Diversity of Indigenous Fish Species in Ratargul Freshwater Swamp Forest, Bangladesh

Abstract

Understanding the biodiversity indices provide key information for the conservation and management of natural aquatic ecosystem. The present study was conducted in the Ratargul freshwater swamp forest of Bangladesh from April to October 2016 to assess the biodiversity status of indigenous fish species. A total 62 fish species comprising 28 threatened species were recorded. Cypriniformes (37.46%) was the most dominant order while Anguiliformes (0.026%) was in lest dominant. Among the identified fish species 19.98% was recorded as threatened following IUCN. The Mean Shannon-Wiener index, Margalef richness index, Pielou‟s evenness index and Simpson dominance index were counted as 3.690±0.191, 9.497± 1.314, 0.971±0.003 and 0.982±0.003, respectively. In case of similarity percentages analysis, the highest number of similar species was found during July to August and the lowest during April to October. It may be concluded that Ratargul swamp forest is enriched with fish biodiversity.