Identification and Distribution of Bazoft River fish fauna

Bazoft River is one of the major effluents of the Karun River and located in Zardkouh mountainous region in the province of Chahar-Mahal and Bakhtiari. With the aim of identifying and understanding spatial distribution of fish fauna sampling carried out seasonally from winter to summer 2009 at 14 stations using electrofishing and cast net. A total of 13 fish species from four family including; Cyprinidae, Nemacheilidae, Sisoridae and Salmonidae were identified which three of them were endemic of Iran. Highest and lowest number of identified species with 8 and 1 and relative frequency of specimens with 81.9% and 0.5% revealed for Cyprinidae and Sisoridae family respectively. Within species, Capoeta damascina and Squalius lepidus have most and least frequency with 46.3 and 0.2 percent form total number of fish specimens. The results indicating Bazoft river ecology in addition to the provision canvas species possess valuable fish such as Brown trout and other species of economic value. Due to a variety of ecological conditions in Bazoft River, the results indicating existence of three endemic fish species in this river with some valuable species like Salmo trutta and some other commercially valuable species. So, because of high conservation value of endemic fish species, aquaculture development in the river must be done regarding all the environmental considerations and continuous monitoring.