STUDIES ON CAPTIVE BREEDING AND LARVAL REARING OF DANIO AEQUIPINNATUS (McCLELLAND, 1839)

Danio aequipinnatus (30 to 40 mm size) were collected from their natural habitats in an around Guwahati, Tejpur and Itanagar (North- East India) and brought to Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai. The acclimatized and matured fishes were reared in 50×25×25 cm glass aquaria. Overall six different sets were arranged for captive breeding. Altogether three trials were carried out for standardization of breeding technique with varying degree of three environmental parameters like water hardness, pH and temperature. The study revealed that critical parameters viz., hardness: 50 mg l-1, pH: 7.0 and temperature: 22.5 0C played key role in breeding performance of Danio aequipinnatus. The breeding trials were not successful when both the water hardness at the level of 480 mg l-1 and temperature (33 0C) combined or temperature alone at the mark of 32 0C was taken into consideration. Three trials (trial A, B and C were conducted), trials-A and B could result with very poor  percentage of hatchlings as 3 and 5 respectively while, the trial-C results well expressed the higher  percentage of hatching as 82.85 where the environmental parameters were controlled at the level of  hardness 50 mg l-1, pH 7.0 and temperature 22.50C.