans, including the peacock-tail shrimp Periclimenes brevicarpalis (Schenkel, 1902) (Palaemonidae Rafinesque, 1815), a species that is highly valued by aquarists and marine photographers. We provide information about gender expression and sexual dimorphism in P. brevicarpalis....

The collection of marine taxa for the aquarium trade continues to demand live animals be extracted from reefs, but in doing so, offers economic benefits for local communities. To improve our understanding of the status of marine aquariumtrade in India, information on harvested species and their volume was gathered at the major collection hubs (Tuti...

Two specimens of Lestrolepis japonica (Tanaka, 1908) were collected from Tuticorin, Southeast coast of India during January 2016 with the average total length of 194.83 ± 1.1 and average standard length of 181.55 ± 1.3. Though it was first recorded in 1970 at the west coast of India, but it is the first record from the east coast of India. The meas...

Marine ornamental shrimps found in tropical coral reef waters are widely recognized for the aquarium trade. Our survey of ornamental shrimps in the Gulf of Mannar, Tamil Nadu (India) has found three species, which we identify as Stenopus hispidus Olivier, 1811, Lysmata debelius Bruce, 1983, and L. amboinensis De Man, 1888, based on morphology and c...

The present study tests hypotheses about sexual dimorphism in body size and morphology versus differential mating behaviours of three male ontogenetic stages (typus, intermedius and robustus morphotypes) of the hingebeak shrimp Rhynchocinetes durbanensis Gordon using canonical discriminant analysis. There is strong sexual dimorphism in this species...

This study is to investigate the biological, biochemical and cytotoxic effects of puffer fish (Arothron stellatus) toxin extracts under in-vitro condition. Extracted toxins from various organs of puffer fish were purified by using active charcoal column, and Bio-gel-P2 column chromatography. The lethality of toxin was tested in crabs, which consist...

This study reported the traits values such as colour, feed conversion ratio (FCR), specific growth rate (SGR) and fluorescence capacity of F1 hybrids of Amphiprion percula (male) and A. ocellaris (female). The hybrids exhibited significant variation in FCR (3.63 ± 0.56) and SGR (3.63% ± 0.44) compared with the pure breeds, A. percula (3.12 ± 0.42;...

Lined wrasse Anampses lineatus Randall was recorded off the coast of Tuticorin (Gulf of Mannar), Tamil Nadu, India for the first time. It is easily distinguished by the presence of pale longitudinal lines on the body following scale rows. Broad pale white and black color patch at the base of caudal fin is distinct. Morphological description of A. l...

Objective: To investigate the cause of mortality of Maldive's clownfish, Amphiprion nigripes during the culture period in ornamental fish hatchery, Agatti Island, Lakshadweep archipelago using molecular techniques. Methods: During cultured period august 2010 the fishes were died with skin hemorrhages. Bacteria were isolated from the infected parts...

Twenty-one species of sponges were recorded under the class of Demospongiae and Calcareous sponges of which 19 species were new to Agatti reef. A total of 113 Sponge endosymbiotic bacterial strains were isolated from twenty-one species of sponges and screened for antimicrobial activity. Five bacterial strains of sponge endosymbiotic bacteria (SEB)...

Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to enhance the biomass and lipid content in Nannochloropsis salina due to its economic importance. Preliminary screening results revealed that the heterotrophically cultivated N. salina with various carbon and nitrogen sources yielded higher biomass (0.91±0.0035g/L) and lipid content (37.1±0.49mg/L) than...

The effect of partially purified extracts of sea grass (Cymodocea serrulata), turmeric (Curcuma longa), Spirulina (Spirulina platensis), and beet root (Beta vulgaris) on the antimicrobial, antioxidant, and hemato-biochemical changes in ornamental dotty back, Pseudochromis dilectus against isolated fish bacterial pathogens (Proteus mirabilis, Bacill...

The present study investigates the potential of algal oil (extracted from Nannochloropsis salina ), cod liver oil, olive oil and yeast for live prey enrichments in A. percula larviculture. After hatching, larvae were divided into six experimental groups as follows. Larvae fed on non-enriched (control), cod liver oil enriched, olive oil enriched, al...

Two goby fishes Cryptocentrus cyanotaenia Bleeker, 1853 and Istigobius diadema Steindachner 1877 were collected from the Tuticorin and Mandapam coastal waters of Tamilnadu, India. C. cyanotaenia is well distinguished by the presence of grey color body with 9 narrow white bars; blue lines and spots with markings on the head and snout; yellow margins...

Present study consists the larval development of Amphiprion ocellaris and also documentation has done on the appearance of pigmentation and band formation, started appearing after post larval stage. Most interesting facts was recorded that on completion of 14-16 th days, almost all the larvae attained full colouration of an adult fish and from day...

Two goby fishes Cryptocentrus cyanotaenia Bleeker, 1853 and Istigobius diadema Steindachner 1877 were collected from the Tuticorin and Mandapam coastal waters of Tamilnadu, India. C. cyanotaenia is well distinguished by the presence of gray color body with 9 narrow white bars; blue lines and spots with markings on the head and snout; yellow margins...

In this study, barcoding of 13 clownfish species of the Indian Ocean was carried out to infer the phylogenetic relationships among them by analyzing cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1) and cytochrome b mitochondrial gene sequences. The study also scrutinized species boundaries between four closely related species of the subgenus Phalerebus (Amphiprion akall...

Detailed analyses on morphometry (expressed as % standard length and % head length), meristic characters and mitochondrial barcode region sequence of the sharp tail sunfish Masturus lanceolatus Lienard, 1840 have made to confirm the species identity. Further, investigations on phylogenetic relationships between species of the Molidae family have be...

Enrichment has shown considerable influence on the population growth, reproduction and individual growth of rotifer (Brachionus plicatilis Müller, 1786) and its utility on the clownfish larvae (Amphiprion ocellaris Cuvier 1830). Using the culture medium of microalgae (Nannochloropsis salina D.J. Hibberd 1981) as the control, rotifers were enriched...

Objective: To determine the physiological and ecological responses of marine ornamental fishes to the change of water temperature with its potential effects on the growth, survival and feeding in clown fish. Methods: Three different sea anemone fish (Premnas biaculeatus, Amphiprion clarkii, Amphiprion akallopisos) were reared in confinement at wate...

Although among the less conspicuous members of the tropical shallow reef fauna, the caridean shrimps are not less abundant. Much scope for further study on the marine carideans of Indian waters still exists and many species must certainly remain to be discovered. Although, the recent checklist on prawn fauna of Indian waters reports 285 species of...

An attempt was made to study the captive breeding and larval rearing of the Cardinal fish Pterapogon kauderni using brackish water for the first time in India. P. kauderni, a mouth brooder fish was procured from the traders at the size range of 4-6 cm and acclimatized under captive conditions. Suitable water quality parameters were maintained and s...

Anemonefishes are known to exhibit an obligate symbiotic relationship with a limited number of sea anemone species. This has raised queries about the adaptive mechanisms of these fishes involved. The present study was carried out to understand the role of visual and chemical cues used for host recognition and the bio-chemical changes that occur dur...