Biometric Assessment of Cyprinus carpio var. Communis from Anchar Lake of Kashmir Valley

Morphometric analysis have proven to be a useful tool for studying fish species, population and races. It is a basic fundamental tool for attaining information on development of organisms, systematics, growth, variation and morphology. The present study was carried out in Anchar lake of Srinagar Kashmir to analyze morphometric measurements of Cyprinus carpio var. communis. About 120 specimens of Cyprinus carpio var. communis was collected randomly from different zones of the water body. The morphometric characters were classified into genetically controlled (narrow range), intermediate (moderate range) and environmentally (vast range) controlled characters. In percentage of total length out of fourteen 14 morphometric characters 5 were genetically controlled, 2 characters were intermediate and 7 characters were environmentally controlled. The relationship between the different morphometric characters was found to be linear with most of them being highly significant (p<0.01). The study concluded that the environmentally controlled characters were maximum, which indicates that these characters are less stable in nature.