FISH AND FISHERIES OF THE INLE LAKE. 



By N. Annandale, D.Sc, F.A.S.B., Director, 

 Zoological Survey of India. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Page. 



iNTRODrCTION ... ... ... ... ... ... 33 



Physical and other conditions in thk lake as they effect the fish.,. 35 



Geographical relations of the fish of the Inle b.\sin ... ... 37 



Intha names of fish ... ... ... ... ... 38 



Systematic description of the collection — 



Chaudhuriidae, fam no v. ... ... ... ... ... 39 



Symbrancliidae ... ... ... ... ... ... 42 



Clariidae ... ... ... ... ... ... 43 



Cyprinidae ... ... ... ... ... ... 43 



Notopteridae ... ... ... ... ... ... 53 



Mast ace mbelidae ... ... ... ... ... 53 



Ophiocephalidae ... ... ... ... ... 54 



Fisheries of the lake — 



Licences ... ... ... ... ... ... 56 



Fishing boats ... ... ... ... ... ... 57 



Fish-traps and baskets ... ... ... ... ... 58 



Nsts... ... ... ... ... ... :.. 60 



Fishing enclosures ... ... ... ... ... 61 



Hooks and lines... ... ... ... ... •.• 61 



Fish-spearing ... ... ... ... ■•• .-- 62 



Chief edible fish of the lake... ... ... ... ... 62 



INTRODUCTION. 



The fish of the Shan Plateau and its immediate vicinity have as yet 

 received little attention from ichthyologists. In 1893 Bonlenger (Ann. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xii, pp. 198-203) described a collection of twenty- 

 seven species made by the late Mr. E. W. Oates in the Southern Shan 

 States, while Vinciguerra reported upon the late Signor Fea's collec- 

 tion in 1889 in the Ann. Mus. Stor. Nat. Genova (2) ix (xxix), pp. 129- 

 260. The latter collection, though none of it came actually from the 

 plateau, included numerous specimens from Karen-ni, which lies imme- 

 diately to the south, and from the Upper Salw^een. 



A large part of Mr. Oates's collection was obtained at Fort Stedman 

 on the Inle Lake, but the fish w^ere probably purchased in the market, 

 several of the species are not lacustrine anrl the most interesting of the 

 true Inle forms, most of v/hich are of very small size, were not 

 represented. 



The fauna of the Inle Lake is of a highly peculiar character and it 

 is not surprising that among the smaller fish we obtained there is a 

 large proportion of undescribed fornis. It was, however, perhaps hardly 



