Investigation of habitat characteristics of Capoeta shajariani in Dinorab River, Karkheh River drainage

This study was conducted to investigate the habitat preference of Capoeta shajariani as an endemic species in Dinorab River (Kermanshah Province), the Karkheh River drainage. For this purpose, the habitat parameters, including water depth, river width, potamal area width, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), pH and bedrock diameter were measured and recorded during sampling and counting of fish specimens. Based on the results, the range of preferred environmental factors of this species were, depth of 26-30 cm, river width of 6-7.2 m, potamal width of 4.8-6 m, temperature of 18-19°C, total dissolved solids of 580-610 mg/L, EC of 290-310μS/cm, pH of 7.22-7.44, velocity of 0.24-0.31m/s and bedrock diameter of 5-5.5cm. The results showed that the highest suitability value was for station 1 with an average depth of 25.54 cm, river width of 3.86 m, potamal width of 5.16 m, temperature of 19.1°C, total dissolved solids of 579, EC of 289 μS/cm, PH of 7.47, velocity of 0.43 m/s and bedrock diameter of 5 cm). Generally, the Dinorab River with a HIS value of 0.676 is an average habitat for C. shajariani.