Mancherial: OU researchers discover new fish species in Kawal

The two-inch long new species named as 'Telangana Loach'

Mancherial: A team of researchers belonging to Osmania University have discovered a new fish species called Indoreonectes telanganaensis in a stream locally known as Maisamma Loddi flowing from the mountains in the Kawal Tiger Reserve (KTR) recently. They named it Telangana Loach, and it is the first vertebrate species to be named after the State of Telangana.

Dr Chelmala Srinivasulu, Aditya Srinivasulu from Osmania University, Krishna Prasad, a scholar of the institution, and Dr Neelesh Dahanukar from Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Pune and V K Anoop from Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kochi have authored a research paper describing this new fish in an international research journal – Zootaxa.

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The researchers discovered this new species of fish with mitochondrial DNA analysis information along with morphological features. The fish grows up to two inches long and looks like a tiger fish with spots on its fins. “The naming of the fish after Telangana will make people interested in the biodiversity of the newly formed State and contribute to their conservation,” Chelmala Srinivasulu, a senior Assistant Professor at Osmania University, who headed the research, said.

The professor opined that the naming after Telangana would make the scientific fraternity take notice of the new State. He stated that clown loaches were native to the inland water systems in South East Asia. While clown loaches have shorter bodies and pinkish fins and tails, the loach discovered in Telangana is a little less colourful and has a longer body with bands of black, he explained.

 

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