Mosquito control using Badis badis (Hamilton, 1822) [Teleostei: Perciformes] in ground water (domestic well): Preliminary findings of a laboratory trial.

Food preference and predation potentiality experiments using Badia badis (Hamilton) was studied under laboratory conditions to destroy the mosquito breeding ground in domestic well at Jalpaiguri District of West Bengal. The fish were sampled from the water bodies of Moraghat forest and were maintained in two glass aquariums with chemically untreated well water which was sieved through a phytoplankton net to exclude larvae and planktons. To determine the feeding preference on mosquito larvae, selected fish were kept over night before experiment for acclimatization and starvation. Mosquito larvae were collected several wells and introduced in first aquarium. Remaining larvae were counted every 3 hours interval from 6 am to 6 pm and after counting the number of consumed larvae at every 3-hour interval, the same numbers of larvae were replenished within the glass beaker to maintain the constant prey density. The authors conducted a similar experiment to determine the feeding preference on commercially available fish pellets. In this experiment, formulated fish pellets were given initially in second aquarium and remaining pellets were counted every 3 hours interval from 6 am to 6 pm. The experiment showed greater feeding preference for mosquito larvae than formulated fish diet. The predation potentiality or feeding capability result showed a 3.6 cm length fish could consume 29 larvae per day with predatory index 37.66. The present study concludes that introduction of indigenous Badis badis can effectively reduce mosquito larvae in domestic well (groundwater) and also suggests that this species may help to prevent the mosquito borne diseases biologically.