Assessment of Some Morphometric and Meristic Characters of Schizopyge niger from Two Lacustrine Populations of Kashmir, India

Morphometric studies were conducted using twenty quantitative body parameters of a Schizothoracid species Schizopyge niger collected from two lakes of Kashmir viz. Dal and Manasbal. 240 samples of the fish were studied for morphometric and meristic characters employing local fishing gears. Twenty conventional morphometric characters examined in the present study, showed high co-efficient of determination (R²) values ranging from 0.70 to 0.92 for Dal lake and 0.53 to 0.93 for Manasbal lake signifying that the traits were highlycorrelated to each other. Out of eight meristic characters examined, three characters viz. Pectoral fin rays, Caudal fin rays and Pelvic fin rays were significantly different.