Development of survivorship model for UV-B irradiated Catla catla larvae

A survivorship model was developed for UV-B irradiated Catla catla (17 days) larvae with the help of Kaplan and Meier Product-Limit (PL) method. Larvae were exposed to UV-B radiation (145 μW cm−2) for three different exposure times: 5, 10 and 15 min on every other day. The mean survival time of fish was calculated for each treatment using uncensored and censored survival data during 74 days study period. The mean uncensored and censored survival data for the 5-min exposed fish were 7 and 43, respectively. In 10-min exposure period, the uncensored and censored survival data were 19 and 31, respectively. During maximum exposure of 15 min, the uncensored survival data was 20 and censored data was 30. The mean survival time of fish calculated using PL estimate in 5, 10 and 15-min exposure treatments were 69.61 ± 0.50, 65.25 ± 0.96 and 60.60 ± 1.55 days, respectively. The mean survival time showed a decreasing trend with the increase of exposure period. The survival time was significantly (P < 0.001) higher in 5-min exposure treatment than others. This is clear from the present study that the exposure of UV-B radiation affects the survival rate of surface feeder catla larvae.