©2020 Te Academy of Environmental Biology, India Journal of Ecophysiology and Occupational Health, Vol 20(1&2), DOI: 10.18311/jeoh/2020/24782, 50–56, January–June 2020 ISSN (Print): 0972-4397 ISSN (Online): 0974-0805 Morphometric Attributes and their Controlling Elements in Himalayan Snow Trout, Schizothorax labiatus inhabiting Vishav Stream of South Kashmir, India Mohammad Yasir Arafat 1 * and Yahya Bakhtiyar 2 1 Department of Zoology, School of Life Sciences, University of Kashmir, Srinagar – 190006, Jammu and Kashmir, India; yasirt99@gmail.com 2 Department of Zoology, University of Kashmir, Srinagar – 190006, Jammu and Kashmir, India; yahya.bakhtiyar@gmail.com Abstract The morphometric analysis was carried out in indigenous cyprinid food fish, Schizothorax labiatus (a species of snow trout) collected from Vishav stream, a perennial cold water stream of Kashmir valley, India, wherein various morphometric characters viz., Total Length (TL), Standard Length (SL), Fork Length (FL), Pre-dorsal Length (PDL), Pre-pectoral Length (PPL), Pre-pelvic Length (PPeL), Pre-anal Length (PAL), Anal Fin Length (AL), Head Length (HL), Height of Dorsal Fin (HOD), Snout Length (SnL), Body Depth (BD), Eye Diameter (ED), Inter Orbital Length (IOL), Caudal Fin Length (CL) and Caudal Depth (CD) of 104 fish specimens were measured, correlated and analysed. The morphometric data was calculated in the percentage of total length except SnL, ED and IOL which were calculated in the percentage of HL. The result revealed that the correlation coefficient ranged from 0.770 to 0.995 in proportion to TL and 0.706 to 0.859 in proportion to HL which indicates that all the morphometric characters are highly correlated. All the correlations were significant at the level of p<0.01. During the investigation, the results revealed that in the % of TL, 8 characters were found to be genetically controlled 4 characters as intermediate and none character as environmentally controlled one. In the % of HL, 1 character was found to be included in intermediate character, 2 characters in environmentally controlled characters and none in purely genetically controlled one. As revealed by the regression analysis of different morphometric characters in proportion to TL, the maximum growth was obtained for FL (b = 0.9664) and the minimum growth was obtained for AL (b = 0.0655) and in proportion to HL, the maximum growth was obtained for IOL (b = 0.4689) and the minimum growth was obtained for ED (b = 0.0852). Abbreviations: Total Length (TL), Standard Length (SL), Fork Length (FL), Pre-dorsal Length (PDL), Pre-pectoral Length (PPL), Pre-pelvic Length (PPeL), Pre-anal Length (PAL), Anal Fin Length (AL), Head Length (HL), Height of Dorsal Fin (HOD), Snout Length (SnL), Body Depth (BD), Eye Diameter (ED), Inter Orbital Length (IOL), Caudal Fin Length (CL) and Caudal Depth (CD). 1. Introduction Te much prized indigenous food fshes of Kashmir valley taxonomically under family cyprinidae include Schizothoracine species viz. Schizothorax niger, S. labiatus, S. esocinus, S. plagiostomus and S. curvifrons. Since the dawn of animal taxonomy, biologists began to analyse and draw conclusions regarding the variations in morphological parameters among biological specimens and subsequently came up with their proper identifcation as identifcation is the basic step and feature to study any species 1,2 . A high degree of variation in morphology is seen within and among populations of fshes than other vertebrates as they are more susceptible elements of variation with respect to environmental parameters 3–7 . Some biological events such as isolation of spawning areas, hydrography and disturbance in migratory patterns pose a considerable efect on morphological variations in fshes 8,9 . Since diferent aquatic environments provide diferent ecological niches 10 and the variations induced by such environmental *Author for correspondence Keywords: Correlation Coefficient, Kashmir, Morphometric Analysis, Schizothorax labiatus, Vishav Stream