Original research article Abundance and biomass of assorted small indigenous fish species: Observations from rural fish markets of West Bengal, India Dibyendu Saha a , Santanu Pal a , Supratim Mukherjee b , Gargi Nandy c , Anupam Chakraborty c , Sk Habibur Rahaman a , Gautam Aditya a, c, * a Department of Zoology, The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan, 713104, India b Department of Zoology, Government General Degree College, Singur, Hooghly, 712409, India c Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700019, India article info Article history: Received 6 September 2017 Received in revised form 12 April 2018 Accepted 20 April 2018 Available online xxx Keywords: Small indigenous fish species Abundance-biomass relation Species diversity Rice fields Fish market abstract The small indigenous fish species (SIS) are harvested as ensemble of different fish species of varying size and shape. An appraisal of the abundance and biomass of fish species constituting such ensemble was carried out with samples collected from fish markets of West Bengal, India. The data revealed that at least 22 different fish species were present varying in numbers and species combinations. The abundance and biomass of the individual fish species was negatively correlated, indicating numerical dominance of small sized species. Logarithmic regression showed a good fit of the relative abundance (y) with the species richness (x) in the samples of SIS (y ¼ 55.72ln(x) e 77.27; r 2 ¼ 0.940), while power regression was best fit for the relative biomass of individual fish (y) with the species richness (x) in the samples of SIS (y ¼ 24.58x À1.54 ; R 2 ¼ 0.831). In overall both species specific and individual based biomass and abundance relationships were negatively correlated. In order to ascertain the harvest and marketability of the SIS in a judicious manner, monitoring of the fish assemblages in natural habitats is recommended. © 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Shanghai Ocean University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). 1. Introduction The small indigenous fish species (SIS) are characterized by small size (<25 cm standard length) with indigenous in origin, commonly found in freshwater wetlands (Nandi, Majumder, & Saikia, 2013). In West Bengal and Assam, India, the SIS are found in the rice fields and associated trap ponds, irrigation canals and rivers (Aditya, Pal, & Saha, 2010; Baishya et al., 2016). These fish are generally excluded from commercial culture fisheries and the exploitation is dependent mostly on the capture using traditional knowledge and tools (Nandi et al., 2013; Samajdar & Saikia, 2014). In India and many other Asian countries several SIS are considered as cheap sources of proteins, minerals and vitamins (Roos, Islam, & Thilsted, 2003b, 2007a, 2007b, 2003a; Fiedler, Lividini, Drummond, & Thilsted, 2016; Nandi et al., 2013; Thilsted et al., 2016) and they contribute to enrich the quality of the ecosystems of the wetlands and rice fields(Aditya, Pal, Saha, & Saha, 2012; Chandra et al., 2008; Halwart, 2006; Halwart & Gupta, 2004). The contribution to the for food security (Roos et al., 2003b, 2007a, 2007b, 2003a; Fiedler et al., 2016; Thilsted et al., 2016)and the livelihood (Gupta & Banerjee, 2008) are valued ecosystem services attributable to the SIS. Inland water fisheries involving intensive culture systems uses limited number of fish species (Naylor et al., 2000; de Silva, 2016) but they have the potential to yield greater biomass per fish unit. In contrast, with the exception of few species such as the Ambly- pharyngodon mola, Chela cachiux and Puntius sophore (Kohinoor, Wahab, Islam, & Thilsted, 2001; Wahab, Kunda, Azim, Dewan, & Thilsted, 2008) little importance are given to SIS in commercial fisheries. Nonetheless, SIS form a common component of the cul- ture fisheries involving harvest from wetlands and rice field asso- ciated trap ponds and irrigational canals (Aditya et al., 2012; Chandra et al., 2008; Fiedler et al., 2016; Halwart, 2006; Halwart & Gupta, 2004). Although SIS are commonly found in both rural and urban market places, their exploitation is not extensively documented particularly in India(Keskar, Raghavan, Kumkar, Padhye, & Dahanukar, 2017; Nandi et al., 2013; Saha et al., 2017). The * Corresponding author. Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta, 35 Bal- lygunge Circular Road, Kolkata, 700019, India. E-mail addresses: dibyendusaha012@gmail.com (D. Saha), s.pal.bu@gmail.com (S. Pal), supratimm7@gmail.com (S. Mukherjee), nandygargi@gmail.com (G. Nandy), anu12.1515@rediffmail.com (A. Chakraborty), rahamanzoology@gmail. com (S.H. Rahaman), gazoo@caluniv.ac.in (G. Aditya). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Aquaculture and Fisheries journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/ aquaculture-and-fisheries/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aaf.2018.04.002 2468-550X/© 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Shanghai Ocean University. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). Aquaculture and Fisheries xxx (2018) 1e6 Please cite this article in press as: Saha, D., et al., Abundance and biomass of assorted small indigenous fish species: Observations from rural fish markets of West Bengal, India, Aquaculture and Fisheries (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aaf.2018.04.002