Abstract

*Jayashree K. V., J. Alice Prema, Radha R., Anjana V. R., Sreeya G. Nair and Y. C. Viji

ABSTRACT

Mosquito borne diseases persist to be a foremost problem in almost all tropical and subtropical countries. The use of larvivorous fishes is presently the most popular biological method for reducing mosquito larvae population as higher doses of chemical insecticides used during the earlier days to control the mosquito caused adverse environmental consequences to non-target organisms. The abiotic factors such as volume, space and depth are important factors that influence the various heterogenic functions of biotic components directly or indirectly in aquatic environment. Hence the present study has been undertaken to determine the effect of volume of water and space of aquarium on the predatory behaviour of the common carp, Cyprinus carpio communis. The results suggested that increasing prey density significantly influenced the number of mosquito larvae consumed by the fish with increasing aquaria volume. The rate of attack was influenced by the volume of water and space of the aquaria in all the tested prey densities or predator size.