Gonadal maturity assessment of buttercatfish (Ompok bimaculatus) from Indian major rivers and tributaries during spawning season

The present work focused to explore reproductive biology of fish from different Indian major rivers and its tributaries by comparing ovarian protein, fecundity, oocyte weight, oocyte diameter and condition factor during the spawning period. Correlation between fish reproductive parameter of different Indian major rivers and its tributaries showed a significant relationship. Among studied parameters fecundity showed highest correlation with ovarian protein level and oocyte weight in Major River where as in tributaries it was highly correlated with ovarian protein. The results from a wild population showed that the fecundity and ovarian protein level was significantly higher in Narmada, and lowest for river Ganga (U.P.). Among the tributaries, maximum ovarian fecundity noticed from river Hooghly with highest protein concentration. The condition factor (K) in female O. bimaculatus reported significant high in major river Cauveri and Sharda tributary. The oocyte weight was significantly higher in major river Krishna and lowest from river Godavari. The fish samples collected from tributaries, Sone River showed a highest oocyte diameter and Betwa river showed a lowest oocyte diameter. It can be concluded that the local area aquatic atmosphere plays important role in the species specification and can affect their reproductive performance so as to their survival.