Fish diversity in U Minh Thuong national park, kien Giang province

Abstract

This study aimed to identify fish composition as a basic for effective management and exploitation in U Minh Thuong national park. The contents include identified fish species, diversity index and assessed the water quality. This study was carried out from October, 2019 to August, 2020 with 4 sampling periods at 15 sites belonging to 4 typical habitats and buffer zones. Samples taken consisted of fish, water parameters including temperature, pH, transparency, depth, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical demand oxygen (BOD5), TAN, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), nitrite (NO2-). The results showed that 32 fish species belonging to 17 families and 6 orders were recorded in UMT national park. Peciformes order was the most diverse with 7 families (41%), the most common family was Cyprinidae with 9 species (28%). The Shannon index was diverse (H'=2.74). In the Nymphaea nouchaly swamp habitat, this had the highest number of species (28 species) and shannon index (H'=2.65) compared to the other habitats. The highest number of fish species was collected in May, 2020 with 23 species and least in October, 2019 with 15 species. Most of water parameters were in a desirable range except DO, NO2-. The concentration of DO was low at study areas, concentration of NO2- in October, 2019 was always higher than regulations about water surface quality for aquatic animal conservation. The concentration of BOD5 increased in the dry season. The concentration of TAN increased over time, contrarily H2S decreased over time. The depth had a great impact to the fish distribution.