TAXONOMY AND SOME ASPECTS OF BIOLOGY OF Punitus sarana AND Punitus gonionotus

The shar punti, Puntius sarana is a small indigenous and native species of Bangladesh. In the present times because of large scale degradation of habitats and for many of the natural and anthropogenic activities the species has been reduced drastically and considered as an endangered species. On the other hand, Puntius gonionotus has been introduced in Bangladesh from Thailand and considered as an important aquaculture species. The samples of P. sarana and P. gonionotus were collected from Kumar River in Faridpur district and from local markets in Khulna city. Paired sample t-test and multiple comparisons were made for some important characteristic proportions and other biological aspects such as hepatosomatic index, dressing percentage and condition factor were calculated for both the species. Some identifying characteristic proportion were found as; head length: eye diameter = 1:3.48 (P. sarana) and 1:3.435 (P. gonionotus), standard length: head length = 1:3.94 (P. sarana) and 1:3.96 (P. gonionotus), caudal peduncle length 13.25% in case of Puntius sarana and 14.17% in case of P. gonionotus of standard length, hepatosomatic index: 0.6735 (P. sarana) and 1.114 (P. gonionotus), dressing percentage: 18.96 (P. sarana) and 21.29 (P. gonionotus) and condition factor: 1.378328 ± .23041 (P. sarana) and 1.394224 ± .13322 (P. gonionotus) were found. Significant differences were found in various morphometric proportions and meristic characteristics and in hepatosomatic index, dressing percentage and condition factor between the two species