Journal of Marine Biology and Aquaculture

Along the Indian coast, oysters were identified and studied since the beginning of the 20th century. One of the first records on the taxonomy of Indian oysters is by Hornell (1910) [2]. Since then a series of reports on the taxonomy of Indian oyster were made[1,3,4-9]. Originally the Indian oysters were referred to under the genus Ostrea but was later included under the genus Crassostrea. Another oyster genus Saccostrea was also recorded. In India, four species of oysters, coming under the subfamily Crassostrinae, including Indian backwater oyster Crassostrea madrasensis[1], West coast oyster Crassostrea gryphoides (Schlothein 1813), Chinese oyster Crassostrea rivularis (Gould, 1850) and Indian rock oyster Saccostrea cucullata (Born, 1890), have been considered as economically important[9]. In addition to the above four, Bombay Oyster, Saccostrea cucullata, and giDepartment of Fisheries and Aquaculture, St.Albert’s College, Ernakulam District, Kerala State, India