M.Y.Lagharia *, M. Sheikha , P.K. Lasharia , A.R. Khuharob ,
1Department of Freshwater Biology and Fisheries, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan
2Centre of Excellence in Marine Biology, University of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Email:laghariyounis@yahoo.com
Indus River has a diverse flora and fauna, much of which is yet to be documented. Downstream habitats
appeared to be particularly important repositories of fish biodiversity in the River and it is essential to obtain a
reliable census of species that is critical for conservation and management of biodiversity.
In investigation we
studied the pattern of species richness and analysed the community composition of fishes in the Indus River
downstream area. There were eight sampling stations, fishsampling was conducted fortnightly bases from May 2017
to June 2018. The result showed that there were 14101 individuals of fishes comprising of 8 orders, 20 families, and
88 fish species. 31 species were commercially important.
Alpha Diversity Indicesstudy showed that fish diversity of the Indus River was quite rich (species richness, 88) and diverse, (Shannon’sindex= 4.06), Poilouis Evenness was
also high (Evenness (H/S) =0.94). The most abundant family was Cyprinidae having 34% fish sp. followed by
Bagridae having 15% fish sp. while Siliuridae having 8% fish sp. were recorded, the highest individual abundance
was Cirrhinus mirrigala sp. (426), followed by Ria rita (425), while lowest individual was Systomussarana (14). The
population of exotic (Oreochromis mossambicus, Oreochromis niloticus, Cyprinuscarpio and etc.) may all the fish
also seems to be established in the Indus River. This study revealed that ichthyofaunal research is lackingin several
locations. More research should be done in those sites to fill in the researchgaps and present the most up-to-date
information on Indus River ichthyofaunal study.
Keywords: Distribution, Ichthyofauna, Downstream, Indus River, Sindh