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The rapid growth of industrial and agricultural activities in Malaysia are leading to the impairment of most of the rivers in recent years through realising various trace metals. This leads to toxicity, particularly when the toxic has entered the food chain. Perak River is one of the most dynamic rivers for the Malaysian population. Therefore, in consideration of the safety issue, this study was conducted to assess the concentration of such metals (Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Pb) in the muscles of most widely consumed fish species (Barbonymus schwanenfeldii, Puntius bulum, Puntius daruphani, Hexanematichthys sagor, Channa striatus, Mystacoleucus marginatus, and Devario regina) from different locations of Perak River, Malaysia by employing inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Among the trace metals, Fe and Cd were found to be the highest (29.33-148.01 μg/g) and lowest (0.16-0.49 μg/g) concentration in all of the studied species, respectively. Although the estimated daily intakes (μg/kg/day) of Cd (0.65-0.85), Fe (79.27-352.00) and Pb (0.95-12.17) were higher than their reference, the total target hazard quotients values suggested that the local residents would not experience any adverse health effects from its consumption. In contrast, the target cancer risk value suggested that all fish species posed a potential cancer risk due to Cd and cumulative cancer risk values, strongly implying that continuous consumption of studied fish species would cause cancer development to its consumers.

The importance of terrestrial insects as food items for freshwater fish was studied by examining stomach contents of Devario regina (Fowler 1934) and its population parameters at canopied areas of selected tributaries of Sungai Kerian, in the northern state of Peninsular Malaysia. Ninety six percent (121 out of 126) of the fish stomachs examined contained food materials in the stomachs and the values of percentage of occurrence (%F), percentage numerical (%N) and percentage points (%P) indicated that collected fish ate similar food items in all rivers. Among the food categories, scavenging terrestrial ants (Formicidae) were the most dominant food item, hence the main diet for this species. The Index of Relative Importance (IRI) scores of food items indicated that ants were higher than other food items. This surface water feeder experienced a positive allometric growth (W = aLb) with a b (rate of growth) value of 3.256. Its asymptotic length, growth constant and growth performance index represented this species with a short life-span (L∞ = 10.90 cm, K = 1.20 year-1, φ’ = 2.15, tmax = 3 year, respectively) and had higher natural mortality (M = 2.40 year-1) than fishing mortality (F = 0.35 year-1) while the fish stock was underexploited (E = 0.13). The finding of this study indicated the importance of terrestrial ants as a food source that support excellent growth of D. regina and the need to conserve riparian trees along river banks to provide allocthonous materials and habitats for the ants.

Devario regina (Fowler 1934) Devario regina: Ahmad & Zakaria-Ismail, 2014 (Sg. Cha Chor; Sg. Kejar; Sg. Ketir; Sg. Mes; Sg. Purun; Sg. Tiang); Shafiq et al., 2014: 825 (Sg. Ara; Sg. Merah; Sg. Kurau); Authors’ data (Sg. Ara; Sg. Bernam; Sg. Bongkok; Sg. Kuak; Sg. Ulu Kenas; Kuala Kangsar)., Published as part of Ng, Casey Keat Chuan, Lim, Teow Yeong, Ahmad, Amirrudin & Khaironizam, Md Zain, 2019, Provisional checklist of freshwater fish diversity and distribution in Perak, Malaysia, and some latest taxonomic concerns, pp. 515-545 in Zootaxa 4567 (3) on page 526, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4567.3.5, http://zenodo.org/record/2599047, {"references":["Ahmad, A. & Zakaria-Ismail, M. (2014) Additional native fish fauna of rivers & streams flowing into Temengor reservoir, Perak, Malaysia. Malayan Nature Journal, 664, 407 - 419.","Shafiq, Z. M., Shah, A. S. R. M., Zarul, H. H., Syaiful, M. M., Khaironizam, M. Z., Khaled, P. & Hamzah, Y. (2014) An annotated checklist of fish fauna of Bukit Merah Reservoir and its catchment area, Perak, Malaysia. Check List 10 (4), 822 - 828. https: // doi. org / 10.15560 / 10.4.822"]}

Context: Microarchitectural observation of the olfactory organ in Devario regina (Fowler, 1934) is still unknown. Objectives : The normal histology and chemical detailed of glycoprotein in D. regina olfactory organ were investigated using histochemical analysis. Materials and Methods: Fishes were collected from the Tapee River, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand and were processed by the standard histological technique. Results: Microarchitecture of olfactory organ revealed that it was a paired olfactory sac. Each sac was composed of the olfactory chamber and many lamellae surrounding by olfactory epithelium. This epithelium contained the differential cell types in both sensory (sensory ciliated cells) and non-sensory olfactory epithelium. The special localization of glycoprotein was intensively detected on the mucous cells. Conclusion: This study provided the basic histology of the fish olfactory organ that will support the investigation regarding the physiological and ultrastructural analysis. J. bio-sci. 22: 41-44, 2014

An inventory study of fishes was carried out from June 2003 to May 2004 at Sungai Enam and Sungai Telang, which was last logged 40 years ago. In spite of the negative impacts of logging, the study recorded a total of 21 fish species in these headwaters, comprising nine families. Sungai Telang recorded 19 species with 11 species classified as "locally rare", whereas Sungai Enam recorded 11 species with nine species classified as "locally rare". When species from previous studies were included, the total number of species recorded in Sungai Enam and Sungai Telang was 28 and 27 species respectively. The presence of Devario regina, Neolissochilus soroides and Poropuntius smedleyi in all inventory studies conducted indicate that both headwaters are healthy, and function as sources of clean water, nutrient supplies and fish recruits for Temengor Reservoir.