COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF MOSQUITO BIOCONTROL EFFICIENCY BETWEEN GUPPY (POECILIA RETICULATA) AND PANCHAX MINNOW (APLOCHEILUS PANCHAX)

The present work was designed to compare the mosquito biocontrol efficiency of guppy and panchax minnow, the two popular fish species which so far have been used for mosquito biocontrol here in India. Study of the predation efficiency in relation to fish size and larval size has revealed significant better predation efficiency of panchax minnow over guppy in all size groups except for pupae in small size group fishes. Study of the comparative predation efficiency under vegetative cover has revealed significant (P<0.01) higher predation efficiency for panchax minnow over guppy. Study of the comparative predation efficiency under different depth of water has revealed superior predation efficiency of guppy under shallow water depth whereas panchax minnow has shown significantly better predation efficiency with increasing water depth. So, panchax minnow is a better mosquito biocontrol agent in waterbodies with vegetative covering and in comparatively deep water bodies whereas guppy can be used for mosquito control in very shallow water depth. But overall the study has depicted the superiority of panchax minnow over guppy as mosquito biocontrol agent.