Vol. 9, Special Issue 6, Part B (2025)

The Sarvepalli Reservoir is one of the major irrigation sources of Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh. Many local fishermen are carrying out fishing in the reservoir and soley depends on the fishery as their livelihood. The current study deal with the diversity, ecology and fisheries of Sarvepalli Reservoir, Andhra Pradesh. Monthly sampling was carried out for a period of 12 months from March 2019 to February 2020. 30 species of fin fishes belonging to 7 Orders, 11 Families and 21 genera were recorded during the present study. Among Order, the Cypriniformes, showed a dominance with 9 species, Perciformes with 8 fishes, Siluriformes with 7 fishes Anguilliformes and Anabantiformes with 2 fishes and Osteoglossiformes, Synbranchiformes each with single fishes recorded during the study. Out of 30 finfish species recorded during the study 22 fishes were least concerned, 1 fish was not evaluated, 6 species were near threatened, and 1 fish was under data deficient according to IUCN category. This indicates the importance of conservation fishes in Sarvepalli reservoir. The diversity indices of fin fishes in Sarvepalli Reservoir were estimated. Species richness (S), Shannon's Diversity index (H), Shannon's equitability and Simpson Index (D) varied from 30, 2.312, 0.680 and 0.114 respectively. Data on water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen; total alkalinity and total hardness were collected once in two weeks from the selected sites. Present study concluded that all the water quality parameters are well in the tolerable limit for domestic water. Tilapia dominated the catch with 40.51% of total catch. Indian major carps were recorded as the second most dominant variety with 31.01% of total catch followed by Bronze featherback, pearl spot and Snake heads. Tilapia was the dominant finfish catch of Sarvepalli reservoir, but in all other reservoirs of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Indian major carps dominated in quantity of total fish landings of the reservoirs. Study on occurrence of seasonal variation in the fishery indicated that seasonal variation exists in the fishery. Present study recommends an in-depth study on diversity, ecology and conservation of finfish resources of Sarvepalli reservoir.