COMMERCIAL FOOD FISHES AND THEIR HELMINTH PARASITES DIVERSITY OF PUMLEN LAKE, TOKPACHING, MANIPUR

The present research paper which communicates with the objective to high light the diversity of fish as well as helminth parasite infection rate of the commercial food fishes of Pumlen Lake locally known as Pumlen Pat (- a Lake in Manipur) is the second largest freshwater wetland located in the Southern part of the Manipur valley. During the study period we come across 40 different species of fishes belonging to 27 genera, under 14 families and 7 orders. Of these, the most abundant is Trichogaster labiosa (6.37%), followed by Amblypharyngodon mola (5.84%) and Monopterus albus was least abundant (0.33%). And parasite infection is very common in the fishes like Clarias magur, Channa punctata, Channa striata, Channa orientalis Trichogaster fasciata, Trichogaster labiosa, Glossogobius giuris, Lepidocephalus guntea, Heteropneustes fossilis and Anabas testudineus. The study was conducted between January 2015 to December 2015 and found four groups of parasites in 280 fishes. The total parasitic infestation rate is

28.22%. The fishes belong to 5 different orders and 14 families. Among the fishes, 280 are found infected with helminth parasites belonging to four different groups in which 40 parasites belong to class acanthocephala, 25 parasites belong to class.Cestoda, 66 parasites belong to class Trematoda and l l parasites belongs to class Nematoda.