Fish Diversity and Community Structure in Ghodaghodi Lake, Kailali

Abstract

Ghodaghodi Lake is an ox-bow perennial Lake of Ghodaghodi Lake Complex, situated in Kailali district. The present study was conducted to understand the fish diversity, community structure and distribution pattern in Ghodaghodi Lake. A total of 13 fish species were recorded from the different section of Ghodaghodi Lake, belonging to five order, eight family and eleven genera. According to fish catch the dominant order and family of Ghodaghodi Lake were found to be Cypriniformes (40%) and Cyprinidae (40%) respectively. The dominant fish species of Ghodaghodi Lake was Labeo gonius followed by Mystus tengara, Nandus nandus, Channa striatus. The correlation between temperature and fish diversity was found to be positively correlated (0.1755, 0.5374, 0.9771 and 0.5652) in all four stations. Similarly, fish diversity and water depth are positively correlated in station I (0.2476), II (0.4376) and IV (0.7597) while station III shows negative correlation (-0.2011). All four stations showed positive correlation (0.8242, 0.8074, 0.9345 and 0.6508) between dissolved oxygen and fish diversity. Similarly, positive correlation was observed between pH value and fish diversity (0.7701, 0.8256, 0.5767 and 0.7337). The highest diversity index (2.46), species richness (6.14) and evenness (0.96) of fish were recorded from station III during the month January. Lowest diversity index (1.75) and evenness (0.90) was found in station II and during the month of October (2.25 and 0.88). Similarly, lowest species richness was found in station I (3.91) and during the month July (5.82). Fish diversity and number of fishes in Ghodaghodi Lake were found to be decreased. This could be due to pollution, illegal fishing and excessive proliferation of aquatic weeds.