DEVELOPMENT AND STANDARDISATION OF CULTURE TECHNIQUES FOR CONSERVATION OF YELLOW SEAHORSE, HIPPOCAMPUS KUDA (BLEEKER, 1852) A Thesis submitted to GOA UNIVERSITY for the Award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in MARINE SCIENCES By HRISHIKESH B. PAWAR M.F.Sc Aquaculture Laboratory, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography Dona Paula, Goa, India 403004 Goa University, Taleigao Goa March, 2014 DEVELOPMENT AND STANDARDISATION OF CULTURE TECHNIQUES FOR CONSERVATION OF YELLOW SEAHORSE, HIPPOCAMPUS KUDA (BLEEKER, 1852) A Thesis submitted to GOA UNIVERSITY for the Award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in MARINE SCIENCES By HRISHIKESH B. PAWAR M.F.Sc Aquaculture Laboratory, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography Dona Paula, Goa, India 403004 Research Guide DR. BABAN S. INGOLE Chief Scientist Biological Oceanography Division CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography Dona-Paula, Goa, India 403004 Goa University, Taleigao Goa March, 2014 c. y\ OT.,/ 'to J ~(; :a~eo elned euoa IOIN-(;lISJ :aJeld 'JO palleAe uaaq ssq suoqsa55ns pue sal~llpeJ JaAaJa4M apew uaaq sau siuaurafipapwouspe ana 'pa~p Ala~epdoJdde uaaq seu pa~e5qsaAul pue pazAleue surarqo.rd a4~ oa pa~elaJ aJn~eJa~!I a4.l 'pauouuaui eaJe a4~ WOJJpUPI S~lJO>jJOMaAlSUa4aJdwoJ ~SJlJa4~ Sl >jJOM auasard a4~ la5palMou>j Aw JO asaq a4~ 0.1 'UOlseJJO snoixaid Aue uo panuuqns uaaq rou sau awes a4~ pue uounquiuoo leul5po Aw Sl II(ZS81 JJa>taaIS) epn'l sndwe:Jodd!H JaSJ04eaS MOllaA jO uo!~eAJasuo:> JOj sanbtuqoaa aJn~ln:> jo uojaesrp.repueas pue ~uawdolal\aa\\ pauuua sisaui ruasaid a4~ ~e4~ a~e~s I l(lA) 8'61'0 aJueUlPJO A~lSJaAlUn a4~ .iapun pannbai s"i/ l.N3W3l.\jl.S weulede4lfes!I\'!400)! 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R. Kurle Engine Driver, NIO For his dedication and willing hand during the entire work ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my appreciation and deep sense of gratitude to my research guide Dr. Baban Ingole, Chief Scientist, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa for giving me invaluable and scholarly guidance with constant encouragement and support throughout the period of the research work. I owe a lot to my project leader Dr. R.A. Sreepada, Senior Scientist CSIR-NIO for giving me an opportunity to work with an extraordinary creature ‘Seahorse’ and provided all necessary facilities and giving me freedom to work as well as for critically correcting the manuscripts. I express my gratefulness to Dr. S.W.A. Naqvi, Director, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Goa as well as to Dr. S.R. Shetye former Director CSIR-NIO and Vice Chancellor, Goa University, for providing all the necessary facilities throughout the research work. I must gratefully acknowledge the ever willing and sincere help offered by Dr. N. Ramaiah Chief Scientist, Dr. Z.A. Ansari Emirates Scientist, Dr. S.G.P. Matondkar Emirates Scientist, Dr. Anil Chattarji Emirates scientist, Dr. S.G. Dalal former scientist G, Dr. Parmeshwaram Chief Scientist, Dr. Rajiv Saraswat Scientist and Dr. Samir Dhamre Scientist from CSIR-NIO right from joining the NIO. I would like to thank Dr. P. V. Desai my VC nominee, Dr. G. N. Nayak Dean and Head Marine Science department, Dr. H. L. Menon Professor and Dr. C. Revonkar Associate Professor Marine Science department. Shri. Yashwant Nayak Clerk Marine Science Department, Goa University. I am thankful to Dr. (Smt.) Shamila Monteiro Director, Directorate of Fisheries Miss. Jigyasa, Miss. Pritam, Miss. Sonam, Mr. Chandresh, Mr. Ravi, Dr. Sunita, Mr. Pradip and Mr. Chandan my colleague from the Directorate of Fisheries. The generosity and assistance of HRM staff, Dr. R Mukhopadhyay, Mr. Krishna kumar, Mr. Rohit Dawjekar and Mrs. Mashiq for co-operating and guiding in official work and Dr. M.P. Tapaswi, Mr. S.R. Sahu, Mr. Madan, Mr. Prabhu for providing library facilities are gratefully acknowledged. I would like to thank Dr. Ivone Fernandes and Dr. Kalpana Chodankar for providing medical facilities. I hold the deepest respect and thank to beloved teacher Dr. M.M. Shirdhankar, Dr. R. Pai, Dr. Mrs. Shenoi and Late Dr. Sankoli College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri for creating interest in the field of research and hunger for knowledge in me. I wish to express my deep sense of gratitude to Dr. M.S. Sawant, Dr. K.J. Chudhari, Dr. S.T. Indulkar, Dr. H.D Shingh, Dr. Shingare, Dr. B.R. Chavan, Mr. Gajanan Ghode and Mr. Saiprasad Sawant. I would like to express my sincere regards to Mr. Sanket and ITG staff for providing Internet facilities, DTP staff Mr. Mahesh Mochemadkar, Mr. A.K. Sheikh, Mr. R.L. Chavan for the photography and Mr. A.Y. Mahale, Mrs. Sujal Bandodkar, Mrs. Sharon Gomes for the poster printing as well as NIO security guards and canteen staff. I would like to thank Smt. Ramola Antao for the language checking. I am also thankful to librarian of Goa University, as well as to librarians of CIFE, Mumbai, CMFRI and CIFT, Cochin for their kind co-operation during my reference collection. I am very much thankful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for proving Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT), for proving financial support for the project. Permission granted by the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India for collection of seahorses is gratefully acknowledged. Really, I am very much thankful to Sushant for his valuable help, I feel without his generous support completion of Ph. D. would have been quite difficult. I am really grateful to my colleague and friends Kurle, Suresh, Dinesh, Ghansham and Carlos. I am very much thankful to Shrikant, Sandip and Swaraj for being with me in hard and soft time in NIO. I am grateful to Abhay, Uddhav, Dhiraj and Sagar for their support. I am thankful to Smita, Shahin and Cinderella, for always being my well-wishers, Prachi, Ashwini, Akshata, Amruta and Tanu for always being supportive, thanks to Ravi, Navnath, Harish, Bal Patil and Vinay for always being good friend. I will never be able to forget their ever-smiling faces and caring nature of my friends Rubail, Sabhya, Girish, Kishan, Nivas, Vinayak, Basu, Priyo, Uday, Rashmi, Seema, Shital, Supriya, Prachi and Geeta. I will always cherish the nice moments I had shared together with my juniors Azraj, Vinay, Laxman, Manoj, Kalyan, Darwin, Swami, Rohit, Ankush, Vishwas, Sambhaji, Govind, Prashant, Santosh, Vijay, Govardhan, Pandiyan, Swatantra, Jamila, Devika, Akhila, Anshika, Ivey, Taniya, Nasira, Elen, Shruti, Rnajeet, Lobsang, and Jacky. It is my pleasure to express my regards towards my senior Drs. Murugan, Sreekumar, Sabu, Shantanu, Vinod, Rashmi, Sanitha, Sandhya, Reshma, Mandarbhai, Ravibhai, Rambhai, Ashutoshbhai, Wishwasbhai, Verdha, Rochella and Trileta for giving me proper guidance. I also feel heartwarming to express my feelings towards my COF friends Umesh, Atul, Paresh, Pashy, Pavya, Mandar, Rohit, Amya, Satya, Dattu, Mahya, Funde, Vaibhav, Ankush, Yuvaraj and Vijayanta who intermingled with me easily and became my friends forever. I am thankful to Sanshodhak NGO colleagues Pramod, Wasant, Shivraj, Ajit and Satyajeet. I am grateful to Dr. Sylla, Felix and Niklas for their friendship. This acknowledgement is incomplete if I do not mention special thanks to Tejas Joshi and his friends for collection of live seahorses from Ratnagiri for the present study. And finally, I will say I am indebted to the constant encouragement, love and affection given by my Papa, Mummy, Aatya, Daji, Hridaynath, Ketaki, Amit, Didi, Milind, Adi, Arohi, Abhishek and Kishori for their loyal support and continuous motivation without which this doctoral study would have been extremely difficult to pursue. I am very much thankful to the Almighty God for blessing me with such loving and caring guide, teachers, friends, relatives and family. Thank You All …. (Hrishikesh B. Pawar) CONTENTS Page No. Chapter 1 General introduction and review of literature 1-13 1.1 Taxonomic classification 1 1.2 Distribution 2 1.3 Habitat 2 1.4 Camouflage 3 1.5 Home range 3 1.6 Predators 4 1.7 Reproductive biology 5 1.8 Food and Feeding 5 1.9 Usages 6 1.10 Trade 6 1.11 Global scenario of seahorse aquaculture 8 1.12 Indian seahorse aquaculture review 9 1.13 Conservation measures 12 1.14 Scope for present study 12 Chapter 2 Length-weight, length-length relationships and meristic 14-18 analysis 2.1 Introduction 14 2.2 Materials and Methods 15 2.3 Results 16 2.3.1 Morphometric relationships 16 2.3.2 Meristic counts 17 2.3.3 Length-weight relationships 17 2.4 Discussion 18 Chapter 3 Courtship behaviour