A morphological identification in fish of the genus Puntius Hamilton 1822 (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) of some wetlands in Northeast Thailand.

This investigation was carried out at the Department of Fisheries, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, Thailand in collaboration with the Department of Biosciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom. The work was carried out in the 2003 to 2006 to taxonomically identify fish of the genus Puntius Hamilton 1822 harvested from 15 wetlands in Northeast Thailand. Some considerable amounts of fish samples were collected and used for morphological characteristics identifications both measuring and counting. The fish samples were kept in a 10% formalin solution for two weeks and then transferred to a 75% ethanol alcohol for laboratory determinations. Thirty fish samples from each location were used. The results showed that there were 9 fish species of the genus Puntius Hamilton 1822 harvested from 15 locations (provinces). They include: Puntius altus, Puntius aurotaeniatus, Puntius binotatus, Puntius gonionotus, Puntius leiacanthus, Puntius orphoides, Puntius partipentazona, Puntius schwanenfeldi and Puntius wetmorei. The fish samples of the 9 species were morphologically identified where the information include 45 characteristics on morphological measurements and 18 characteristics for counting. However, with this work only 20 important characteristics are included. The obtained results were calculated through the computer programmes commencing from the use of an Excel programme for raw data inputs followed by Statistica (PCA values), Multivariate by SAS and then NTSYSpc2.10 for UPGMA dendrogram figure. The results showed that the 20 important characteristics did not provide any multivariate values of significant differences found among the 9 fish species. The values on Euclidean distances of the 9 species ranged from 0.31-0.61 where there were no significant differences found among the 9 fish species of the genus Puntius Hamilton 1822, thus the fish of the 9 species could not be shifted or split into to other genera apart from the genus Puntius Hamilton 1822.