Report No. 5 (1920). 



NOTES ON THE TWO CICHLID FISHES OF 



MALABAR, ETROPLUS SURATENSIS 



AND E. MACULATUS 



BY 

 N. P. PANIKKAR, B.A., F.L.S., 



Inspector of Fisheries, Travancore. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The material on which these notes are based was collected 

 chiefly during the years 1917 to 1920. The principal locality under 

 observation was the shallow portion of the Astamudi backwater 

 lying in front of the Fishery office at Quilon. Notes were also 

 taken during the author's tours in different parts of the Travancore 

 State for purposes of investigation. Breeders were introduced 

 into convenient tidal ponds and kept there for three consecutive 

 years and the habits of the two species were continuously studied. 

 Feeding experiments were also conducted by keeping the young 

 ones from their earliest larval stage in suitable glass aquaria. 



Etroplus suratensis and E. maculatus are the only two represen- 

 tatives of the Cichlid family in Malabar. They are very common 

 in all backwaters, river-mouths and brackish-water ponds and 

 lakes. In rivers they are not rare ; the first species is found to breed 

 freely as far as tidal limits, but although sometimes during the hot 

 season they migrate beyond these limits, they are not ordinarily 

 found to breed there ; the second species breeds freely in fresh- 

 water. In Travancore these are the principal food-fishes obtained 

 from inundated paddy fields near river-mouths.* Their favourite 

 haunts are shallow creeks of backwaters and canals where there is 

 a luxuriant growth of aquatic vegetation. E. suratensis is some- 

 times introduced into fresh-water tanks to keep down the growth 



* On the Coromandel coast, E. suratensis is not known to haunt paddy-fields; in 

 Travancore these fields are, however, inundated to a greater depth and for a longer 

 period — J.H. 



