Salinity tolerance and survival of an Indian major carp, Cirrhinus mrigala (mrigal): Feasibility assessment for rearing in inland saline water

Abstract

An experimental trial was conducted in triplicate to determine the effect of different salinity levels 0 (SA0), 2(SA2), 4(SA4), 6(SA6), 8(SA8) and 10 (SA10) ppt on survival, behaviour, and morphological changes in mrigal, Cirrhinus mrigala fingerlings during short-term rearing in inland saline water in glass aquaria for 10 days. Healthy fingerlings (average length-11.18 cm, average weight-11.05 g) of mrigal, procured from the Instructional cum Research Farm, College of Fisheries, were conditioned for one week at 0 ppt (freshwater) in FRP pools and conditioned fingerlings were gradually acclimated to varying salinities by raising the salinity by 1 ppt hourly and then stocked into glass aquaria of respective salinity levels @ 10 fingerlings aquarium-1. Predetermined salinity levels and the water level were maintained in all the treatments and fish were fed with pelleted feed (crude protein 26.12%) @ 0.5% of fish body weight, once a day, as sustenance ration throughout the experimental period. The results indicated that all the water quality parameters, except temperature, varied significantly (P0.05) across treatments. Furthermore, no fish mortality occurred
up to 6 ppt salinity during the experiment. In contrast, survival rates were 93.33% and 86.67% at 8 and 10 ppt salinity, respectively at the termination of the experiment. Normal swimming and feeding (feed intake) behaviour were recorded up to 6 ppt, whereas no adverse morphological changes were observed in fish during the tolerance test in all the treatments. From the above results, it can be concluded that mrigal, C. mrigala can tolerate salinity up to 6 ppt during short term (10 days) rearing in inland saline water.

Full text

(1M.F.Sc. Student, 2Assistant Professor, 3 Scientist (Fisheries)
Eco. Env. & Cons. 29 (1) : 2023; pp. (204-212)
Copyright@ EM International
ISSN 0971–765X
Salinity tolerance and survival of an Indian major carp,
Cirrhinus mrigala (mrigal): Feasibility assessment for
rearing in inland saline water
Arockia Sharmila S.1, Abhishek Srivastava2* and Sachin Onkar Khairnar3
Department of Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences
University (GADVASU), Ludhiana 141 004, Punjab, India
(Received 8 September, 2022; Accepted 9 October, 2022)
ABSTRACT
An experimental trial was conducted in triplicate to determine the effect of different salinity levels 0 (SA0),
2(SA2), 4(SA4), 6(SA6), 8(SA8) and 10 (SA10) ppt on survival, behaviour, and morphological changes in
mrigal, Cirrhinus mrigala fingerlings during short-term rearing in inland saline water in glass aquaria for 10
days. Healthy fingerlings (average length-11.18 cm, average weight-11.05 g) of mrigal, procured from the
Instructional cum Research Farm, College of Fisheries, were conditioned for one week at 0 ppt (freshwater)
in FRP pools and conditioned fingerlings were gradually acclimated to varying salinities by raising the
salinity by 1 ppt hourly and then stocked into glass aquaria of respective salinity levels @ 10 fingerlings
aquarium-1. Predetermined salinity levels and the water level were maintained in all the treatments and
fish were fed with pelleted feed (crude protein 26.12%) @ 0.5% of fish body weight, once a day, as sustenance
ration throughout the experimental period. The results indicated that all the water quality parameters,
except temperature, varied significantly (P0.05) across treatments. Furthermore, no fish mortality occurred
up to 6 ppt salinity during the experiment. In contrast, survival rates were 93.33% and 86.67% at 8 and 10
ppt salinity, respectively at the termination of the experiment. Normal swimming and feeding (feed intake)
behaviour were recorded up to 6 ppt, whereas no adverse morphological changes were observed in fish
during the tolerance test in all the treatments. From the above results, it can be concluded that mrigal, C.
mrigala can tolerate salinity up to 6 ppt during short term (10 days) rearing in inland saline water.
Key words: Mrigal, Salinity tolerance, Survival, Behaviour, Inland saline water
Introduction
Aquaculture is a significant economic activity and it
is regarded as one of the world’s fastest growing
food production sectors, contributing significantly to
livelihood, employment, and revenue generation.
With a total fish production of 14.16 million metric
tons, India ranked second in the world for aquacul-
ture production in 2019–20 and contributes around
7.58 % of the world’s fish production (Annual Re-
port, 2020-21, Dept. of Fisheries, GoI). Aquaculture
has a vast potential for sustainably utilizing a wide
variety of inland water resources in the country in-
cluding inland saline areas. Among all freshwater
species farmed in India, carps make up around 87 %
of the total freshwater aquaculture production (Paul
and Giri, 2015).
Globally, there is a significant threat to inland
and coastal ecosystems from soil salinization
(Herbert et al., 2015), particularly in semiarid and
DOI No.: http://doi.org/10.53550/EEC.2023.v29i01.034

SHARMILA ET AL 205
arid regions with low rainfall and high evapotrans-
piration rates. This has not only affected agricultural
productivity but also negatively impacted the socio-
economic well-being of farming communities (Singh
et al., 2017; Ansal and Singh, 2019). It is estimated
that 6.74 million hectares (mha) of land in India are
affected by soil salinity, of which around 1.2 mha
are situated in the non-coastal Indo-Gangetic plains
of northern India, which is not suitable for agricul-
ture (Singh and Ansal, 2021). The development of
viable, sustainable and suitable aquaculture tech-
nologies in such salt-affected areas will allow these
untapped natural resources to be converted into
productive resources and increase the farmers’ in-
comes (Kumar et al., 2017). Developing inland saline
aquaculture is challenging because the chemistry of
inland saline water differs from brackish/seawater.
It can be overcome by modifying the chemistry or by
selecting the species that are tolerant of differences
(Allan et al., 2009).
Various physico-chemical properties of water in-
fluence primary and secondary production, thereby
influencing fish production. Salinity is one of the
major abiotic/physical factors influencing the sur-
vival, growth and metabolism of aquatic animals
(Mubarik et al., 2015) and any fluctuation in water
salinity beyond the tolerance level may results in to
poor growth, health and mortality in fish
(Gholampoor et al., 2011; Kumar et al. 2018; Singh et
al, 2018). As aquaculture activity in Punjab is prima-
rily based on freshwater carps, therefore, for its ex-
pansion as well as diversification in salt affected
area, it is imperative to know the maximum salinity
tolerance limit of important and widely cultivable
freshwater fish species, such as mrigal, in inland sa-
line water.
Many studies have been done to evaluate the ef-
fect of acute and chronic salinity stress on the salin-
ity tolerance limit, survival and behavioral changes
in fishes like rohu/Jayanti rohu (Kumar et al., 2018;
Murmu et al., 2020), catla (Hoque et al., 2020), com-
mon carp (Mangat and Hundal, 2014; Singh et al.,
2018), mrigal (Baliarsingh et al., 2018; Hoque et al.,
2020) in artificial/inland saline water but compre-
hensive studies with respect to salinity tolerance,
survival and behavioral responses (swimming, feed
intake) in mrigal in inland saline water are scanty.
Hence, the present study is designed to evaluate the
salinity tolerance limit as well as behavioural and
morphological changes in freshwater carp, C.
mrigala (mrigal) during short term rearing in inland
saline water at different salinity levels.
Materials and Methods
The present study was conducted in laboratory con-
dition, in triplicate, at the Instructional cum Re-
search Farm, College of Fisheries (30°54’21.5" N and
75°48’04.7" E), Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and
Animal Sciences University in Ludhiana, Punjab for
a period of 10 days.
Procurement of inland saline (stock) water and
preparation of experimental salinity levels
From the salt-affected and water-logged areas of the
village Birawala in the district of Mansa, Punjab, in-
land saline water was collected and used as stock
water. This stock water was continuously aerated
for 5 days and filtered with clean muslin cloth and
the filtered water was diluted with freshwater (bore-
well water; salinity 0 ppt) for the preparation of dif-
ferent salinity levels viz. 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 ppt and
were designated as SA2, SA4, SA6, SA8 and SA10
treatments, whereas water with 0 ppt salinity (fresh
water/bore well water) served as control (SA0).
Experimental setup
The experiment was carried out in glass aquaria (50
l), in triplicate, at different salinity (0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10
ppt) levels for 10 days. Healthy fingerlings (Av.
length-11.18 cm, av. weight-11.05 g) of mrigal, C.
mrigala, procured from the Instructional cum Re-
search Farm, College of Fisheries, were conditioned
for one week at 0 ppt (fresh water) in FRP pools un-
der indoor condition prior to the conduct of experi-
ment. For salinity tolerance test, conditioned finger-
lings were gradually acclimated to varying salinities
(2-10 ppt) by raising the salinity by 1 ppt hourly and
then stocked into glass aquaria of respective salinity
levels @ 10 fingerlings aquarium-1. In order to main-
tain the acceptable oxygen level in water, all the ex-
perimental aquariums were continuously aerated by
an air pump.
Throughout the study, salinity was monitored on
daily basis and maintained according to the salinity
of respective treatment. Fish excretory material and
unutilized feed were siphoned out daily from each
aquarium and water level in each tank was main-
tained at uniform level throughout the experiment.
All the experimental aquariums were arranged fol-
lowing the completely randomized design (CRD)
method.

206 Eco. Env. & Cons. 29 (1) : 2023
Fish feed preparation and feeding
For the feeding of experimental fish, feed pellets
(crude protein 26.12 %) were prepared using locally
available ingredients viz. rice bran (49%), mustard
meal (49%), vitamin-mineral mixture (1.5%) and
common salt (0.5%). The proximate composition
(crude protein, ether extract, ash, crude fiber and
nitrogen free extract) of feed ingredients and formu-
lated feed pellet (Table 1) was estimated as per stan-
dard methods (AOAC, 2005). During the experi-
mental trial, fish were fed with pelleted feed @ 0.5%
of fish body weight, once a day, as maintenance ra-
tion.
Observations recorded
All the physico-chemical parameters of water in-
cluding temperature, pH, salinity, electric conduc-
tivity (EC), total alkalinity (TA), total hardness (TH),
ammonical nitrogen (NH3-N), nitrate-nitrogen
(NO3-N), orthophosphate (O-PO4) and ionic compo-
sition like Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Cl- and SO4
2- of the in-
land saline water (stock water) and water samples
from each experimental aquaria were analyzed us-
ing standard method (APHA, 2005).
Fish survival, fish behavior with respect to swim-
ming activity (active, less active), feed consump-
tion/intake (normal, reduced appetite) and morpho-
logical changes (physical deformities) in fish were
monitored on daily basis and were used for the as-
sessment of salinity stress on the fish. The swim-
ming response was determined by observing the
swimming patterns of fish in the water column, and
the feeding response was determined by observing
the amount of leftover feed on the tank’s bottom
(Lawson and Alake, 2011). At the termination of the
experiment, survival rate was calculated using the
following formula:
Total number of fish survived after 10 days
Survival (%)= × 100
Total number of fish stocked
Statistical analysis
Data were analyzed using one way ANOVA and
Duncan’s multiple range tests using statistical pack-
age SPSS 20.0 to study the significant differences
(P0.05) among different treatments with respect to
water quality parameters and survival (%) of fish.
Results and Discussion
The mean physico- chemical parameters of inland
saline water (stock water) including temperature,
pH, salinity, EC, TA, TH, NH3-N, NO3-N and O-PO4
and ionic composition in terms of cations i.e. Na+,
K+, Ca2+, Mg2+ and anions i.e. Cl- and SO4
2- are pre-
sented in Table 2.
With respect to the ionic composition of stock
water, among the cations, the relative abundance of
Na+ was higher than other cations (Na+> Mg2+> Ca2+
> K+), whereas among the anions, Cl-1 was the most
abundant followed by SO4
2-. Therefore, it can be con-
Table 1. Proximate composition (DM basis) of different feed ingredients and experimental feed
Ingredients/feed Crude Protein Ether Crude Ash Nitrogen Free
(%) Extract (%) Fiber (%) (%) Extract (%)
Rice Bran* 13.26 1.46 14.89 11.43 58.96
Mustard Meal* 39.21 2.09 11.16 7.83 39.71
Fish feed pellets 26.12 1.64 12.92 9.37 49.95
*Solvent extracted
Table 2. Water quality parameters of inland saline water (stock water):
Parameters Mean value Parameters Mean value
Salinity (ppt) 15.0 ± 0.00 O-PO4
-3(mg l-1) 0.038±0.02
Temperature (oC) 29.13±0.28 Na+(mg l-1) 1063.34±9.10
pH 8.86 ±0.04 K+(mg l-1) 64.42±1.08
EC (mS cm-1) 18.96 ±0.41 Ca2+(CaCO3 mg l-1) 248.57 ±3.05
TA (CaCO3 mg l-1) 396.64 ±4.16 Mg2+ (CaCO3 mg l-1) 599.38 ±3.70
TH (CaCO3 mg l-1) 2296.78 ±3.46 Cl- (mg l-1) 3107.23±11.87
NH3-N (mg l-1) 0.089 ±0.002 SO4
2- (mg l-1) 152.13±3.83
NO3-N (mg l-1) 0.007±0.001 *Values are Mean ± SE

SHARMILA ET AL 207
cluded that Na+ and Cl- were the most dominant cat-
ion and anion, respectively in the inland saline
(stock) water. Similar trends were also recorded by
Sharma et al. (2017), Singh et al. (2018) and Kumar et
al. (2018) in inland saline water collected from differ-
ent salt affected locations of Punjab.
The physico-chemical properties of water of dif-
ferent treatments (SA0-SA10) are presented in Table
3. The values of all the water quality parameters,
except temperature, varied significantly (P0.05)
among different treatments. Further, except tem-
perature and DO, all the parameters increased pro-
gressively with the increase in salinity; the highest
and lowest values were recorded in 10 ppt (SA10)
and control (SA0), respectively. This increment can
be attributed to the increasing concentration of ions
with increase in salinity levels.
According to Ertan et al. (2015), water quality in-
fluences fish metabolism, feed intake, and survival
rates. Depending on the species, fish grow best at a
certain temperature range and any significant varia-
tion beyond the preferred range adversely affects
the fish survival and growth (Buttner et al., 1993).
Even though carp can grow well at temperatures
from 18 – 37 ºC (Jhingran, 1991), but the better tem-
perature range for growth is 25-32 ºC (Boyd, 1998).
Similarly, the temperature of different treatments
stayed within the permissible range for carps in the
present study as well. The D.O. is the most impor-
tant abiotic factor in aquaculture (Boyd, 1998), af-
fecting fish growth and survival both in natural
(Taylor and Miller, 2001) and cultured environments
(Piper, 1982) and should be greater than 5 mg l-1 for
good survival and optimum productivity for carps
(Swingle, 1967; Boyd, 1998), while the optimal pH
range for carps is 6.5 to 9.0 (Boyd and Pillai, 1984;
Jhingran, 1991; Boyd and Tucker, 1998). In the
present investigation, the pH and DO remained well
within the optimum range for carps thus depicted
that there was no detrimental effect of varying salin-
ity on the pH and DO of water. The above findings
are in agreement with Singh et al. (2020) who also
reported these parameters with in optimum limits
for carps at different salinities.
With increasing salinity levels, water EC, TA, and
TH increased owing to variation in ionic composi-
tion of water and their respective capacities for con-
ducting electric current in different treatments
(Sharma et al., 2017; Purnamawati et al., 2019). Fur-
ther, the optimum range of TH for aquafarming is
50-300 mg l-1 and above optimum limit, it has an
adverse effect on ability of gills to bind ions and
homeostatic equilibrium in fish (Purnamawati et al.,
2019) thus affecting survival and growth of fish
(Bhatnagar et al., 2004), which was evident in the
present study in higher salinity treatments. Ammo-
nia is a major problem in high density fish culture
systems and in a culture system where fish are fed
Table 3. Mean physico-chemical parameters and ionic composition of water in different treatments (SA0-SA10) during
salinity tolerance test
Parameters Treatments*
SA0 SA2 SA4 SA6 SA8 SA10
Temperature (oC) 29.90 a±0.14 29.77a±0.20 29.92a±0.17 29.94a±0.15 29.90a ±0.17 30.06a±0.08
pH 7.82f±0.019 7.98e±0.012 8.12d ±0.035 8.22c±0.022 8.40b±0.009 8.54a±0.027
DO (mg l-1) 7.06a±0.02 6.87b±0.04 6.90b±0.03 6.97ab±0.01 6.87b±0.03 6.90b±0.06
Conductivity (mS cm-1) 0.59f±0.02 3.0e±0.04 7.06d±0.04 9.94c±0.05 11.23b±0.17 12.88a± 0.19
Alkalinity(mg l-1) 274.33f±2.91 299.33e ±3.38 332.67d±3.48 378.00c±2.08 411.00b ±4.36 424.00a±4.93
Hardness(mg l-1) 291.33f±2.03 394.00e±3.46 541.00d±2.52 850.00c±3.61 1008.67b± 6.01 1228.33a±4.98
Ammonia (mg l-1) 0.019e±0.002 0.021e±0.001 0.025cd±0.002 0.029bc±0.002 0.032ab±0.002 0.036a±0.003
Nitrate (mg l-1) 0.014 c±0.001 0.015 c ±0.002 0.016 ab ±0.002 0.017 ab±0.001 0.019 a±0.001 0.020 a ±0.002
Orthophosphate (mg l-1) 0.008d± 0.000 0.009bc ±0.001 0.011b±0.001 0.011b±0.001 0.012b±0.001 0.015a ±0.002
Na+ (mg l-1) 52.07f±1.25 159.85e ± 3.01 326.07d± 3.48 548.05c ±2.92 633.70b±2.42 794.09a±4.45
K+ (mg l-1) 6.82f±0.55 11.77e±0.64 15.92d ±0.29 30.15c±1.28 46.69b±0.54 55.89a±0.65
Cl-( mg l-1) 59.64f±1.63 251.87e±1.70 549.55d ±3.72 987.28c ±2.84 1153.95b±2.80 1252.73a±2.33
Ca2+ (mg l-1) 47.59 f±1.42 71.99e±1.56 109.33d±1.72 125.45c ±2.01 139.62b±1.73 183.82a±1.59
Mg2+ (mg l-1) 62.24f±1.22 91.29e± 1.36 173.80d±2.84 219.81c±0.31 260.50b±3.20 276.15a±0.67
SO4
2- (mg l-1) 11.12f±0.02 61.09e±0.99 82.00d ±1.51 95.82c±1.74 105.92b±1.97 121.22a±1.84
*SA0 = 0 ppt, SA2= 2ppt, SA4 = 4 ppt, SA6 = 6ppt, SA8= 8 ppt, SA10= 10ppt
Values are Mean ± SE, Values with same superscripts (a,b,c…..f) in a row do not differ significantly (P0.05)

208 Eco. Env. & Cons. 29 (1) : 2023
with high protein feed, as it is toxic to fish at high
concentrations (Buttner et al., 1993). According to
Wurts (2000), pH and salinity have positive correla-
tion with ammonia and in the present study as well,
it has been observed that concentration of ammonia-
cal-nitrogen varied significantly (P0.05) at higher
salinity levels, though it was within permissible
limit (0.05 mg l-1) for carps (Jhingran, 1991;
Ayyappan, 2011). Furthermore, significant (P0.05)
differences were also observed in the cations and
anions concentration among different treatments
and showed an increasing trend (P0.05) with in-
crease in salinity levels. Moreover, alike stock water,
amongst different cations, Na+ was the most prevail-
ing cations (Na+>Mg2+>Ca2+>K+), whereas among
the anions, Cl-1 was the most abundant followed by
SO4
2- in the treatments having salinity level of 2-10
ppt. The conclusion of the current study can be sup-
ported by the similar findings with respect to ionic
concentration at different salinities (Sharma et al.,
2017; Chitra et al., 2017; Singh et al., 2018; Bhatt et al.,
2018; Kumar et al., 2018; Singh et al. 2020).
Survival of fish
Survival of fish was recorded on daily basis during
the tolerance test and is presented in Figure 1 and 2.
During the salinity tolerance test (10 days), no mor-
tality of fish was recorded up to 6 ppt salinity levels
at any day indicating that mrigal, a stenohaline
freshwater fish, can tolerate salinity levels up to 6
ppt under short term salinity stress in inland saline
water. At 8 ppt salinity, 96.67 and 93.33 % survival
was observed on 9th and 10th day, while survival%
reduced from 100 % on 7th day to 86.67% on 10th day
at 10 ppt salinity. Hence, fish survival depicted an
inverse relationship with salinity beyond 6 ppt.
Each fish species has an ideal salinity tolerance
range (Martinez-Porchas et al., 2009) that depends
on its physiological condition, which is a result of
the multifaceted interactions between its nervous
system, metabolism, and physiology (Sharma et al.,
2017) and any alteration in salinity can bring os-
motic stress in aquatic animals, including fish, by
interfering with physiological homeostasis and nor-
mal biological processes and also hasten oxidative
damage (Kültz, 2015; Abdel-Tawwab and Monier,
2018) which affects the survival, metabolism, and
distribution of fish species (Suresh and Lin, 1992;
Ranjbar and Nejad, 2020).
Many studies demonstrated the effect of brackish
water/artificial saline water of different salinities on
the survival of freshwater carps and recorded varied
salinity tolerance limit viz. 4 and 8 ppt for mrigal
(Baliarsingh et al., 2018; Hoque et al., 2020), 6 ppt for
common carp (Mangat and Hundal, 2014, Singh et
al., 2019), 6 ppt for rohu (Tarer, 2000; Islam et al.,
2014) and < 5 ppt for catla (Hoque et al., 2020) but
studies pertaining to use of inland saline water is
limited. In reference to the salinity tolerance of fresh-
water carps in inland saline water, Singh et al. (2020)
documented that amur carp can tolerate salinity up
to 5 ppt (100% survival) during long term rearing,
while koi carp, rohu and common carp can tolerate
salinity up to 12, 10 and 10 ppt, respectively (100%
survival) during short term (10 days) rearing
(Sharma, 2017; Kumar et al., 2018; Singh et al., 2018).
Among freshwater catfish, Kumar et al. (2017) re-
ported that Pangasianodon hypophthalmus can tolerate
the salinity up to 15 ppt in inland saline water. The
variances between findings may be attributable to
the experimental variables in regard to species, fish
size, genetic variability, water quality parameters
including salinity, saline water composition, and
salinity stress duration (Ansal et al., 2016; Singh et
al., 2018; Purnamawati et al., 2019) and adapting
ability of fish to ever-changing environmental condi-
Fig. 1. Survival (%) of mrigal, C. mrigala with respect to
changes in salinity at the termination of the ex-
periment
Fig. 2. Survival (%) of mrigal, C. mrigala during the ex-
perimental period in different treatments

SHARMILA ET AL 209
tions (Koedijk et al., 2012).
It has been shown that salinity stress primarily
affects gills of freshwater fish, which are essential for
both osmoregulation and nitrogenous waste excre-
tion (Nikolsky and Birkett, 1963). Further, a larger
osmotic gradient between fish body fluid and cul-
ture environment might result in a greater con-
sumption of energy for osmoregulation process
(Arjona et al., 2009), affecting growth and survival of
fish. In rainbow trout, Ranjbar and Nejad (2020)
found that increasing salinity activated the hor-
monal pathways, particularly thyroid and cortisol
hormones, to adapt to osmotic stress. In the present
investigation, 100% survival up to 6 ppt salinity im-
plies that the fish were very capable of regulating
their body physiology with in this limit (Singh et al.,
2019) and decrease in survival at higher salinities
(>6 ppt) may be corroborated to increase in osmotic
maintenance requirement of fish at higher salinity
levels (Kilambi and Zdinak, 1980) causing osmo-
regulatory stress, a detrimental effect of salinity ex-
posure for stenohaline freshwater fish.
Effect of salinity on behavior and morphological
changes in fish
During salinity tolerance test, swimming response of
fish was normal and fish were active up to 6 ppt sa-
linity (Table 4). At 8 and 10 ppt salinity, fish showed
gradual departure from normal swimming
behaviour and less activity of fish was recorded on
10th and 9th day, respectively. Further, similar trend
was also recorded in feeding behaviour of fish with
respect to feed intake in the present study where
reduced appetite response was observed on 9th and
8th day at 8 and 10 ppt salinity, respectively.
Few studies have documented the change in
swimming behaviour of fish due to change in salin-
ity level (Sharma, 2017; Kumar et al., 2018; Singh et
al., 2018). Kumar et al. (2018) demonstrated active
swimming behaviour of rohu up to 4 ppt salinity,
whereas fish became less active/sluggish at interme-
diate (6 ppt) and higher salinities (8-10 ppt) during
short term exposure in inland saline water, whereas
Singh et al. (2018) revealed active swimming
behaviour of common carp up to 8 ppt but fish be-
come less active at 10 ppt after 8 days of salinity ex-
posure during salinity tolerance test in inland saline
water. With reference to feeding response (feed in-
take), Mangat and Hundal (2014) demonstrated
high/moderate appetite behaviour between 0-6 ppt
in common carp, whereas in rohu, very high appe-
tite behaviour was recorded up to 4 ppt salinity but
sequentially reduced at 6 ppt (Islam et al., 2014).
Further, during salinity tolerance test conducted in
inland saline water, Kumar et al. (2018) reported
normal feeding of rohu up to 6 ppt, while low appe-
tite was observed at 8 and 10 ppt on 9th and termi-
nation day (10th) of the experiment. In contrast,
Singh et al. (2018) documented normal feeding be-
havior of common carp in inland saline water for 10
consecutive days during salinity tolerance test. Due
to increased metabolic rate, fish become restless at
higher salinities, which mean fish are approaching
the limits of their tolerance for salinity (Islam et al.,
2014; Singh et al., 2019). Furthermore, no adverse
morphological changes in fish were observed during
tolerance testing in any treatment. Scales and fins
were intact and no excess mucus secretion was ob-
served at any salinity level throughout the experi-
ment.
Table 4. Swimming activity, feeding response and morphological changes in mrigal, C. mrigala during the salinity tol-
erance test
Behavior Days Treatments
SA0 SA2 SA4 SA6 SA8 SA10
Swimming Activity* 1-7 AT AT AT AT AT AT
8AT AT AT AT AT LAT
9AT AT AT AT LAT LAT
10 AT AT AT AT LAT LAT
Feeding Behavior** 1-7 NOR NOR NOR NOR NOR NOR
8NOR NOR NOR NOR NOR ReAp
9NOR NOR NOR NOR ReAp ReAp
10 NOR NOR NOR NOR ReAp ReAp
Morphological Changes*** 1-10 NNNNNN
* Swimming Activity: AT = Active, LAT = Less Active; **Feeding response: NOR= Normal Appetite, ReAp = Reduced
Appetite; ***Morphological changes: N= No

210 Eco. Env. & Cons. 29 (1) : 2023
From the above results, it can be concluded that
mrigal, C. mrigala can tolerate salinity up to 6 ppt
during short term (10 days) rearing in inland saline
water without any detrimental effect on survival %,
behavioral and morphological characteristics of fish.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dean, College of Fisher-
ies, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sci-
ences (GADVASU), Ludhiana for providing neces-
sary facilities for conducting this research.
Conflict of Interest
Authors declare no conflict of interest among the
authors.
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