Author(s):

CH Krishna, J Chandra Sekhara Rao, K Veeraiah

Abstract: Fish that are predatorsrnof the immature stages of mosquitoes are referred to as larvivorous fish. Amongrnall the biological control agents, larvivorous fish are most common and widelyrnused in vector control management. A survey was conducted in Lake Kolleru withrnan objective to document the larvivorous fish fauna available in the lake whichrnrevealed the occurrence of 29 species of larvivorous fish from 6 orders, 14rnfamilies and 20 genera. Order mugiliformes was the most dominant group with 9rnspecies and cyprinidae was the dominant family with 8 species. According to thernIUCN (2015) red list of threatened species, 89.65% of species are at leastrnconcern, 3.44% are at near threatened, 3.44% are not assessed and for 3.44% ofrnspecies data is deficient. As per the CAMP report (1998), 10 species are atrnlower risk near threatened, 1 at lower risk least concern, 5 are vulnerable, 12rnare not evaluated and for 1 species data is deficient. Out of 29 larvivorousrnfish, 14 species are very common, 11 are abundant in the lake and 24 varietiesrnof fishes are food fishes of which 14 species are cultivable. 23 species arernfrom both freshwater and brackish water regions and the rest from freshwaterrnregion only. Several anthropogenic activities including pollution, habitatrnloss, human interference, over exploitation and siltation are causingrnbiodiversity loss and seriously affecting the lake resources. The indigenousrnlarvivorous fish species of the lake can be successfully used for integratedrnvector control management.

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