Freshwater Fish Seed Production and Nursery ...

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Nov 10, 2012 - Parganas and Howrah with a total area of 0.284 million ha. .... Dakshin. Changra. Chak,. 6.13 0.08. 45.92. 0.48. 1.0. 5.25. 12.5 48.5 28.0 23.5.
TRAINING COMPENDIUM

International Training Programme for Cambodian Trainees On

Freshwater Fish Seed Production and Nursery Rearing in West Bengal, India 5th to 10th November, 2012

Faculty of Fishery Sciences West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences, Kolkata, India

Published by:

Prof. K.C.Dora Dean, Faculty of Fishery Sciences,West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences

Edited By:

Prof. R.K.Trivedi Dr. B.K.Chand Mr. Sourabh Kumar Dubey

Publication date: Printed By:

10th November, 2012 Dutta Printers, Jadavpur, Kolkata - 700032

Organizing committee Prof. K. C. Dora

Chairman

Prof. R. K. Trivedi

Course Coordinator

Prof. S. S. Dana

Member

Dr. T. K. Ghosh

Member

Dr. G. Dash

Member

Dr. S.K. Rout

Member

Mr. S. Choudhury

Member

WEST BENGAL UNIVERSITY OF ANIMAL AND FISHERY SCIENCES 68, Kshudiram Bose Sarani, Belgachia, Kolkata - 700 037, West Bengal, India

Prof. C.S.Chakrabarti FOREWORD Historically, India has very warm and cordial relationship with Cambodia. The pervading influence of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Indian architecture, is borne out by the structures at Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon, and other religious and historical sites in Cambodia. This is the glorious testimony of profound cultural and social basis of IndiaCambodia historical relationship. In 2010, when the former President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil visited Cambodia, she had emphasized on greater cooperation between two countries to access knowledge, expertise, resources and markets for the development. Human resource development and capacity building have been the primary focus of our bilateral relations and the present training programme on aquaculture for the Cambodian fish farmers is a small step in this direction. Aquatic resources of India are vast and diversified. Replenishment and creation of water bodies through Southwest and Northeast monsoon in India are nature’s gifts. The success in induced breeding of carp in 1957 and subsequent technologies on induced breeding and seed rearing for a number of species, paved the way for the revolution in fish production through aquaculture. At present, India is the second-largest aquaculture producer in the world and about 80% of India's aquaculture production is composed of carps. Many states of India have both inland and marine aquaculture opportunities and potentialities. Farmers from Cambodia may get some ideas at least about the inland fisheries especially in the sector of seed production through this training programme. I am hopeful that the training programme will help Cambodian trainees to have the glimpse of Indian aquaculture and gain advance knowledge and skill on scientific aquaculture. The compendium comprising good numbers of resourceful writing will be very useful to the trainees. I thankfully acknowledge the endeavour of all concerns, including the Governments of India and Cambodia.

Kolkata 10th November, 2012

(Prof. C S Chakrabarti) Vice Chancellor

FACULTY OF FISHERY SCIENCES WEST BENGAL UNIVERSITY OF ANIMAL AND FISHERY SCIENCES 5, Budherhat Road, Chakgaria, P.O:- Panchasayar, Kolkata -700 094, West Bengal, India (H.Q: 68, Kshudiram Bose Sarani, Belgachia, Kolkata - 700 037)

E-mail: [email protected] Ph: 9433368328 TeleFax: 033 2432-8749 Prof. K. C. DORA DEAN PREFACE Aquaculture sector plays a vital role in the socioeconomic development of India and recognized as a powerful income and employment generator as it stimulates the growth of a number of subsidiary industries and is a cheap nutritious food besides being a foreign exchange earner. It is the fast growing sector with annual growth of more than 6% in last two decades. This has been possible by vertical and horizontal expansion of area under farming and use of intensive and modern aquaculture practices involving higher use of inputs. India is the second largest producer of aquaculture products after China. West Bengal is the highest fish producing state in India with highest percentage of fish consuming population in the country. Apart from this, West Bengal is the pioneer and leader in fish seed production in India. In the year 2010-11 West Bengal produced 13453 million of fish seed, contributing about 62% of the total production of fish seed in the country. In the same year West Bengal produced 1.443 million Metric Ton fish. Both the Indian major carps and Chinese carps are found to be well suited for rearing in fresh water ponds. Among many fish farming practices, the composite fish culture is one, which common farmers of India easily adopt with comparatively less investment to have more production and income than the traditional farming practice. It is a pleasure that the Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences is organizing an International Training cum Exposure visit for Cambodian fish farmers and fishery official during 5th to 10th November, 2012 in collaboration with Asian Fishery Society-Indian Branch. I wish the training programme all success and hope to be beneficial for the Cambodian delegates.

Kolkata 10th November, 2012

(K. C. Dora)

FACULTY OF FISHERY SCIENCES WEST BENGAL UNIVERSITY OF ANIMAL AND FISHERY SCIENCES 5, Budherhat Road, Chakgaria, P.O:- Panchasayar, Kolkata -700 094, West Bengal, India (H.Q: 68, Kshudiram Bose Sarani, Belgachia, Kolkata - 700 037)

E-mail: [email protected] Prof. R.K. Trivedi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It is my great privilege to get associated as Course-Coordinator for organizing International Training cum Exposure visit for Cambodian fish farmers and fishery official on a topic of current importance “Freshwater Fish Seed Production and Nursery Rearing in West Bengal, India” during 5th to 10th November, 2012 which is highly need based constituting one of the most important components of today’s commercial aquaculture pursuits. With excellent support and encouragement by the Prof. C. S. Chakrabarti, Vice Chancellor of this University, Prof. P. Biswas, Registrar, and Dean of Faculty of Fishery Sciences, Prof. K.C. Dora, I have tried to structure the training programme in a benefiting manner taking due care of making it effective and successful. I wish to place my utmost gratitude to Mr. M.C. Nandeesha, Chairman, Asian Fisheries Society Indian Branch and Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India. I express sincere thanks to JICA and specially Mr. M. Sato for taking initiative for this exposure visit. I am highly thankful to our faculty teachers namely Dr. G. Dash, Dr. T. K. Ghosh, Dr. S. K Rout, Prof. S. S. Dana, Prof. T. J. Abraham and others to extend all possible support. I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr. B. K. Chand and Mr. S.K. Dubey for assisting me in preparing the Training Compendium and giving me valuable inputs in successful completion of the programme. I am also thankful to Prof. A.P.Sharma, Director, CIFRI Barrackpoe, Dr. B.K. Mahapatra, Principal Scientist, CIFE Kolkata Centre, Dr. S. N. Biswas, Deputy Director, Department of Fishery, Govt. of West Bengal, Mr. B. Halder, ADF, Fishery, S 24Pgs for their unstained support. I would also like to thank the other training associates for their whole-hearted co-operations. Last but not the list, I am greatly indebted to all the fish farmers and fishery entrepreneurs cover during exposure visit for their volunteered disclosure in making this programme grand success.

Kolkata 10th November, 2012

(R.K.Trivedi) Course Co-ordinator

INDEX Sl. No

1

2

Topic

Contributor

Seasonally Flooded Water Bodies – A Potential Resource for Rice-Fish Farming in West Bengal, India

Page No.

1 Utpal Bhaumik and A.P.Sharma

Status of Ornamental Fisheries in West Bengal, India Nursery Rearing of Carp Fry & Fingerlings and Grow-Out Carp Culture with Special Emphasis on Pond Management Breeding and Larval Rearing of Pangasius Sutchi

R.K. Trivedi , S. K. Dubey & S. K. Rout

5

Status of Fish Diseases in West Bengal

Dr Gadadhar Dash

50

6 7

Nursery and Rearing Pond Management Culture of Indian Major Carps and Exotic Carps

Dr. S. K. Das

68 74

8 9

Tilapia Farming in India Sewage Fed Fish Culture Practices in East Kolkata Wetland

10

Favorable Ranges of Water and Soil Quality Parameters for Fish Farming and Hatchery operation

3

4

11 12

Present status of Fisheries in West Bengal (Presentation)

B.K. Mahapatra

18 38

45 N.R. Chattopadhyay

Dr. T. K. Ghosh Dr. B K Chand S. K. Dubey & R. K. Trivedi

91 100

107 S. K. Dubey & R. K. Trivedi

Dr. Goutam Chandra Sarkar

Photo sheet of training

13

Training schedule

14

List of participants

Annex I Annex II Annex III Annex IV

Training Compendium

SEASONALLY FLOODED WATER BODIES – A POTENTIAL RESOURCE FOR RICE-FISH FARMING IN WEST BENGAL, INDIA Utpal Bhaumik* and A.P.Sharma Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute Barrckpore, Kolkata- 700120 *email: [email protected] Water is most precious natural resource and is indispensable for all economic and social development and ending poverty and hunger. Past two decades have been growing recognition of crisis facing the country‟s water resources and the need for concerted action to use these more efficiently. The efficiency of water use or water productivity can be increased by producing more output per unit of water used, or by reducing water losses, or by a combination of both. So far, strategies for increasing output have been limited to crop only. Water productivity at several organisational levels can be increased by integrating fish and rice/other aquatic resources into the existing water use systems. Such opportunities of integration include community based rice-fish culture in seasonal floodplains. Both rice and fish are immensely important to the livelihoods of the rural poor in India especially in West Bengal as both a source of nutrition and as a source of income (Bhaumik et. al.2005). Rice and fish are considered to be the two main sources of food in this region. It has been estimated that rice constitutes as much as 60% of the daily food intake of the majority of Asians. Rice consumption in West Bengal, India is reported to be 139.68 kg/ head/ year and 127.56 kg /head/year (1993-1994) in rural and urban areas of India respectively (Saha and Bardhan Roy, 2001). According to World Fish Centre (2002) over 10 million ha or 15 percent of the total rice land in Asia suffer from uncountable seasonal flooding of which over half are in Indian subcontinent mainly in Eastern India and Bangladesh. These areas are the habitats of millions of farmers, landless populace living with low profile socio-economic conditions 1

Training Compendium

(Ali, 1990). Because of the plentiful rainfall during the monsoon from June to September, rice becomes the principal crop in West Bengal, India from this time. Waterlogged rice fields are the ideal natural habitat of various types of fish (Nguyen, S.H. et al., 2001). Some workers have expressed that fish in rice field results in an increased yield of grain varying from 4 – 10 percent. Further, it has been found that fish consume large quantities of weed, worms, insects, larvae and algae, which are either directly or indirectly injurious to rice (Datta et al, 1985). Fish is widely consumed in the country, certainly in West Bengal where per capita consumption is estimated to be 15.6 kg in comparison

to Indian rate of 9.0 kg. It is

considered to be the major source of animal protein for the majority of people in West Bengal and a major source of vital micro-nutrients (Govt. of West Bengal 2009). Freshwater fish, because of its relatively low price, represents a vital source of animal protein for lower income groups especially in West Bengal where it is estimated that about 94% of farmers may be classed as poor. Rao and Singh (1998) have estimated that of the 42 million hectares of rice cultivated land in India, about 20 million hectares is suitable for rice-fish integration while Shyam (1998) estimates that only 0.23 million hectares is currently being managed as ricefish systems. Floodplain areas provide a predominantly freshwater environment for the culture of rice and freshwater fish and prawns (floodplain wetland 0.04 million ha). In addition, it is estimated that in West Bengal, alone there is a total brackish water area of 405,000 hectares, a significant proportion of which could be suitable for fish/shrimp culture or the culture of fish/shrimp and saline tolerant rice varieties. Vast areas of rice in eastern India are still non-irrigated and chiefly mono-cropped producing only one crop of wet season rice in a year. Deep Water Rice (DWR) area is such an area which covers about 11 per cent of the total rice land in India. Crop intensification has proved now as the best tool for increasing food production which is badly needed to keep pace with exponentially growing human population. Since, there is little scope for 2

Training Compendium

horizontal land expansion, its vertical expansion through integrated farming in single land area has become the obvious alternative and since, rice and fish area important dietary component of Indian populace, integration of rice-fish system will offer possibilities of increasing land productivity. Thus, natural long time water logging less productive rice area offers an ideal situation to be explored intensively for development and improvement of rice - fish system. The scope-increased production in flood-prone ecosystem is the integration of fish culture with rice farming. The flood prone areas are seasonally flooded during the monsoon and remain submerged for 4 – 6 months. The vast water-bodies can provide natural habitats for various aquatic resources including wild fishes and prawns. The yearly silt deposition and organic matter decomposition catalyse the natural growth of flora and fauna. The abundance of such natural fish food organization favours fish culture for 4 – 6 months in these areas. Apart from the seasonally flooded freshwater rice fields, high rain fed areas along the coastline are also used for monsoon rice cultivation, which are mono-cropped. During the rest of the year, these usually remain fallow due to high salt content of the soil associated with non-availability of irrigation water. Rice-fish culture in coastal saline areas aims at utilizing the summer fallow period of these plots through short duration brackish water aquaculture in sequential system without affecting the subsequent rice crop in the same plot during monsoon. The population inhabiting in the flood-prone areas are basically poor. Increased food production from rice-fish farming in these areas could play a vital role in reducing malnutrition increasing household income and promoting food security. Enhancement of rice-fish systems, through stocking, can increase overall yields and substantially increase income from the system and, where fish is cultured alongside rice, the rice yields can be improved (Saha & Bardhan Roy et al. 2001 and Bhaumik et al., 2005). Enhancement provides an opportunity to increase the income generated from the system and provides fish for household consumption. Rice-fish culture in India has been practiced for almost 1500 years and has developed from low input systems to become more intensive (Ali, 1990). However, in many cases the integration of fish with rice farming has 3

Training Compendium

been constrained by both technical and institutional factors (Mohanty et al. 2004). Experience has suggested that, while enhancements have the potential to yield substantial benefits, the actual outcomes (in terms of yield, distribution of benefits and institutional stability amongst others) are often different to those initially expected. It is often said that the results from field trials are less than those of experimental trials (Mohanty et al. 2002). The underlying reason for these unexpected outcomes is uncertainty about the resource systems. This uncertainty manifests itself as (a) limited prior knowledge of local conditions and (b) the complexity of environments into which enhancements are introduced. In flood prone areas, land ownership remains with cultivators who produce rice crop (Summer crop) during the dry season whereas during wet season individual land holdings are not visible and it takes the shape of vast sheet of water. Fish available in such water bodies become a community property favoring access to all members of a local community. Thus, it is likely that poor members of community belong to respective local areas will manage common property resources sustainably which they have effective control. Therefore, it is essential that the rural community with group management or with suitable beneficial institutional approach need undertake rice-fish culture in the flood prone ecosystem. Resource management approaches, viz. integrated resource management and ecosystem based planning are essential for the sustainable use of natural resources. Bhaumik et. al. 2005 facilitated community-based management approach successfully to achieve both socio-economic and ecological objectives through integrated conservation – developing planning. Community based management also indulges a mechanism for economic development by participation of all categories of resource users and the community members actively solve problems and address needs.

Seasonal flood plain resources for rice-fish farming The state of West Bengal is bestowed with bountiful natural resources. Since time immemorial Rice and fish farming formed an important livelihood component to millions 4

Training Compendium

of farmers of the State. West Bengal is situated in a latitude 21 038”N – 27010”N and longitude 85038”E – 89050”E with a total area of 88551 square kilometers associated with the floodplains of the mighty rivers namely the Ganges, Damodar, Rupnarayan, Kansabati, Haldi, Mayurakshi, Subarnarekha, Silabati, Ichamati, Churni, Mahananda, Teesta, Torsa, Ajoy, Jalangi, Bidyadhari etc. The Bay of Bengal bounds 750 kms coastline in South. Table1. Estimated area under deep water ecosystem in different floodplains of West Bengal Flood Plains

District

Area (million ha.) Teesta Mahananda Coochbehar, North Dinajpur 0.028 flood plain & Northern part of Malda Gangetic flood Murshidabad, Nadia and 0.185 plain Hooghly Damodar Midnapore & Birbhum 0.102 Kangshabati floodplain Costal flood plain 24-Parganas (N&S) & 0.284 Howrah Total 0.599

Share of total deep water ecosystem (%) 4.60 30.83 17.00

45.57 100.00

(Source: Saha & Bardhan Roy, 2001) The seasonally flooded deepwater rice area in West Bengal is approximately 0.6 million ha (Table 1). These areas are basins of saucer shaped where rain or flood water accumulates during monsoon. Apart from this, coastal wetlands utilized commercially for fin and shell fish production, can also be brought under rice-fish cropping system. The seasonally flooded deep water ecosystem in West Bengal is spread over in different river floodplains can be grouped as below: a) Gangetic floodplains cover the deep water areas of Murshidabad, Nadia and Hooghly districts having 0.185 million ha. (30.83 percent of the total seasonally flooded deep water area); b) Teesta – Mahananda floodplains covering the districts of Coochbehar, North Dinajpur and northern part of Malda having 0.028 million ha. deep water area which constitute 4.60 percent of the total seasonally flooded deep water rice lands; Damodar5

Training Compendium

Kanksabati floodplains cover the districts of Midnapore and Birbhum with a total area of 0.102 million ha. (17 percent of the total seasonally flooded deep water area); and c) Coastal floodplains covering the saline areas in the districts of South and North 24– Parganas and Howrah with a total area of 0.284 million ha. (47.57 percent of the total seasonally flooded deep water area). The traditional tall Indian deep water rice varieties are generally grown in these areas during wet season in varying water depth. However, due to unpredictable nature of flooding, these varieties generally contribute very low grain yield (1.5 – 2.2 t/ha.) (Table 2). Table 2. Performance of major traditional floating rice varieties in the coastal Ricefish areas in West Bengal Location 24 Pgs (S) Midnapore (E) 24 Pgs (N)

Varieties

Average yield (t/ha) Bakui, Agniban, Sadamota, Malabati, Ramsail, 1.8 Benemuti, Baneswar, Dudeswar, and Marishal Panikalash, Kakuria, Agniban, American queen, 1.5 Bakui, Bhuta, Goda Bhutia, Kammoth, Amol selat and Hatipajra Mota, Sadamota, Hamai, Kumargore, Patnai 23, 2.2 Gerimuri, Boirbal and Kamini

(Source: Saha & Bardhan Roy, 2001) Presently West Bengal being a major fish consuming state requires 1.6 million MT of fishes annually (2009 - 2010) to meet the demand of 80 million population (Population Census, India, 2001). However, the present availability of fish is 1.4 million MT (2009 2010). The little shortfall of requirement is met through import of fish from other Indian States. A huge quantity of fin and shell fish (3.36 million MT) worth Rupees 720.00 million are also exported from West Bengal. Since the demand of fish in domestic and export market is more, increase in fish production by utilizing natural resources is considered to be a way to earn better economic return as well as protein supplement to the population. Mixed cropping of rice and fish in these fragile ecosystems may contribute better economic return. 6

Training Compendium

Meteorological status: Climate condition of East Medinipore, Hooghly, Burdwan and North 24 Parganas districts where seasonally flooded water bodies exist, are tropical, characterised of hot summer, medium monsoon and mild winter season. Summer season starts from mid February and extends still May. The period from June to September is the monsoon period followed by winter season, which starts from November and continues up to February. Moyna - the gold mine for rice-fish farming in seasonally flooded waterbodies The block Moyna comprised of 84 villages is in Purba Midnapore district of West Bengal. Vast seasonally flooded areas of Moyna are ideal for rice-fish farming. Moyna is a block located in Latitute 22º40‟N and Longitude 87º50‟E under East Midnapore District, West Bengal, India. It is one of the backward areas in West Bengal where the population belong to poor category and agriculture is their primary occupation. Moyna block can be divided into three potential zones in relevance to rice-fish farming namely Northern Zone consisting the Gram Panchayat Gokulnagar, Paramanandapur and Tilkhoja; South Western Zone having the Gram Panchayat Ramchak and Bakcha and the South Eastern Zone consisting the Gram Panchayat Gijina, Naichanpur-I, Naichanpur-II, Moyna-I, Moyna-II. A total off 5282 ha area is utilised for rice-fish farming operation. The following Mouza wise operational areas are depicted in the tables 3-5: Table 3. Potential seasonally flooded water bodies under Northern Zone Name of field

Mouza

No. of water bodies 02 02 04

Gram Panchayat Tilkhoja Tilkhoja Tilkhoja

Area (Ha) 126 61 170

Uttar Anukha Banki Banki Bhandarchak Tilkhoja Janakichak Charandaschak Mathurichak

Uttar Anukha Banki Tilkhoja Tilkhoja Gourangachak Gourangachak Tilkhoja

01 01 03 04

Tilkhoja Paramanandapur Paramanandapur Paramanandapur

22 59 160 240 7

Training Compendium

Harduachak Gourangachak Uttar Changrachak Haridaspur Paramanandapur Janaberia Kumorchak Rasikpur Knachichak Total

Gourangachak Gourangachak Uttar Changrachak Uttar Changrachak Paramanandapur Tilkhoja Bara Kumorchak Radhaballavchak Radhaballavchak

03 05 04 03 02 01 01 01 01

Paramanandapur Paramanandapur Paramanandapur Paramanandapur Paramanandapur Gokulnagar Gokulnagar Gokulnagar Gokulnagar

80 200 100 60 80 26 29 40 40 1493 Ha

Table 4. Potential seasonally flooded water bodies under South Western Zone Name of field

Mouza

No. of water bodies

Ramchak Raichak Sridharpur Daxmin Changrachak Magra Donachak Mathurapur Sudampur Bakcha Madhavchak Uttyampur Khejurtala Total

Ramchak Raichak Raichak D. Changrachak

03 02 03 08

Gram Panchayat Ramchak Ramchak Ramchak Ramchak

Raichak Donachak Sudampur Sudampur Bakcha Bakcha Uttayampur Tilkhoja

03 03 02 03 02 01 01 01

Ramchak Ramchak Ramchak Ramchak Bakcha Bakcha Srikantha Srikantha

Area (Ha) 160 200 120 416 129 120 60 120 42 36 25 30 1458 Ha

Table 5. Potential seasonally flooded water bodies under South Eastern Zone Name of field

Mouza

Buitalchak Kalagechhia Masamchak Kripanandapur Kiarana Gojeina Deuli Ballavpur Chiranjibpur Naichanpur

Ismalichak Kalagechhia Gojeina Kiarana Kiarana Gijina Deuli Deuli Deuli Naichanpur

No. of water bodies 02 05 02 02 04 03 01 01 01 03

Gram Panchayat Gojeina Gojeina Gojeina Gojeina Gojeina Gojeina Naichanpur-I Naichanpur-I Naichanpur-I Naichanpur-II

Area (Ha) 200 190 80 131 152 120 26 23 24 120 8

Training Compendium

Daxmin Anukha Haruli Bhandarchak Gopalchak Anandapur Purba Daxmin Moyna D. Moyna Tong-Tala Shyamganj Total

D. Anukha Haruli Bhandarchak Gopalchak Anandapur P. D. Moyna

08 05

Moyna-I Moyna-I

240 280

03 03 04

Moyna-I Moyna-I Moyna-II

200 146 160

P. D. Moyna P. D. Moyna P. D. Moyna

01 02 01

Moyna-II Moyna-II Moyna-II

29 52 22 2195 Ha

Sediments characteristics of some seasonally flooded water bodies of Moyna The sediment characteristics of the soils of Moyna (Table 9) indicates that soil texture of the impoundments were water retentive and conducive for rice cultivation. The pH ranged between 6.02 and 6.29. The Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Organic carbon values depict productive range for better rice as well as fish production. Table 9. Sediment characteristics of the soils of Moyna. Centres PH

Total Nitroge n (%)

Available Organic Free P2O5 Carbon CaCo3 mg/100g (%) (%)

C/N ratio

Sand (%)

Silt (%)

0.08

Availabl e Nitrogen mg/100g 45.92

Dakshin Changra Chak, Baital Chak, Janaki Chak, Gopal Chak, Mathuri Chak, Charand as Chak,

6.13

Cla y (%)

0.48

1.0

5.25

12.5

48.5

28.0 23.5

6.24

0.21

45.08

1.04

2.25

4.25

10.7

50.1

27.9 23.9

6.02

0.15

38.08

0.88

1.5

6.0

10.0

51.5

26.5 22.0

6.15

0.23

43.28

0.93

2.5

4.75

10.8

47.0

28.8 24.2

6.29

0.09

45.12

0.59

1.2

5.31

13.3

52.0

24.0 24.0

6.21

0.18

40.21

1.13

1.8

5.92

10.0

50.3

26.7 23.0

Physico-chemical parameters of the water of some seasonally flooded water bodies of Moyna 9

Training Compendium

The physico-chemical parameters of the water of the impoundments (Table 10) reveal that water level supported a conductive carrying capacity resulting in better fish growth. The pH of the waters ranged from 6.1 to 7.7 observed to be optimum. The DO level ranging from 5.8-7.9 at 1000 hrs was ideal for fish growth. The specific conductivity ranged in all waterbodies was observed to be optimum for better fish production. Table 10: Physico-chemical parameters of the water Place

Water Depth (m)

Water Temperature (°C)

pH

DO (mg/l)

Gopalchak

1.2-1.6

27.9-32.7

6.5-7.3

Mathurichak

1.0-1.5

28.1-31.2

6.4-7.4

199.9-278.9

Charandasch ak Dakshin Changra Chak Baital Chak

1.2-1.6

27.5-31.0

5.8-7.2

195.6-298.3

1.0-1.5

26.1-32.3

6.47.2 6.17.1 6.47.2 7.37.9

Sp. Conductivity (micro mohs/cm) 198.4-287.1

7.4-7.9

188.5-340.6

1.0-1.9

26.8-31.2

6.0-7.8

178.4-314.2

Janaki Chak

1.0-1.8

27.5-32.2

7.37.7 5.97.0

5.9-7.2

171.4-298.5

Light intensity (lux) 3.5-5.8 X104 5.1-6.7 X104 4.2-6.6 X104 3.3-6.6 X104 3.66.3X104 3.2-5.3 X104

Associated flora and fauna in rice – fish farming system. The rice- fish farming ecosystem during wet season was observed to be the hot spot of fish food organisms ( Bhaumik et. al, 2005 ). The ecosystems rich in plankton, periphyton, benthos support good fish production in the experimentations. The autochthonus source of nutrients as well as allochthonus source of nutrients coming through floodwater catalyses the luxurious growth of such fish food organisms in the ecosystems. Again, the submerged part of rice plants acts as substratum for good growth of periphyton. After harvesting of rice above the water level of the ecosystems, the submerged part of the rice plants remains undistributed catalyzing periphyton growth. During this 10

Training Compendium

period the fishes get conducive environment for movement and feed on enough natural fish food organisms, which accelerate the growth of fishes tremendously. Thus, fishes attain maximum growth during this period vis-à-vis higher fish production. Plankters availability in order of abundance are : Phytoplankton as Chlorophyta (Spirogyra spp., Oedogonium spp., Dreparnaldiapsis indica, Stegeoclonium sp., Zygnema sp., Characium spp., Selenastrum spp., Botrycocous sp., Scendesmus spp., Sorastrum sp., Pediastrum spp., Eudorina sp., Volvox sp., Microspora sp., Protococcus sp., Ankistrodesmus sp.), Cyanophyta (Anabaena spp., Gleotrichia spp., Oscillatoria spp., Spirulina sp., Tetrapedia sp., Polycystis sp.), Desmids (Docidium spp., Cosmarium spp., Euastrum spp., Closterium spp., Staurastrum sp., Penium spp., Desmidium sp., Pleurotaenium sp.,), Bacillarophyta (Navicula spp., Synedra spp., Cymbella spp., Pinnularia spp., Nitszchia spp., Amphora sp., Diatoma spp., Melosira spp., Gyrosigma spp., Eunotia spp., Cocconeis spp., Frustulia sp.), Zooplankton as Protozoans (Arcella spp., Centropyxis spp., Difflugia spp., Paramoecium sp., Loxodes sp.,), Rotifera (Brachionus spp., Euchlanis spp., Testidinelia spp.,), whereas macro zoobenthos as Oligochaets (Branchiura sowerbyi), Ostrocods (Bosmina spp., Eurycerus sp., Macrothrix sp., Ceriodaphnia sp., Chydorus sp., Diaphanosoma sp., Leydigia sp., Cyclops spp., Diaptomus spp.), Crabs (Paratelphusa spinigera, P. hydrodromus), Ephimeroptera (Caenis sp., Cloeon sp.), Diptera (Culex sp.), Odonata (Urothemis signata, Anax sp., Enallagma sp., Agria sp.), Masogastroda, (Pila globosa, Digonisostoma cerameopoma, Bellamya bengalensis, Gabbia orcula), Basommatophora (Indoplanorbis exustus, Gyralus convexiusculus, Lymnaea acuminata). Selection of fish species The fish species selected for rice-fish farming in the Moyna area are Catla (Catla catla), Rohu (Labeo rohita), Mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala), Bata (Labeo bata), Punti (Puntius javanicus), Cyprinus (Cyprinus carpio), Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), Tilapia (Oreochronius mosambica), Fresh water prawn, Galda (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), etc.. Mainly carp fingerlings are stocked when the fields are submerged with monsoon rain or flood water taken through canal from the nearby river. The Kangsabati or Kansai, flows 11

Training Compendium

through the adjacent the area of paddy plots. The farmers are not always dependent on rain, as the river used to bring plenty of fresh water from upper stretches. The carp fingerlings are reared in adjacent ponds, deeper pools digged inside the chaks and finally released in the rice plots when the paddy is sufficiently grown, so that the fishes cannot damage the tender leaves of the plants. Carp fingerlings (10-15cm) are stocked in the plots commensuration with rice cultivation. During the month July-August, depending on inundation in the floodplains by rain or river water fish fingerlings are stocked. No regular supplementary feeding are practised by the farmers. Chopped gastropod meats are also provided as food for prawn & carnivorous fishes. Lates calcarifer fingerlings are released to control wild fish (soft bodied fish like gobids, chela, minnows, small prawns), which breed freely in the paddy environment and become a good competitor of carp for food and space. Lates calcarifer can grow upto 1.52.0 kg in 6 months, if they consume foods in plenty. Regular guarding, netting, sampling etc. activities are carried out to achieve better yield by the managers. Pesticide applications are generally avoided in this system. But in some cases yellow stem borer or brown plant hopper have been encountered when biological control methods are followed. Average growth of fish recorded varied between 500 and 750 gms (Table 6). Total production, by and large, from such systems ranged from 3 to 5 t/ha. Table 6 : Average fish growth under rice-fish farming in Moyna Sl. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Fish Species Catla (Catla catla) Rohu (Labeo rohita) Mrigale (Cirrhinus mrigala) Bata (Labeo bata) Punti (Puntius javanicus) Cyprinus (Cyprinus carpio) Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) Tilapia (Oreochronius mosambica) Galda (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

Av. wt. at release 50-100 grms. 40-80 grms. 35-70 grms. 10-25 grms. 10-18 grms. 75-100 grms. 75-100 grms.

Av. wt. after harvest 500-950 grms. 400-600 grms. 300-500 grms. 50-75 grms 75-100 grms. 800-1000 grms. 1000-1500 grms.

4-10 grms. 3-5 grms.

50-75 grms. 30-80 grms.

12

Training Compendium

Paddy cultivation: With the onset of Nor‟wester in the area during the end of February to middle of March, tilling of land by power tiller are initiated. Immediately after the softening the soil, if the rice fields are ready for sowing, paddy seed are broadcast @ 150kg/ha followed by leveling. After one month deweeding and thinning are done and fertilizer-NPK is applied @ 30-70 kg/ ha. Again after one month Urea or NPK with similar dose is applied in the rice field. The deep water rice (DWR) farmers used to capture naturally occurring wild fishes and prawns in and around the field during season and at the end of the season when water recedes. The farmers use various types of local traps, cast nets, hooks & lines etc to exploit such fishes. In some fields, the farmers dig small ponds inside the field and harvest fishes from those water bodies after the deepwater season was over. The common wild variety of fishes harvested are Channa striatus, C. marulius, C. punctatus, Anabus testudineus, Clarias magur, Heteropneustes fossilis, Notopterus notopterus, Amblypharyngodon mola, Ambassis nama, A. ranga, Colisa faciatus, Nandus nandus, Rasbora daniconius, Mastacembelus armatus, M. puncalus, Puntius ticto, P. sophore, Mystus vittatus etc. Previously rice production during wet season was reported to be between 2.0 and 2.5 tonnes/ ha. where wild fish production ranged from 200 to 250 kg/ha. The selection of rice variety Jaya cross was very significant since it can grow normally with the rise of water level up to 5-6 ft ( 1-1.9 m) height. Even in 1 metre water depth this variety is comfortable and can yield 4-5 t/ ha. But the Kalisankar variety (finer than Jaya cross) can move up higher water depth more than 4 ft (1-1.2m). As this variety (Jaya cross) was disease resistant, no pesticide was required to be applied. After 120, days the paddy became ready for harvest. Its suitability further adhere to its compatibility with fish culture. At the time of harvesting (120-130 day period) the farmers coluld harvest the rice in boat/raft cutting the rice part only from the top with 0.3-0.5 m. length above the water level (Figure 1). The harvested paddy was then taken to the farmyard and stacked in 13

Training Compendium

the center place and covered with polythene sheet to save them from rain. Finally after drying, it was threshed and stored safely. The hay part was also used as manure or used in the kitchen woven. The left over stumps the field get automatically decomposed in the field and finally enriching the water body as organic manure. But after harvesting of rice, these stumps act to catalyze rich quantity of periphyton and benthos, plankton, which accelerates growth of fishes. Figure 1. Rice- fish crop calendar at freshwater site. Month Kharif Crop

Type Rice Fish Cultur e

Jan

Boro Crop Marc Apri Feb May June July August Sept h l

Fish Oct

Nov

Dec

Conclusions from Conducted Trials In the experimentations conducted in seasonally flooded water bodies in some areas of West Bengal under CIFRI – World Fish Centre Project, communities were encouraged to determine the management criteria and institutional arrangements which they considered suitable to their local conditions and social environment. Institutional Arrangements Arrangements between stakeholders are necessary within the context that during the flooded season when individual plots are not discernable, the water body becomes a temporary a common property, in contrast to the dry season in when individual land holdings are clearly discernable and respected; this approach is needed to exploit the resource. 14

Training Compendium

A group approach was used comprising landowners, fishers of the community and landless laborers (with customary access rights for fishing in the flood season). It was found that existing social harmony among the groups before the introduction of the community-based fish culture approach was a requirement for its successful implementation. Selection of Concurrent vs. Alternating System Depending on flooding pattern in the area, and on preferences among the groups. Fish species, stocking Densities, Sizes Recommendations were given on stocking of several fish species in a polyculture, preferably of larger sizes to avoid predation and to achieve greater sizes at harvest. However, the actually stocked numbers of individual fingerlings and species proportions depended on the local availability from hatcheries and other sources. Effects on Biodiversity (Wild Fish) It was generally concluded that wild fish biodiversity and abundance was not affected by the culture operation, although no specific analyses were conducted as part of these early trials. The conclusion is based on comparisons of wild fish catch both in terms of biomass and species composition, which was essentially similar, except for predators such as snake head (Channa sp.) and catfish (Clarias sp.), which were reduced. Beneficiaries and Impact Inland capture fisheries are the most threatened globally, with a constant negative trend. These fish are of highest importance which is reflected in constant price increases. Fish also have a high value for nutrition of the poor due to their nutrient density and quality (protein, oils, micronutrients) that is in highly bio-available form in most small fish species. Need for Further Research

15

Training Compendium

There are many options for enhancing food production from fish in managed aquatic systems. The most appropriate technology will vary from site to site. Additionally, the social and economic conditions under which these technologies can be implemented need to be understood. Although our recent studies in West Bengal demonstrated the feasibility of the community-based fish culture systems, much more work is needed to understand the social and economic viability of these approaches under different socio-cultural and institutional environments, and to design appropriate institutional arrangements for different social settings. Similarly, the governance arrangements for fish culture in irrigation systems (canals, fields) also require detailed analyses if the full social value of these resources is to be harnessed. At the ecosystem or basin level, water provides a wide range of goods and services, all of which need to be considered in broader analyses of the value obtained from water. Most of the previous studies of water productivity have concentrated on measuring the value of crop production only and excluded the existing and potential contributions by living aquatic resources. There is, therefore, a need not only to increase water productivity, but also to improve the methodologies for measuring water productivity. References Ali, A.B. 1990. Rice/fish farming in Malaysia: a resource optimisation. AMBIO 19(8): 404-408. Anon,2002. Final report on Increasing and sustaining the productivity of fish and rice in the flood prone ecosystems in South and Southeast Asia. World Fish Centre, Penang;Malaysia. Anon,2009. Hand book on fishing statistics of West Bengal. Department of Fisheries, Government of West Bengal; 104p. Anon, 2001 Census report 2001, Government of India. Bhaumik, Utpal, Arthur, Robert,Pandit, P.K and Saha Suman, 2005., Community-based Management Rice-Fish farming with adaptive Learning Approach, Workshop on CIFRI and World Fish Center Collaborative Project, held at CIFRI Barrackpore on August 27, 2005. 110p. Datta, S.K., konar,S.K., De.D., Banerjee, S.K. and Pandit, P.K.,1985. Deep water rice-fish culture, IRRi News letter,10(2):30-31. 16

Training Compendium

Mohanty, R.K., A. Mishra, H.N. Verma and P.S. Brahmanand 2002. Rainwater conservation and rice-fish integration for enhancing land and water productivity. Research Bulletin No. 11, Water Technology Centre for Eastern Region (ICAR), Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India. Nguyen, S.H., Bui, A.T., Le, L.T., Nguyen, T.T.T. and De Silva, S.S. 2001 The culturebased fisheries in small, farmer-managed reservoirs in two Provinces of northern Vietnam: an evaluation based on three production cycles. Aquaculture Research 32: 975-990. Rao, A.P. and Singh, R. 1998. Rice-fish farming system. In: S.H. Ahmed (ed.) Advances in fisheries and fish production. Hindustan Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, India, 309p. Saha, N. K. and Bardhan Roy,S. K. 2001. Rice-Fish cultivation in seasonally flooded deep water ecosystem in West Bengal, India. Workshop on Sustaining and increasing the productivity of fish and rice in seasonally flooded ecosystem in South and South East Asia. Dhaka: June 12-13. Shyam, R. 1998. Status of fisheries in India. In: S.H. Ahmed (ed.) Advances in fisheries and fish production. Hindustan Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, India, 309p.

Paper prepared for International Training Programme on Freshwater Fish Seed Production, Nursery and Rearing Practices for Cambodian Delegates; Organised by Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery sciences, Kolkata, India during 05-10 Nov, 2012

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STATUS OF ORNAMENTAL FISHERIES IN WEST BENGAL, INDIA B.K. Mahapatra, Principal Scientist Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Deemed University (ICAR), Kolkata Centre, Sector-V, Salt Lake City, Kolkata – 700 091. E-mail: [email protected] 1.

Introduction The varied forms and fascinating beauty of some fishes have attracted the people

from time immemorial and are named as „ornamental fish‟. In China and Japan, gold fish and koi carp have been used as an ornamental fish since long. Aquarium keeping of fish began in 1805 and the „first public aquarium‟ was opened at Regent‟s Park in England in 1853. Thereafter, aquaria keeping picked up further and by 1928 there were 45 display aquaria opened, with over 500 of public aquaria presently functioning worldwide. However, the global market of ornamental fish for public aquaria is less than 1% at present and over 99% of the market continues to be confined to hobbyists. The ornamental fish keeping, which started as a hobby has now turned out to be a commercial aqua-business and has taken the shape of an industry. The value of the entire industry has been estimated at US $ 15,000 million. Considering the enormous and diverse indigenous fish resources of the country in general there is immense scope for her to become a potential candidate and a strong competitor in the international ornamental fish trade. 1.1.1. Common freshwater ornamental fish In India, 288 species of exotic ornamental fishes exist of which 261 species are egg laying and 27 species are live bearing. Besides, there are a large number of common food fishes in India having a steady demand as ornamental fish due to their attractiveness. These fish species are popularly known as „Indian Aquarium Fish‟ by the ornamental fish traders and hobbyists. In West Bengal, the diversified fish fauna offers a wide group of small fishes which are unwanted for conventional farming, but having a good potential in global 18

Training Compendium

fish market. Study of such fishes in the wild state indicated presence of diversified group having export value. Altogether a total of 176 indigenous ornamental fish species have been recorded from the diverse fresh water bodies of North and South Bengal which belongs to 98 genera under 41 families and 10 orders.

Majority of the fish species

belonged to Cypriniformes (76) followed by Siluriformes (51), Perciformes (30), Clupeiformes (05), Cyprinoodontiformes (04), Anguilliformes (03) Osteoglossiformes (02), Synbrachiformes (02), Gasterosteiformes (01) and Tetraodontiformes (01). Further, the family cyprinidae contributed maximum number of species (56), followed by Sisoridae (17),

Balitoridae

(13),

Bagridae

(12),

Clupeidae/Belontidae/Mastacembelidae/Siluridae

Schibeilidae (04)

(08),

Channidae

(06),

Gobidae/Mugilidae

(03),

Ambassidae/Aplocheidae/Ariidae/Nandidae/ Notopteridae/ Olyridae/Psilorhyndae and Synbracidae

(02),

Amblycipitidae/Anabantidae/

Angilidae/Belonidae/Centrpomidae/

Chacidae/ Claridae/Eleotridae/Engraulidae/ Heteropneustidae/Hemiramphidae/Lobotidae Moringuidae/

Ophichthidae/

Pangasidae/ Plotocidae

/Scatophagidae/

Sygnathidae/

Tetraponidae and Tetraodontidae (01). Diversity of Indigenous Ornamental fish in West Bengal The West Bengal are blessed with many ornamental fish species like loach, barbs, danio, snakeheads, trout, rasbora, gouramy, catfish, clown fish, algae eater and goby. These include both classified and non-classified type of aquarium fish. The small fishes like Botia dario, Danio dangila, Puntius shalynius and Schistura reticulofasciatus are classified type of ornamental fish, which can be reared in aquarium through out their life span. On the other hand, some larger food fishes like Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis, Labeo gonius, Channa marulius, Bagarius bagarius and Rita rita are also now treated as ornamental fish in their juvenile stage and termed as non-classified ornamental fish. The native ornamental fishes can be classified based on their diversified character such as, beautiful colour (e.g., Pseudecheneis sulcatus, Tetradon cutcutia), stripes & banding pattern (e.g., Botia rostrata, Brachydanio rerio), Chamelionic habit (e.g., Badis badis, Puntius shalynius), jumping behaviour (e.g., Esomus danricus, Chela laubuca), charming predatory habit (e.g.,Channa 19

Training Compendium

orientalis, Glossogobius giuris), calm behaviour (e.g., Ctenops nobilis, Nandus nandus), transparent body (e.g., Chanda mama, Pseudambassis ranga), small size (e.g.,Danio dangila, Brachydanio rerio), hardiness (Anabas testudineus) and suckers (e.g.,Garra gotyla gotyla, Garra mcllendi). Besides, some larger food fishes like Neolissocheilus hexagonolepis, Labeo gonius, Channa maurulius and Rita rita are also now treated as ornamental fish in their juvenile stage and are termed as non-classified ornamental fish. Breeding of Ornamental fish Different groups of fishes reproduce in different ways. An understanding of how the various species go about breeding is indispensable to undertake breeding programme. In general the fishes can be divided into two broad categories – Egg layers and Livebearers. Within this basic grouping, different species have their own ways of ensuring the survival of at least a proportion of their offspring. (i) Livebearers Livebearers are fish that bear live young ones. There are two types of livebearers: ovoviviparous, where the eggs form and hatch within the female before birth; and viviparous, where no eggs are formed, and the young are nourished through an umbilicallike cord or from secretions by the female. Livebearers are often prolific, easily bred species. Spawning tank The live bearing fishes are the easiest of all aquarium fishes to breed; indeed, the only problem usually encountered is that of saving the young from the cannibalism of their parents. Various traps have been designed for the relatively rapid separation of the young from their mother at birth. The most satisfactory arrangement is a screen of mosquito netting on a stainless steel or wooden frame, which can be wedged across the tank so as to confine the female to one end while allowing the young to pass. Despite of all these devices, the more natural method is having plants in abundance to provide shelter for the young, and removing the mother at the earliest chance. The best plants for young 20

Training Compendium

livebearers are masses of Myriophyllum, Ambulia, Nitella, Utricularia, etc.

Guppy

Black molly

Sword tail

Platy

Fig-1: Live bearer ornamental fishes

Fig-2: Breeding of live bearer ornamental fishes Raising the fry of Livebearers Livebearer young are quite large, and young fishes can feed on dry or other prepared food straight away. If they are given only prepared food, growth will be poor, but a mixture of live and dry food is quite satisfactory. In the early stage, feeding of live food is very important for good development. Later it matters much less, although the fishes will still do better with a good proportion of live food. Suitable first live foods are micro worms, newly hatched brine shrimp, shredded earthworms, daphnia, newly hatched mosquito wrigglers or 21

Training Compendium

shredded white worms. Suitable dry foods include any fine powder food, such as dried shrimp finely ground, fine cereals, and liver or egg powder. (ii). Egg layers Most aquarium species are egg layers with external fertilization. Within this group, fishes can be divided into five groups - egg-scatterers, egg-depositors, egg-buriers, mouthbrooders, and nest-builders; depending on how they lay and handle their eggs. Egg-scatterers These species simply scatter their adhesive or non-adhesive eggs to fall to the substrate, into plants, or float to the surface. The egg-scatterers either spawn in pairs or in groups. There is no parental care given and even they eat their own eggs, so large amounts of eggs are produced. The Characins and Cyprinids lay their eggs this way. Spawning tank Because egg scatterers often eat their own eggs, the spawning tank has to be set-up so that the eggs fall out of the reach of parents. For egg scatterers like Barbs and Danios, which lay non-adhesive eggs, the spawning tank can be furnished with a substrate consisting of two layers of marbles or nylon netting just above the tank floor. As the eggs are laid, they fall through the marbles or the netting out of the reach of the parents. After spawning is over, the eggs or the parents can be removed. For egg scatterers that lay adhesive eggs like Tetras, the spawning tank should be furnished with a substrate. The tank should be planted with fine-leafed plants. The eggs are laid amongst plants, and adhere to the fine-leaves. The parents should be removed after spawning. Egg-depositors: In this case, the eggs are either laid on a substrate, like a stone or plant leaf or even individually placed among fine leafed plants like Java moss. Egg- depositors usually lay less egg than egg-scatterers. Egg-depositors fall into two groups: those that care for their eggs, and those that don‟t care. Among egg depositors that care for their eggs are cichlids and some catfish. Cyprinids, various catfish, and Killifish make up the majority of eggdepositors that do not care for their young ones. These species lays their eggs against a surface, where the eggs are abandoned. These species do not usually eat their eggs. Spawning tank For those egg-depositors that care for their young ones, the parents can remain in the tank after spawning. Substrate spawners, depending on the species, should be given a tank furnished glass panes, broad-leafed plants, or flat stones for spawning sites. Some species such as Discus and Angelfish prefer vertical surfaces. For cavity spawners, flowerpots turned on their side, coconut shells, and rocky caves are suitable spawning sites. The tank should be furnished with either live or plastic plants to give the fish a sense of security. Egg-depositors that do not care for their young ones should be given a tank 22

Training Compendium

furnished with fine and broad-leafed plants, Java Moss, or artificial spawning mops. After spawning the parents or plants with the eggs should be removed. If the plants containing eggs are removed, new plants should be placed in the tank for future spawning. Egg-buriers: Fishes in this group usually inhabit waters that dry up at some time of the year. The majority of egg buriers are annual Killifish, which lay their eggs in mud. The parents mature very quickly and lay their eggs before dying when the water dries up. The eggs remain in a dormant stage until rains stimulate hatching. Spawning tank A peat-moss substrate is one of the best substrates for egg-burying species. The peat moss can be removed after spawning and placed in a plastic bag to be stored for weeks to months (depending on the species). A new peat-moss substrate can be placed in the tank for further spawning. In order to initiate hatching, the stored peat can be immersed in soft water. Mouth-brooders: Mouth-brooders carry their eggs or larvae in their mouth. Mouth brooders can be broken up into ovophiles and larvophiles. Ovophiles or egg-loving mouth-brooders lay their eggs in a pit, which are sucked up into the mouth of the female. The small numbers of large eggs hatch in the mother‟s mouth, and the fry remain there for a period of time. Many cichlids and some labyrinth fish are ovophile mouth-brooders. Larvophile or larvaeloving mouth-brooders lay their eggs on a substrate and guard them until the eggs hatch. After hatching, the female picks up the fry and keeps them in her mouth. When the fry can feed for themselves, they are released. Spawning tank Ovophile mouth-brooders can be bred in the main aquarium because the eggs are protected in the mouth cavity. However, it is better to separate mouth-brooders with eggs because of their potentially aggressive behavior. There are no special breeding tank requirements other than the usual tank set-up for the species. Larvophile mouth-brooders should be placed in a separate breeding tank because the eggs are not protected in the mouth, but laid on a surface where they are open to predators. Nest-builders: Many fish species build some sort of nest for their eggs. The nest ranges form a simple pit dug into the gravel or the elaborate bubble nest formed with saliva-coated bubbles. The Gouramis, Anabantids and some catfish are the most common of this type of spawners. Nest builders practice brood care. Spawning tank Nest-builders should be provided with material with which to build their nests. For bubble-nest builders, fine leafed and floating plants should be provided, and the tank should 23

Training Compendium

have no water current to disturb the nest. Species that build nests in the substrate should be given fine gravel or sand. Raising the fry of Egg layers When the eggs hatch, the larvae that emerge look nothing like the parent fish. Instead, the larvae have a large, yellow yolk sac and are barely able to swim. The larva feeds on the egg sac until all the yolk is absorbed. Once the yolk sac is absorbed, the fry starts feeding on external food. The fry of small fish can be first fed with Infusoria, “green water,” or egg yolk. Later these fry can be fed larger foods like white worms, Daphnia, Artemia nauplii, and ground flakes. These foods are good as a first food for slightly larger fry such as those of cichlids. Once the fish grow larger, larger foods like brine shrimp, larger Daphnia, flakes, insect larvae, and chopped Tubifex worms are accepted. The fry should be fed several times a day. Many species need periodic sorting by size, so that larger fish do not cannibalize smaller fish. Breeding and Culture of Gold Fish (Carassius auratus) Common gold fish, Carassius auratus, belongs to the order: Cypriniformes and family Cyprinidae. It is an omnivorous fish and feeds on a wide variety of live feed and accepts artificial feeds also. Colour of gold fish ranged from Red, Orange, Silver, Black, Brown, White and many more. More than 30 varieties of gold fish are available. The most common varieties are Oranda, Lion head, Fan tail, Telescope eye, Bubbles eye, Albino, Pearl scale and several others.

Fig-3: Gold fish Required water parameters such as pH 7.0 to 8.0, temp 25 to 30 oC, dissolved oxygen 5 to 7 ppm, dissolved free carbon dioxide 0 to 4 ppm and total alkalinity 80 to 100 ppm. Electric aerator (pump) raise dissolved oxygen level of water to 6-7 ppm which is necessary for breeding. Partial water exchange (25 to 30 %) is very much essential from breeding tank. Breeding carried out in “Gamlas”, 40 to 60 l capacity which is made up of clay or cement or in rectangular glass aquarium of 50 l capacity. General fecundity of gold fish ranged from 500 – 700 depending upon the size. Sex ratio is kept 2:1 (male:female) to ensure successful breeding. Eggs are generally released during night hours. Fertilized eggs are transparent and grayish in colour and unfertilized eggs are transparent white. Eggs are sticky in nature; substratum may be maintained with soft weeds, tiles, corrals etc., for settlement of eggs. 24

Training Compendium

Fertilized eggs hatch in 4 to 7 days depending upon water temperature. No parental care is seen. Parents eat hatchlings. As a result parents will be removed after breeding. Sex Determination: In case of male gold fish white bumps or tubercles develop on the operculum and pectoral fin. Main ray of pectoral fin have thick edge in case of male but thinner edge in case of female. Fins become more pointed in case of male but look rounded in female. Vent assumes a concave shape with a small opening in male and vent becomes convex and large opening in case of female. Abdomen is seen to be smaller in male but large in case of female.

Brooders

Base for adhesive eggs

Eggs on mop (inside water)

Eggs on mop

Newly hatched ones Gold fish fry in rearing tank Gold fish ready for market Fig-4: Different stages in gold fish breeding Culture of common gold fish: The culture of common gold fish is being taken up normally in cement tanks of dimension 10‟ x 5‟ x 2‟ or 12‟ x 6‟ x 2‟. Preferable temperature for culture is 15.5 to 24 oC. pH range 7.0 - 8.0 and prefer moderate hardness of 50 – 75 mg CaCO3 per litre and oxygen level of 5 to 7 ppm. Generally 300 fry (23 mm) of gold fish are stocked in each cement tank of dimension 10‟ X 5‟ X 2‟. 25

Training Compendium

The newly hatched young ones depend upon their yolk size as a food source for a couple of days. When the fry become free swimming they are being fed with Artemia, Daphnia, Moina, Tubifex worm and other planktons. Young ones of 2 – 3 days old feed with egg yolk and dried milk powder. After 10 days the young ones start feeding the tubifex worms and maintained till their disposal. Breeding of Tiger Barb (Barbus tetrazona) Out of more than 30 commercially important species of freshwater ornamental fishes reported from Indian waters tiger barb, Barbus tetrazona is one of them. This species is hardier and active and does not require much of attention in regard to its basic needs. Their large scales, bright colors, schooling behavior and ease of maintenance and of breeding them have made the fish popular in the aquarium trade. Though there are 1078 barb species reported from all over the world, only 70 barb species are commercially important because of their color pattern.

Fig-5: Tiger barb Maturity of tiger barb: The tiger barb which is four banded usually attains sexual maturity at a total body length of 20-30 millimeters (2-3 cm) (or) at approximately 6-7 weeks of age. Although tiger barbs are not sexually dimorphic, males display a bright red coloration on fin rays and snout while females tend to be more round in the abdominal region and slightly less colorful. Females are usually larger than males. They can obtain a maximum length of 7 cm and body depth at 2 cm. All related barbs mate in a ratio of one male to one female with the male displaying aggressive behavior while the female is submissive. Brood stock conditioning: Conditioning the sexes in separate tanks is an important step in the seed production process. Tiger barbs for use as brood stock (2 to 3 cm body length) are first collected from a production ponds or natural water bodies and graded with size graders. Sexually mature females are identified by full round abdominal region and sexually matured males are identified by bright red colors on the fin rays. The selected brooders are then placed sexwise in separate circular or square or rectangular conditioning tanks. Rectangular tanks are more conductive for removing and selecting brooders. A stocking density of one fish per four liters of water is recommended. The conditioning tank should be provided with sufficient aeration and water exchange at a rate of 20% per day. The separated fish are 26

Training Compendium

conditioned by a diet of frozen blood or tubifex worms of Artemia. High quality flakes or a prepared taste are given as feed at least twice or thrice per day for a period of two weeks. Since wild tubifex causes infection to broodstock utmost care should be exercised to prevent this, through needed cleaning etc. During conditioning good water quality should be maintained as the conditioning of diets can lead to fouling of the water. Lack of proper conditioning will result in greatly reduced number of successful synchronized spawning. Spawning of Tiger Barb: Submerged aquatic plants or roots are often chosen by the females as the substrate on which they deposit eggs. During actual spawning event, the male clasps the female with its fins during which eggs and sperms are released over the substrate. The behavior may last for several hours or until all the eggs are released. An average of 300 eggs can be expected from each female per spawn. Tiger Barb will consume the eggs greedily after spawning. Therefore parents must be removed as soon as possible (Vogt and Wermuth, 1961; O‟Cornel, 1977 and David, 1983). Spawned eggs are adhesive, negatively buoyant in freshwater and on an average 1.18±0.05 mm in diameter. The eggs will hatch in 3 days if a temperature of 25º to 27º is obtained.

Fig-6: Male and Female Tiger barb

Fig-7: Young ones of tiger barb

Breeding of Angel Fish (Petrophyllum Scalare) Angel fish breeding has progressed into an art with the development of the veil finnages, superveil finnages and the many color varieties. It is remarkable that all of these forms came from the original standard silver angel fish from the wild.

Fig-8: Angel fish

27

Training Compendium

Sex identification: It is difficult to identify male and female in the angel fish but at the time of spawning genital papillae are the reliable identification of sex determination. These look like little nipple-like projections and are called ovipositors. The female‟s ovipositor is larger and more blunt than the males which is slender and more pointed. These protuberences, which appear at the vent, are used respectively for depositing eggs and fertilizing them.

Male & female angel fish

Baby angel

Set up for mass scale breeding

Angel ready for marketing

Fig-9: Different stages of Angel breeding Spawning tank: Large aquarium tank of 80 to 100 l capacity is ideal for spawning tank. Spawning tank water requires a slightly acidic pH level of 6.6 to 6.8. The fish can spawn at higher pH of 8 but fish tend to spawn more readily at the lower pH levels mentioned above. It is especially important to keep the water acidic if you are going to keep the eggs with the parents. Maintaining the pH 6.6 to 6.8 for hatching provides an optimum pH condition for hatching eggs. The tank is furnished with slates or glass plates that are slanted at angle to lay eggs upon. An air stone giving mild aeration may be placed at the corner. The pair will select a spawning site and thoroughly clean it about two or three days before actual spawning takes place. When the cleanliness of spawning site finally meets the approval of the parent fish, the female will make a few test runs. She will pull her ventral fins of feelers close to the lower sides of her abdomen and her anal fin will be situated so that her entire lower line is relatively straight. Her ovipositor will then be able to make full 28

Training Compendium

contact with the slate; glass plate or whatever chosen for a spawning site. The male will then make a few practices run too before the actual spawning takes place. When spawning actually takes place, the female will pass over the site and eggs are deposited which adhere to the surface. The male then moves in and scoots along over the string of eggs just laid and fertilizes them, his fins taking the same position as the females so he can press closely to insure a higher fertilization rate. The male and female angel fish will take runs passes over the spawning site until several hundred or more eggs have been laid, depending on the size and condition of the female prior to spawning. The parents will hover closely over the spawn and fan continuously with their pectoral fins to create a circulation of water over and around the eggs. Some fertilized eggs will turn white in a matter of hours and will be removed by the parents. Hatching Eggs: For the successful hatching of the eggs it is recommended to use very soft water preferably rain water or distilled water because it has naturally low pH of 6.2-6.5. When the spawning is over the glass plate should be removed from the spawning tank and place it in a 30-50 l tank with sponge filter and a piece of slate leaned up against a side wall. An air stone should be placed in the jar in such a way that somewhat vigorous stream of air bubbles does not hit the eggs directly. Few drops of 10% Methylene blue was added to prevent the fungal attack on eggs. Hatching should occur in about 36-48 hours depending on the temperature. There will be a period after hatching and before free swimming when the fry will stick together. At this time increase the aeration so all the fry will have access to sufficient oxygen. Do not put food in the tank till they fry are free swimming. After about 3-5 days when they are free swimming, introduce newly hatched brine shrimp into the tank for the fry to eat. Rearing tanks for baby angels that are two weeks and older incorporate normal dechlorinated tap water. Ten liter for every hundred liter of water is changed daily from the bottom of the tank where all the detritus accumulates. These rearing tanks are not treated to lower acidity. Feeding Schedule: One week to three weeks Angel young ones do not need any type of feeding until they are in free swimming stage. It takes about four to six days depending on the temperature. When the young fry became free swimming feed them newly hatched brine shrimp (Artemia) or Moina. Brine shrimp is fed directly to the young at first to make sure that no excess is floating around in the tank for hours at a time. Three or four feedings per day should be sufficient. Any brine shrimp floating around after 20 minutes is a sign that you are feeding too much. Remember, feeding in light quantities decreases overfeeding and associated problems such as ammonia and disease. 29

Training Compendium

Three weeks to five weeks: After three weeks the fry attain a size in which they will accept finely crushed flake foods. Flake foods are provided in small quantities as a supplement. After three weeks brine shrimp can be fed and eaten within 15 minutes of adding it to the aquarium. Five weeks to seven weeks: At five weeks of age, the young angel fish are introduced to dry foods. A small amount is fed twice daily until the seventh week. During this time, the small angel fish will attempt to eat the dry flakes but small angel fish will attempt to eat the dry flakes but they will usually spit it out soon after taking it into their mouths. Some will eat the flakes and some will not. Around the seventh week the angel fish begin accepting dry flakes and there should be few flakes, if any remaining on the bottom of the tank like the previous weeks. Six weeks to adult hood: At about six weeks of age, the young angel fish have reached a size in which they will begin accepting blended beef hurt cubes. Baby brine shrimp can still be given to the young angels for upto three months but beef liver and flakes are all that is necessary for quick growth. Breeding of Gouramies: Gouramies although closely related to Bettas, do not have their fighting depositors. A under good conditions they are friendly community fish. In all gouramies, the pelvic fins are shaped as long as thread-like feelers, which can be moved in all the directions. Popular aquariums varieties of gouramies are the giant gourami (Colisa fasciata), dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia), pearl gourami (Trichogaster leeri), blue or three spot gourami (Treichogaster trichopterus), moonlight gourami (Trichogaster microcephalus), snakehead gourami (Trichogasrter pectolaris), chocolate gourami (Sphaericthys osphronemoides) and kissing gourami (Helostoma temmincki).For describing the breeding of gouramies, a typical example of blue or three spot gourami is presented below.

Fig-10: Male & Female Giant Gourami, Colisa fasciatus 30

Training Compendium

The three spot gourami breeds during April to August. During breeding season mature male develops dark colouration and female show buldging abdomen. While making breeding pair care must be taken to select the mature female, which is ready to spawn. This is because males of blue gourami are very aggressive in nature and tend to kill female, if she is not ready to breed. Aquarium tanks of 50-80 litre capacity can be used for breeding. The water level in the aquarium should not be more than 25 cm. One or two pieces of floating plants and beetle leaves may be floated on the water surface to hold the bubble nest. The tank should not be provided with aeration. The pairing of blue gourami is made in the ratio of 1:1. If the male in breeding condition, it will start making nest within one or two days. The bubble nests floats under the plant leaves and looks like soap foam. The male drags the female under the leaves and during courtship female releases a batch of 2025 eggs. The male pick up the eggs and attach them in the floating nest. 1.1.2. Culture of ornamental fish Ornamental fish farming is identified as an alternative income generating activity and is also becoming popular in India. The main advantage of this trade is that besides the rural areas, it can be practiced in urban areas too. Glass aquaria, concrete tanks and net-cages are commonly used for the culture of ornamental fishes. Generally two types of rearing are done. The fry of common local bred egg layers and live bearers are reared. On the other hand, imported fry of some exotic fry of some exotic price fishes are reared by the local farmers against some wages. An interested culturists can begin with species like gold fish (Carassius auratus), platy (Xiphophorus maculates), sword tail (Xiphophorus helleri), guppy (Lebistes reticulates) etc. 1.2.

Feed management

Types of feed is an important constituent in ornamental fish farming and high expenditures are generally incurred on feed. Hence, the right type of feed in appropriate quantities would ensure a higher survival and growth and also a higher economic return. The feed requirement of different species vary and hence a thorough knowledge of the food and feeding habits of the culturable species is a pre-requisite. Nowadays, different types of feed are available in the hobby shops; however, most of these feeds are expensive. Hence, the culturists can prepare the feed using locally available materials which would be more economical and cost-effective. Feeds are of two main types viz. formulated dry feeds and live feeds. 1.3.

Live feed

In aquarium industry, live feed is very important and the success of ornamental fish breeding and culture depends mainly on the constant supply of live feed. The larval stages of all aquarium fishes depend wholly on the live food and even the adults of these fishes show a greater preference to the live feed. The carotenoid pigments, which are very essential for enhancing the colour of ornamental fishes, can be derived from the live feed. Thus live feed is considered as living nutritious capsule as they contain all the essential 31

Training Compendium

nutrients, which enhances the breeding efficiency and excellent growth and colouration of fishes. 1.3.1. Types of live feed The live feed which are used for ornamental fish breeding and culture are of many types. Some of them are infusoria, daphnia, tubificid worms, mosquito larvae, artemia, moina etc. 1.4.

i) Infusoria

The infusorians are tiny single celled protozoans which exist in almost all water bodies. They form an excellent starter food for the newly hatched spawn after the yolk sac absorption is complete. Among the many species of infusoria, Paramecium and Stylonychia are the commonly cultured species for feeding the larvae. They are mostly seen in ditches containing rotten kitchen waste having foul smell. ii) Brachionus Brachionus species are excellent first feed for the larval fish because of its small size, slow swimming speed and habit of staying suspended in the water column and the ability to be cultured at high densities. 1.4.1. iii) Tubificid worms Tubifex are small, reddish worms upto 2cm long, and they occur in large numbers in flowing sewage drains. When disturbed, they enter into the mud. iv) Artemia Artemia is a tiny saltwater crustacean brine shrimp and the nauplii of which are excellent diet for the aquarium fishes, both for adults as well as for their young ones. The Artemia cysts which are generally collected from the salt pans are available in markets in tins. The Artemia cysts can be hatched in glass jars at a room temperature of 27-30oC. To half a litre of cooled boiled water, 10-15 g of salt is added. The water is aerated and to this Artemia cysts are added @ 0.5 to 1.0g/litre of water. The favourable pH is 7.5-8.5. Hatching takes place in about 24 hours. After hatching, the nauplii are harvested in a 100 m mesh net by taking advantage of their phototactic nature by providing light of 1000 lux. After collecting, the nauplii are thoroughly washed and stocked in a container containing seawater of 25-35 ppt salinity and fed to the fish larvae as per the requirement. 1.4.2. Formulated dry feeds In addition to the live feeds, the ornamental fishes are also maintained using formulated dry feeds. Different types of formulated feeds are available in the markets in the form of flakes, crumbles and pellets. However, most of the feeds available in the markets are expensive for the very fact that they are imported from other countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Hence, the culturists can prepare good quality feeds for his ornamental fishes using locally available ingredients. 32

Training Compendium

It has been reported that all the fishes require crude protein level in a range of 30-45%, crude lipid 4-8% and carbohydrate 30-50%. Based on this, the feed can be prepared for the ornamental fishes with 40-50% protein, 4-6% lipid & 40-50% carbohydrate for the young ones and 30-35% protein, 6-8% lipid & 40-50% carbohydrate for the adult fishes. In addition, 1% each of vitamins and minerals can be added to the feed. For preparing the feed, the feed ingredients are selected on the basis of their availability, nutrient composition and physical properties. The ingredients should be free from pathogen and should be of good quality. The ingredients that are commonly used are the vegetable sources like the groundnut oil cake, rice bran, tapioca flour, wheat bran, wheat flour, maize bran and soybean meal and animal sources like fish meal, silkworm pupae meal, prawn head meal and earthworm meal. 1.5.

Health Care

In ornamental fish farming, proper health management is to be taken throughout the culture period. Tap water is kept stagnant for one or two days for dechlorination, if any chlorine is present. In case of pond water, methylene blue is used @ 3.5 mg per litre to purify the water. Quarantine tanks are used for new fish to prevent the entry of new pathogens. Sometimes, some chemicals like copper sulphate, potassium permanganate, malachite green, formaldehyde and antibiotics like oxytetracycline or terramycin are used to prevent the infection. Marketing of ornamental fishes Ornamental fish marketing is not well organised. Only few traders collect the native ornamental fishes through local collectors and supply them to different exporters based in Kolkata, Howrah, Mumbai, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, and Cochin for export. The ornamental fish market of Kolkata (locally known as „Galif Street Market‟) is the largest wholesale market of ornamental fish in the Eastern and North Eastern Zone of India. Actually it is a weekly market of pet animals like ornamental fish, turtles, cage and poultry birds, puppies, white rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, and mongoose. Different indoor and decorative plants including bonsai and cacti occupy a large portion of the market area. All needed accessories of these hobbies like seed and seedlings of different plants, planting pots, fertilizers, fish feed and aquarium accessories, different types of cages and birdfeed are also available here. So, though this more than hundred years old haat is a favourite destination of the hobbyists on Sunday morning, this is also a large business place with huge wholesale and retail turnover of not less than five lakhs rupees. Ornamental fish contributes a large portion of it. With the rich biotic resources, favourable climatic condition and available manpower West Bengal is now one of the pioneering states in ornamental fish trade. Kolkata is the highest ornamental fish exporting city of India. Major Indian export goes from Kolkata followed by Mumbai and Chennai. The trade of the ornamental fish of ecologically diverse north eastern states also is routed through this market. This wholesale market is the hub of the ornamental fish trade of this zone of our 33

Training Compendium

country. The positional advantage of this market has made it easier for it to become the centre of immense importance and scope. Nearly 200 species of ornamental fishes are exported from West Bengal. The demand of the ornamental fish was very much fluctuating during different years and seasons. The price in local hobby shops as well as in „Gallif Street Market‟ ornamental fish market is also good and varies between Rs.5-100/-. The FOB price offered by the exporter for native ornamental fish is significantly high and varies from about 0.06 US$ to 4.825 US$. Indian export on Ornamental fish mainly depends on West Bengal. About 50% of export, by value, of the ornamental fish takes place through Kolkata port. The exports were made to Singapore, USA, Japan, UK, Germany, Sri Lanka, Spain and other countries. In the global ornamental fish trade, USA tops the list of importing countries, while Singapore occupies the top most slots among the exporting countries. 1.5.1. Economics breeding and rearing of ornamental fish Encouraging income is possible through breeding and rearing of ornamental fish which depends on investment, management practice, marketing facilities etc. In breeding and rearing of gold fish, by investing a total of Rs.30, 000.00, one can earn a monthly profit of Rs.2500/- (Table 1). In breeding and rearing of angel fish, from 10 breeding pairs of angel, a minimum of 20,000 young ones can be produced annually and from the sale of these produce, an annual profit of Rs.52, 200/- can be easily achieved (Table 2). The breeding and rearing of live bearers can be initiated even with a minimum available space and moderate investment. By investing Rs.48,000/-, which includes both the capital cost and the culture cost, a monthly income of Rs.4,000/- can be easily realised in the first year (Table 3). Table1. Economics of gold fish Breeding and rearing unit S.No A. 1 2 3 4 B. 1 2

Particulars CAPITAL COST Cost of shed house 6 Cement tanks (2m x 1.5m x 1m) 6 Air pumps Other fittings SUB TOTAL CULTURE COST Breeders 10 pairs Feed for 1 year

Rate (Rs.) 5000.00 2000.00/tank 200.00/piece

400.00/pair

Total value (Rs.) 5000.00 12000.00 1200.00 1800.00 20000.00 4000.00 4000.00 34

Training Compendium

3 3 C. 1

D

Electricity charges Others SUB TOTAL SALE Total production – 1500 per female 1.00 Breeding 4 times in a year Total production 6000 per female Total production from 10 females=60000 (annually) PROFIT [C – (A+B)]

1200.00 800.00 10000.00 60000.00

30000.00

Table 2. Economics of angel breeding and rearing S.No A. 1 2 3 4 5 6 B. 1 2 3 4 C. 1 2 3 D.

Particulars CAPITAL COST Shed house 10 glass aquaria (122cm x 48cm x 48cm) without lid 10 glass aquaria (75cm x 30cm x 30cm) 20 plastic trays (40cm x 30cm x 9cm) 10 Air pumps 10 Water heater Sub Total CULTURE COST Cost of 10 pairs Cost of feed for 1 year Electricity charges Other cost Sub Total SALE After 45 days of rearing (4000 pieces) After 60 days of rearing (4000 pieces) After 90 days of rearing (12000 pieces) Sub Total PROFIT [C – (A+B)]

Rate (Rs.)

Total value (Rs.)

5000.00 1400.00/piece

5000.00 14,000.00

800.00/piece 200.00/piece 200.00/piece 500.00/piece

8,000.00 4,000.00 2000.00 5000.00 38,000.00

500.00/pair 1000.00/month 400.00/month

5,000.00 12,000.00 4,800.00 2,000.00 23,800.00

4.00/fish 5.00/fish 6.50/fish

16,000.00 20,000.00 78,000.00 1,14,000.00 Rs.52,200.00

35

Training Compendium

1.6. S.No A. 1 2 3 4 5

B. 1 2 3 4 5

C.

D.

Table 3. Economics of breeding and rearing of live bearers Particulars CAPITAL COST Cost of shed house 4 Breeding tank (cemented) 2m x 1.5m x 1m 4 Delivery tank (glass aquaria) of size 75cm x 30cm x 30cm 4 Spawn rearing tank (glass aquaria) of size 122cm x 48cm x 48cm without lid 4 Fry rearing tank (cemented) 2m x 1.5m x 1m Sub-total RECURRING EXPNDITURE FOR ONE YEAR 800 females, 200 males of guppy, molly, sword tail & platy Cost of feed for 1 year

Rate (Rs.)

Total value (Rs.)

5000.00 Rs.2000/tank

5000.00 8,000.00

Rs.800/aquariu m Rs.1400/aquari um Rs.2000/tank

3,200.00 5,600.00 8,000.00 29,800.00

Rs.5.00/fish

5000.00

Rs.500.00/ month

6,000.00

Hand nets, brood cage etc. Electricity charges Rs.200/month Chemicals, medicines, packing material, buckets, etc. Sub-total SALE Gross income from the sale of 76800 Rs.1.25/pc., nos. of fish reared for one month (@ 40 nos./female/cycle from 3 cycles/year, and considering a survival of 80%) PROFIT [C – (A+B)]

2,800.00 2,400.00 2,000.00 18,200.00 96,000.00

48,000.00

For Further Reading Ghosh A., Mahapatra, B.K. and Datta, N.C. 2002. Studies on native ornamental fish of West Bengal with a note on their conservation. Environment & Ecology 20 (4) : 787-793 Ghosh, A., Mahapatra, B.K. and Datta, N.C. 2003. Ornamental fish farming – Successful small aqua business in India. Aquaculture Asia 8 (3): 14-16. 36

Training Compendium

Mahapatra, B. K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2003. Scope of ornamental fishery in Meghalaya. Page 397 to 401 In: B.P. Bhatt, K.M. Bujarbaurah, Y.P. Sharma, and Patirama (eds). Approaches for Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Hill and Mountain Ecosystem. ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya Mahapatra, B. K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2003. Studies on native ornamental fish of Meghalaya with a note on their cultural prospects. Aquacult 4(2) : 173 – 182. Mahapatra B.K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2004. Fish biodiversity of North Eastern India with a note on their sustainable utilization. Environment & Ecology 22 (Spl1) : 56-63. Mahapatra, B. K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2004. Ornamental Fish of North Eastern India – Its distribution and conservation status. Environment & Ecology 22 (3) : 674 - 683. Mahapatra, B.K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2005. Export potentiality of native ornamental fish from North Eastern Hill States of India with a note for development of such fisheries. Environ. Ecol. 23(4): 780-786. Mahapatra, B.K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2007a. Native ornamental fisheries in Sikkim with its prospects and constraints.. Environ. Ecol. 25S(1): 125-128. Mahapatra, B.K., Vinod, K. and Mandal, B.K. 2007b. Breeding and larval rearing of Labeo gonius (Hamilton) under mid hill altitudinal region of Meghalaya. Environ. Ecol. 25S(1): 98-101. Nair K. S. 2004. Scope of expanding ornamental fish culture and trade and role of MPEDA. In: Ornamental fish culture and trade in Northeastern India (Eds. B. K. Bhattecharjya and M. Choudhury). Work Proc. CIFRI, Brackpore, Kolkata.

Paper prepared for International Training Programme on Freshwater Fish Seed Production, Nursery and Rearing Practices for Cambodian Delegates; Organised by Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery sciences, Kolkata, India during 05-10 Nov, 2012

37

Training Compendium

NURSERY REARING OF CARP FRY & FINGERLINGS AND GROWOUT CARP CULTURE WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON POND MANAGEMENT

R.K. Trivedi , S. K. Dubey & S. K. Rout Department of Aquatic Environment Management Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences Panchasayar, Kolkata-700094, West Bengal, India Introduction: Carps are the mainstay of fish culture practice in India and these are the three Indian major carps viz., Catla, Rohu and Mrigal together with three other exotic carps viz., Silver Carp, Grass Carp

and

Common Carp which

contributes over

85% of

the

aquaculture production of the country. In the recent years carp culture is gaining popularity in various parts of the country. Both the Indian and Chinese carps are found to be well suited for rearing in fresh water ponds as a major income generating enterprise. The technological interventions during last three decades have led to increase the mean national production levels in ponds and tanks from about 600 kg/ha to over 2,000 kg/ha. Higher production levels of 6-8 tonnes/ha/year are being achieved by several farmers and entrepreneurs in states like Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab and Haryana. Successful carp culture depends very much on the proper breeding and production of healthy fry and fingerlings. Availability of required quantity of seed of the desired species at the appropriate time is one of the main factors that lead to success of aquaculture operation. The nursery rearing involve nurturing of 72-96 hours old spawn which have just begun to eat and continues for a period of 15-20 days, during which they grow to fry of about 25-30 mm. These fry are further reared in another pond for a period of 2-3 months to raise the fingerlings of about 100 mm in size. 38

Training Compendium

NURSERY REARING OF FRY AND FINGERLING 1. Nursery Pond Management Small ponds of 0.02-0.10 ha with depth of 1.0-1.5 m are preferred for nurseries. Drainable or non-drainable earthen ponds and cement cisterns are the different systems used for nursery rearing of fry. The different steps involved in nursery rearing of fry are as follows. 1.1 Pre-stocking Pond Preparation Eradication of aquatic vegetation: aquatic weed clearance is the first operation in pond preparation. Abundant growth of vegetation is undesirable in fish ponds as they absorb nutrients which lower the pond productivity, help in harboring the predatory and weed fishes/insects which hinders the free movement of fish and netting operations. Generally, manual methods are only used in nursery and rearing ponds, as they are shallow and small in size. In bigger ponds mechanical, chemical and biological methods can be used for eradication of aquatic weeds. Eradication of predatory organisms: Dewatering and sun-drying the ponds or application of suitable piscicides are the methods adopted for eradication of predatory, weed fishes and other organisms. Before stocking of fish seed, application of mahua oil cake @ 2,500 kg/ha-m are suggested. The oil cake besides acting as piscicide also serves as organic manure after decomposition and adds to natural productivity. Application of commercial bleaching powder (30% chlorine) at dosage of 350 kg/ha-m of water is effective in killing the fishes. The quantity of bleaching powder can be reduced to half with the combination of urea @100 kg/ha-m, applied 18-24 hours before the bleaching powder application. Control of aquatic insects: Aquatic insects and their larvae compete for food with the young growing fish and also cause large-scale destruction of hatchlings in nurseries. Application of soap-oil emulsion (cheap vegetable oil @ 56 kg/ha with 1/3 its weight of any cheap soap) is a simple and effective method to kill the aquatic air-breathing insects. Kersoene @100-200 litre or diesel @75 litre and liquid soap @ 560 ml or detergent powder @ 2-3 kg per hectare water area can be used as substitute to make the emulsion. 39

Training Compendium

Pond fertilization: Planktons are the preferred natural fish food organisms that are produced by fertilizing the culture ponds. The ponds used for seed production are first limed after the removal of unwanted predatory and weed fishes depending on the pH of soil. After liming, the ponds are treated either with organic manures such as cow dung, poultry dropping or inorganic fertilizers or both, one following the other. Mixture of groundnut oil cake at 750 kg, cow dung 200 kg, and Single Super Phosphate 50 kg/ha is found to be very effective in production of desired plankton. Half of the above amounts, after being mixed thoroughly by adding water to make a thick paste are spread throughout the nursery 2-3 days prior to stocking. 1.2 Stocking After three days of hatching, the spawn are transferred to the nurseries. The stocking is done preferably during morning time by acclimatizing them to the new pond environment. The normal density of spawn recommended for earthen nursery is 3-5 million/ha. However, higher densities of 10-20 million/ha can be followed in cement cisterns. In nursery, monoculture of carp species is usually recommended. 1.3 Post-stocking Pond Management The phase fertilization is done in 2-3 split doses during the culture period of 15 days as discussed earlier. Finely powdered mixture of groundnut oil cake and rice bran at 1:1 ratio by weight are provided as supplementary feed @ 6 kg/million for the first 5 days and 12 kg/million spawn per day for the subsequent days in two equal installments. With adoption of scientific methods of rearing, the fry attain the desired size of 20-25 mm with survival of 40-60% in 15 days rearing period. Since nursery-rearing period is limited to 15 days, the same nursery can be utilized for multiple cropping, at least for raising 2-3 crops in case of earthen ponds and 4-5 crops in case of cements cisterns.

40

Training Compendium

2. Fry-Fingerlings Rearing Pond Management Ponds of comparatively bigger in size than that of nurseries and preferably up to 0.2 ha area is usually used for rearing pond, i.e., for rearing fry to fingerlings. The different management practices involved are as follows. 2.1 Pre-stocking Pond Preparation The management practices of pre-stocking pond preparation are same as discussed in nursery pond management like clearance of aquatic weeds and eradication of predatory and unwanted organisms, etc. The ponds are fertilized with organic manures and inorganic fertilizers, the doses of which depend upon the type of fish poison used. If mahua oil cake is used as fish poison, the amount of cow dung application is reduced to only 5 tonnes/ha, cow dung is applied generally at the rate of 10 tonnes/ha. While about one third of the dose is applied as basal dose 15 days prior of stocking, rest are applies fortnightly doses. Urea and Single Supper Phosphate @ 200 kg and 300 kg/ha/year, respectively are also recommended for fortnight application in split doses as inorganic fertilizer source. 2.2 Stocking of Fry The normal stocking density of fry suggested for rearing ponds is 0.1-0.3 million/ha. The rate of stocking mainly depends on the productivity of the pond and the type of management measures to be followed. While nursery phase is limited to monoculture, rearing phase involve polyculture of different carp species similar to that of grow-out production. 2.3 Post-stocking Pond Management Supplementary feeding is done that limited to the mixture of groundnut oil cake and rice bran at 1:1 ratio by weight, non-conventional ingredients can also be used to compound the feed. A feeding rate of 5-10% followed for fingerlings rearing. When grass carp or common carp are stocked, duckweeds or aquatic macrophytes like Wolffia, Lemna and Spirodela are to be selectively provided. Water levels of about 1.5 m depth should be 41

Training Compendium

maintained and other management measures and intermittent fertilization as mentioned earlier are suggested. With adoption of scientific methods of rearing, the fingerlings attain 80-100 mm/8-10 g with a survival of 70-90% under rearing pond conditions. GROW OUT CARP CULTURE 3. Carp polyculture Production levels of 1-3 tonnes/ha/year can be achieved through carp polyculture in India have been utilizing a huge amount of organic wastes with application of both organic and inorganic fertilizers. Production levels of 4-8 t/ha/yr are obtained using a scientific combination of both the feed and fertilizers. Ponds of 0.4-1.0 ha in size with water depth of 2-3 m are considered to be best for better management. The management practices in carp polyculture involve environmental and biological manipulations, which can be broadly classified as pre-stocking, stocking and post-stocking operations. 3.1 Pre-stocking Pond Preparation A lucrative production can be obtained by making ponds weed and predator-free and generating adequate natural food resources. Control of aquatic weeds and other unwanted biota as well as improvement of soil and water quality are the important aspects connected pre-stocking pond management. The detail regarding the control of predatory and weed fishes have been discussed previously in nursery management. 3.2 Stocking of Ponds Seeds of appropriate size are stocked after acclimatizing to the new habitat when pond is ready after fertilization. Fingerlings of over 100 mm in size are recommended for stocking in grow-out culture ponds. In intensive polyculture ponds, a size of 50-100 g is preferred for stocking to realize higher survival of over 90% and better growth. Generally, a density of 5,000 fingerlings is kept as a standard stocking rate per ha for carp polyculture for a production target of 3-5 t/ha/yr. Stocking densities of 8,000-10,000 fingerlings/ha has been used for production levels of 5-8 t/ha/yr. Higher targeted fish production levels of 10-15 42

Training Compendium

t/ha/yr are achieved by resorting to stocking at a density of 15,000-25,000/ha. Combination of six species viz., Catla, Silver Carp, Rohu, Grass Carp, Mrigal and Common Carp has been proved to be the ideal combination for carp culture in India. Catla and Silver Carp are surface feeders, Rohu is a column feeder, Grass Carp is a macro-vegetation feeder, and Mrigal and Common Carp are bottom feeders. A proportion of 30-40% surface feeders, 3035% mid water feeders, and 30-40% bottom feeders are commonly adopted depending on the productivity of the pond. 3.3 Post-stocking Pond Management Fertilization: 20-25% of the total amount of organic manures is applied as basal dose, a fortnight before the stocking; the remaining amount is applied in equal installments on a bimonthly basis. Other commonly used organic manures include poultry litter, pig/cow dung, duck droppings, domestic sewage, etc. depending on the availability. Azolla, a nitrogen-fixing macrophytes has been standardized as a biofertilizer for aquaculture at an application rate of 40 t/ha/yr, proving the full complement of nutrients required for intensive carp culture (100 kg nitrogen, 25 kg phosphorus, 90, kg potassium and 1,500 kg organic matter). Supplementary feeding: The supplementary feed in carp polyculture is usually restricted to mixture of groundnut/mustard oil cake and rice bran. With the shift towards intensive fish culture, other ingredients from plant and animal protein sources are being incorporated. To hold these components in the feed together, pelletization is done, which in turn helps for water stability and reduction of wastage. Grass carps are fed with preferred aquatic vegetation (Hydrilla, Najas, Ceratophylum, duck weeds, etc.) kept in enclosures in selected corners of the pond. Marginal vegetation, land grasses and other fodder, banana leaves and vegetable refuse can also be used. Feeding preferably twice-a-day is suggested. Feeding is done @ 5% of the initial biomass of stocking material for first month and further at sliding scale from 3-1% in subsequent months, based on the fish biomass estimated at monthly intervals. 43

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Water exchange and aeration: Aeration may be used artificially to enhance the concentration of dissolved oxygen in ponds, especially required in intensive culture with higher stocking density. Water exchange is another important activity, considered to be crucial in intensive aquaculture. Due to continuous accumulation of metabolites and decayed unutilized feed, the water quality get deteriorated, leading to slow growth of fish species and often leading to outbreak of diseases. Thus, it is necessary to replace certain amount of water at regular intervals, especially during later part of the culture period in case of intensive culture practices.

3.4 Harvesting Harvesting of fishes is usually done after a culture period of 10 months to one year. However, fishes attaining the marketable size can be harvested periodically to reduce the pressure of density on the pond and thereby providing sufficient space for the growth of other fishes.

Paper prepared for International Training Programme on Freshwater Fish Seed Production, Nursery and Rearing Practices for Cambodian Delegates; Organised by Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery sciences, Kolkata, India during 05-10 Nov, 2012

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BREEDING AND LARVAL REARING OF PANGASIUS SUTCHI N.R. Chattopadhyay Faculty of Fishery Sciences West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences 5, Budherhat Road, Panchasayar, Kolkata-700094, India Introduction The main species of Pangasid catfishes recently adopted for culture with Indian Major Carps are Yellowtail catfish (Pangasius pangasius) and Sutchi catfish (Pangasius sutchi). These fishes were introduced into the farming system of Bengal from Thailand through Bangladesh in 1994-95. Though carnivorous at an early stage, the fish are compatible with Indian Major Carps from five days onwards and can grow to 3 kg/year on a balanced diet1,2. These fish have already established their importance as profitable species in aquafarming of Bengal. As a result of its remarkable growth rate (almost one kg in 90 days), now there is much enthusiasm among the fish-breeders and farmers of Bengal for its artificial spawning and culture. The demand for its seed is increasing by day. In view of the increasing demand for Pangasius sutchi seed we tested techniques for induced spawning and larval rearing of this fish. Technique for induced spawning Brood fish were raised in farm ponds (area 2,500 m3) from fry stage using a high protein balanced diet composed of cereal waste (25%), rice-bran (20%), mustard oil cake (15-20%) broken grain (25%) and animal meat (10-15%). The diet was provided 2-3 times per day at the rate of 5% of body weight. To check growth rate the percentage of animal meat was reduced as per requirement. The fish attain sexual maturity at four years when they normally reach a size of 7 kg. However, for the convenience of breeding the weight of brood fish we used was restricted to 1.5 to 2.0 kg with intensive stocking. Males and 45

Training Compendium

females are easily distinguished particularly around April. Egg-bearing females are identified by their big, soft and distended belly with swollen and reddish pink vent (Fig. 1). Males could easily be identified by their reddish genital opening and oozing of milt, when the abdomen is pressed3. As with clarid Catfish only carp pituitary extract (CPE) was used as the agent for inducing spawning. The results were promising. There are also reports regarding the successful use of human chorionic gonadotrophin, (HCG) and LRH-A in combination3, 4. A stimulatory first dose of 1.5-mg CPE/ kg body weight was injected into mature females (Fig 2). After 5-6 hours the second resolving dose of 6 mg CPE/kg body weight administered to females. Males were injected at the rate of 1 mg CPE/kg body weight at the same time as the second injection to female. In the case that female broodstock failed to reach the peak of maturity, the stimulatory dose would be increased to 2-2 mg CPE/kg body weight. The resolving dose in such situations would be 9-10 mg CPE/kg body weight. Males were given a single resolving dose of 2 mg/kg body weight at the time of second injection to female. Variations in environmental temperature have a strong effect on the effectiveness of the dose. When temperature rises above 300C less CPE is required and more is needed when the temperature falls below 280C. Breeding starts from April and continues until mid September. One brooder can be used at least two times during the same breeding season. After injection the fishes were returned to their respective cement tanks or hapa. Spawning occurs after an interval of 5- 6 hours. Both natural spawning and stripping is possible, but as the eggs are adhesive in nature stripping was considered best (Figs. 3 to 5).

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Pangasius catfish. This specimen comes from a farm in Myanmar, close to Yangon

Fig.1Mature female Pangasius sutchi taken for injection.

Fig. 3. Stripping the female

Fig. 2 The first injection to the female

Fig. 4. Stripping the male 47

Training Compendium

Fig.5.Eggs and milt are mixed with a feather water is added

Fig. 6. Fertilized eggs are mixed with milk solution to remove their adhesive covering We rinsed eggs in milk powder solution in aluminium hundi to remove the adhesive gelatinous covering of the fertilized eggs (Fig. 6). We prepared the milk solution by adding 200 ml of milk in 30 liters of water for 20 minutes. Afterwards the fertilized eggs were transferred to a Chinese hatchery. Effectiveness of the technique In all trials, the fish responded positively and ovulated within 5-6 hours after the second injection. The fertilization rate ranged from 95-100%. The fertilized egg doesn‟t swell as with carps and hatched within 24 hours at temperature ranges between 30-320 C. Temperature was a prime factor for fertilization and hatching. There are several other reports of the successful breeding of P. sutchi in Indonesia and Thailand5. According 48

Training Compendium

Saidin and Othman4 the hatching period ranged between 24 to 26 hours at a water temperature of 28-320C with ovulation occurring in between 70-80% and with a survival of hatchings from 30-45%. Milt from one male is sufficient to fertilize the eggs of three to four females. The dry method of egg fertilization was followed. They also found that the hatchlings became cannibalistic if sufficient food is not available after 3 days of hatching. We fed our hatchlings on lactogen for the first 48 hours. The hatchlings become carnivorous from about 72 hours and at this stage weigh 500 mg. We fed earthworm dust three times day continuing up to 5-8 days. After 10 days we fed soyabean dust as supplementary feed. Afterwards we transferred the hatchlings to a rearing pond with natural feed. References (1) Rahaman, M.K., Mazid M.A., Rahman, M.A. and Akhter J.N., 1991. Formulation of quality fish feeds from indigenous raw materials and its effect on the growth of Catfish Pangasius pangasius (Ham.). J. Zool. 6: 4 1-48. (2) Rahaman, M.K., Akhter, J. N., Mazid, M.A. and Halder, C.G. 1992. Culture Feasibility of exoitic catfish Pangasius sutchi (Fowler) in Freshwater Ponds of Bangladesh. J. Inland Fish. Soc. India. 25 (2): 26-30. (3) Rahaman, M.K., Akhter, J. N., Mazid, M.A. and Halder, C.G. 1993. First record of Induced Breeding of Thai Panyas, Pangasius sutchi (Fowler) in Bangladesh J. In land Fish. Soc. India. 25(2): 26-30.

Paper prepared for International Training Programme on Freshwater Fish Seed Production, Nursery and Rearing Practices for Cambodian Delegates; Organised by Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery sciences, Kolkata, India during 05-10 Nov, 2012

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STATUS OF FISH DISEASES IN WEST BENGAL

Dr Gadadhar Dash Department of Aquatic Animal Health Faculty of Fishery Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal and Fishery Sciences Panchasayar, Kolkata-700094, West Bengal, India INTRODUCTION Table 1. West Bengal Fisheries at a glance Water Resources Coastal Line 158 Km Rivers and Canals 2,526 Km Reservoirs 0.17 lakh ha Tanks and Ponds 2.76 lakh ha Flood plain lakes and derelict waters 0.42 lakh ha Brackish water 2.10 lakh ha Fish Production - Marine 1,86,790 tonnes - Inland 13,23,120 tonnes - Total 15,09,910 tonnes Shrimp Production - Area developed 51,659 ha - Area utilized 47,488 ha - Production 33,685 tonnes - Productivity 0.71 MT/ha/year Scampi Production - Area developed 4825 ha - Area utilized 3325 ha - Production 1,725 tonnes - Productivity 0.52 tonnes/ha/year Potential for Fish production enhancement in floodplain wetlands - Area 42,500 ha - Existing Production 9560 tonnes - Potential Production 53,150 tonnes - Gap 43,590 tonnes - % increases 455.96 Beels (Throughout India) - Potential Production levels 1,000 – 1,500 Kg/ha/year - Present level 100 -150 kg/ha 50

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Crustacean Fisheries (2007) - Penaeid Shrimp Landing - Non Penaeid Shrimp Landing - Lobster Landing - Crab Landing State Fish

11,224 tonnes 15,148 tonnes 91 tonnes 1,695 tonnes Tenulosa Ilisha (Hilsa)

Source: Handbook of Fish and Fisheries, 2011 edition ICAR publication. Aquaculture has become the worlds‟ fastest growing food-producing sector, with a growth rate of 10% annually since 1984. Asia produces about 91% of the worlds‟ total aquaculture production with China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand as top producers within Asia. In India freshwater aquaculture has made notable progress in recent years, and contributed about 3/4th of the total fish production in the country. Freshwater aquaculture depends mainly on carp culture practices that account for around 80% of the total inland fish production and have proved sustainable at different levels of production over the years. Production comes from over 2.25 million ha of tanks or ponds, 1.3 million ha of oxbow lakes, 3 million ha of reservoirs and 1.2 million ha of coastal brackishwater area. India is the 4th largest producer of fish in the world and is 2 nd in inland fish production. India‟s share in the world‟s fish production has increased from 3.2% in 1981 to 4.5% at present (Ayyappan and Dewan, 2006). Fish production has increased from a level of 0.75 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 6.4 million tonnes in 2003-04 against harvestable potential of 8.4 million tonnes registering an average growth of 4.29% over the same period. Increase in productivity and production of fish is one of the accepted programmes during the 12th Five-year Plan. Aquaculture production in India was 8.03 million mt in 2010-11, with 5.07 million mt coming from inland fisheries and the rest (2.96 million mt) from marine sector. India is one of the largest producers of cultured shrimp. The cultured shrimp contribute considerably to the total shrimp production and shrimp exports of our country. It is reported that India has around 1, 41,591 ha of total water spread area under shrimp culture. In West Bengal alone, the potential area for shrimp farming is estimated to 51

Training Compendium

be 4, 05,000 ha against the India‟s potential area of 11, 90,900 ha. West Bengal is the 2 nd largest producer of cultured shrimp in India next to Andhra Pradesh. West Bengal has 19 districts, with an area of 88,551 sq km. The State is endowed with remarkable variation in physiographic resources from sea to snow having an elevation from 5 m in the south to 3,658 m from the main sea level in the north. Fisheries resources of West Bengal are presented in Table 2. Table 2 - Freshwater fishery resources of West Bengal (Source: DFAARFH, 2006) Total resource (in lakh ha)

Area under culture (in lakh ha)

Percentage of area under culture(%)

2.76

2.20

79.71

Beel and Baor

0.41

0.21

51.21

Reservoir River Canal Sewage fed

0.16 1.72 0.80 0.04

0.03 0.04

18.75 100.00

2. Type of fishery Ponds/ Tanks

Fisheries development in this State has made considerable progress over the successive 5-year plan period. The fish production has increased from 0.37 lakh tonnes in 1980-81 to 11.69 lakh tonnes in 2004-05 with average annual growth rate of 0.50%. In relation to all India table fish production, West Bengal has a share of 18.36%. While in inland sector, its share was 28.93%. West Bengal is the highest producer of fish seeds, meeting the all India requirement of as high as about 62%. On the inland fisheries front, the State of West Bengal occupies the first position in fish production producing 10.90 million tonnes. There are about 22, 12,019 fishermen who are engaged in inland fisheries activity. Most of the West Bengal farmers have now adopted „multiple stocking and multiple harvesting‟ technique in order to maximize the inland fish production. Major carps contribute to about 90% of the total freshwater aquaculture production of West Bengal. Freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, locally known as golda chingri, has high

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potential for culture as an alternate culture species for Penaeus monodon in all freshwater tanks and ponds (DFAARFH, 2006). Freshwater aquaculture in West Bengal depends mainly on carp-culture practices that have proved sustainable at different levels of production over the years. Diseases of varied etiology are, however, a serious constraint to the success of many of the freshwater culture systems. With the intensification of culture, fish health problems have become very common in West Bengal carp culture systems. There are several aquatic animal health problems in different culture systems that influence production from such systems. Infectious diseases of cultured freshwater carps are one of the major problems to successful aquaculture industry. Several bacterial, parasitic and fungal diseases have been documented in freshwater culture systems of West Bengal, which may, thus, have serious socioeconomic impacts. Aquatic animal health problems in pond culture and their impacts on yield are well known, but are not often quantified due to the difficulties in collecting accurate and reliable quantitative information. Several earlier studies regarding incidence of freshwater fish diseases in West Bengal confirmed that epizootic ulcerative syndrome (EUS) was the most common disease, which has a significant impact on the socioeconomics of the fishermen. The EUS was found to be epidemic in almost 50% of the freshwater farms of West Bengal since the decade of ninety (Bhoumik et al., 1991; Das, 1997; Paria and Konar, 1999; Biswas, 2002). The EUS not only incurred a loss of 40% of the stock in producer level, but also affected the fish trade, as about 90% fish traders were affected due to marketability and fall in selling price. Prevalence of fish diseases in West Bengal Paria and Konar (1999) reported the prevalence of fish disease in West Bengal. Among the freshwater fish diseases, EUS caused significant economic loss. Argulosis, malnutrition, gill rot, dropsy, tail and fin rot, tumour and fungal diseases were also reported but not as severe as EUS. They identified that the stress of environmental parameters (properties) were responsible to induce fish diseases and correlated the occurrence of fish diseases with several pond management practices. According to the survey, the percentage 53

Training Compendium

of pond affected by EUS ranged from 32.68% to 72.72%, argulosis 0.81% - 9.80%, malnutrition 9.69% - 32.30%, gill rot 9.10% to 34.37%, dropsy 3.33% to 14.40%, tail and fin rot 2.43% to 6.52%, tumour 0.85% - 7.28% and fungal diseases 1.12% - 2.19% from different districts of West Bengal. Biswas (2002) reported 13.6%, 23.0% and 50.0% incidence of EUS in culture ponds, public ponds and beels, respectively of Nadia, 24 Parganas North and South districts of West Bengal. Mishra and Das (1993) reported Trichodina reticulata from the gills of C. catla at Sheoraphuli locality of West Bengal; where as Pagarkar and Das (1993) reported Thelohanellus caudatus and Myxobolus serrata from caudal and anal fins of L. rohita and gill arch of C. carpio. Ghosh et al. (1987) reported Dactylogyrus spp in C. catla from Hooghly district. Das (2003) recorded five different types of helminth groups such as monogeneans (Gyrodactylus sp. and Dactylogyrus sp.), digeneans (Diplostomum sp.), cestodes (Caryophyllaeus sp.) nematodes (Spirocamallanus sp. and Anisakis sp.) and acanthocephalans (Hypoechinorhynchus sp.) as dominant helminth parasites in the catfishes of beels from Nadia district. She also showed the species specificity site of infestation as well as seasonal pattern of helminth infestation in catfishes. Ghag (2004) and Saha (2005) reported five different types of helminth groups such as monogeneans (Gyrodactylus sp. and Dactylogyrus sp.), Digenians (Heterophyes heterophyes, Clonorchis sp.), cestodes (Caryophyllaeus sp.), nematodes (Camallanus sp. Indocucuiianus sp. Rhabdochona sp.) and Acanthocephalans (Pallisentis sp.) as the dominant helminth parasites in the carps from freshwater ponds, hatcheries and market complexes of Nadia, 24 Parganas North and Howrah. They also showed the species specificity, site of infestation as well as seasonal pattern of helminth infestation in carps. Abraham et al. (2004) studied the bacterial flora associated with tail rot or fin rot of Carassius auratus, Xiphophorus helleri and hemorrhagic ulcers of Clarias spp. and isolated Aeromonas spp. Pseudomonas spp. and gram positive rods. According to them, ciprofloxacin was the most effective in inhibiting bacteria at 0.05-0.10 µg/ml levels. The multiple antibiotic resistances were seen in 21% of the bacterial isolates.

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3.

Dissection and Analysis of the problems of West Bengal fish farmers

The Department of Aquatic Animal Health, FFSc, WBUAFS made a survey on the health management issues of freshwater fish farmers in 11 districts of West Bengal and information collected are presented below: The details of fish farming practices and species cultured in West Bengal About 64% of the surveyed farmers practiced a semi-intensive or intensive type of aquaculture. This intensification mainly in terms of very high stocking density (about 2 lakh spawn/bigha, 50,000 fry/bigha and 5000 fingerlings/bigha) with external feed input. However there was no water exchange or planned feeding schedule, regular health on water quality, monitoring. The results indicated the reluctance of the farmers in adopting scientific fish farming. Interestingly there was no trend of practicing monoculture. All the farmers adopted polyculture with some kind of integration mainly with horticulture and duck rearing. However, it was observed that majority of them ventured into integrated farming without knowing the actual technical benefit. About 8.97% of the interviewed farmers were involved in sewage fed aquaculture. They usually treated the raw sewage before letting into the pond with lime at the rate of approximately 25 kg/bigha after that adding 5-7% raw sewage to the existing treated water (dilution method) in 10 to 15 days interval. All the West Bengal farmers cultured Labeo rohita and Catla catla. Most of the farmers also cultured Cirrhinus mrigala, Hypophthalmychthys molitrix, and Labeo bata. Besides, species like Cyprinus carpio, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Labeo calbasu and Macrobrachium rosenbergii were also cultured. Labeo rohita, Catla catla, Cirrhinus mrigala and Labeo bata are highly popular food fish in fish loving West Bengal. Hypophthalmychthys molitrix and Ctenopharyngodon idella were cultured due to their faster growth rate. Oreochromis mossambicus, Tilapia niloticus, Puntins javonicus were also widely cultured because of their high proliferation rate. In spite of the ban imposed by the State Government Clarias gariepinus and Arichthys nobilis were also cultured by 3.85% and 34.62% or the respondent farmers. 55

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The unique characteristics of West Bengal freshwater fish culture system was repeated stocking of fish seeds (80.77%) in water bodies. Due to the high demand of advanced fingerlings to juvenile size fish in West Bengal market, farmers need to harvest such fish size groups and replenish the harvested stock with fresh fish seeds to maintain the required stocking density in the pond. The usual stocking density in nursery, searing and stocking ponds with normal productivity status are 6 million spawn/ha, 0.3 million fry/ha and 5000 fingerlings/ha respectively (Jhingran, 1991). But in West Bengal freshwater fish farming system the fishes are usually stocked at a very high density. About 21% of the farmers stocked 1000-5000 fingerlings/bigha about 23% of the farmers stocked 5000-2500 fry/bigha and about 25% of the farmers stocked more than 2.5 lakh hatchlings /bigha. This high stocking density was mainly to achieve maximum productions and to compete in a highly competiting market often ignoring the productivity status of the pond. Majority of the farmers (about 76%) considered that, they received a good quality seed whereas about 24% farmers received average quality seed. the farmers graded the seeds from reputed hatcheries as either or „good‟ average quality and from other sources mainly from local non-reputed hatchery as „bad‟ quality. Almost all the farmers (about 88%) acclimatized their fish seed before stocking. About 68% of the farmers did not treat their fish seed before stocking. About 29% of the farmers treated their seeds with disinfectants like salt or potassium permanganate. Use of antibiotic for treatment of fish seeds before stocking was a rare practice. Acclimatization is the process of adjusting shortly with the new environment when a fish stock is released to a new environment from another environment. If the fishes are stocked without any acclimatization, it will face an environmental „stock‟. This sudden stress impairs the normal homeostatis on of fish and the pathogens get a chance to cause disease (Sneiszko, 1973). About 54% of the farmers experienced negligible or no mortality during acclimatization and about 35% of the farmers faced a mortality of about 1-5%. Most of the farmers were not at all bothered of this mortality as they normally receive some extra seeds from the sellers as gift neutralizing the loss during transportation and acclimatization. 56

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Though natural food contributes to the nutrition (De-Silva and Anderson, 1992) of the cultured fish in semi-extensive and extensive culture systems, the exogenous supply of artificial food is essential to supply nutrients, which may be deficient in natural food. However, application of artificial feed affects water quality criteria more than any other management factors. Feeding of fish at 2-5% of the body weight is recommended based on natural productivity of fish pond (Sarkar, 2002). Among fish feeds, oil cake (84.62%) mainly mustard oil cake was favoured mostly by the West Bengal fish farmers because of its easy availability and nutritional quality. Simultaneously their increasing market prices were also a major concern among the fish farmers and most of then were searching for a low cost nutritional fish feed. Rice/wheat bran husk were also quite commonly used by the fresh water fish farmers of West Bengal. Farmers grew duck weed and Eichornia at least some part of the pond. After an interval they used to reserve weeds. Sometimes farmers used duck weed procured from external source and applied either by composting or directly broadcasting into pond. However, about 10% of the farmers were entirely dependent on ponds natural production. Manuring was not a common practice, as about 41% farmers did not apply any type of manure/fertilizers possibly due to already existing natural production or from a fear of disease transmission particularly white spot on gills or argulosis from organic manure input. About 8% of the farmers applied green manure prepared on a pit by the side of the pond. Almost half of the farmers monitored water quality regularly mainly by visual observation where as about 59% of the farmers monitored fish health mainly during netting operation. Table -3. Most frequently encountered diseases of fishes and prawns those cause heavy economic losses and their seasonal distribution in Indian water. Diseases Bacterial diseases Aeromoniasis Edwardsellosis

Species affected

Stage of fish

Freshwater fishes

All stages

All freshwater and some brackish water fishes

Mostly fry and fingerlings

Seasonal distribution Summer Rainy Winter Yes Yes Yes No

Yes

Yes

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Bacterial gill

All freshwater fishes

Grow out and

No

No

Yes

disease

Adult

Colunmaris disease All freshwater fishes

All stages

Yes

No

No

Vibriosis

Freshwater prawn

All stages

Yes

Yes

No

shrimps

All stages

Yes

Yes

Yes

Viral diseases White spot disease

Penaeus monodon

All stages

Yes

Yes

Yes

Monodon Baculo-

Penaeus monodon

All stages

Yes

Yes

Yes

Macrobrachium

Post larvae and

Yes

Yes

Yes

rosenbergii

juvenile

All freshwater fishes

All stages

No

No

Yes

Adult

No

Yes

Yes

Lemaeasis

All freshwater fishes with scales, Labeo rohita more susceptible All freshwater fishes

No

Yes

Yes

Myxosporidiasis

All freshwater fishes

Adult and Juveniles All stages

Yes

Yes

Yes

Dactylogyrosis

All freshwater fishes

Adult

No

Yes

Yes

virus disease White tail disease

Fungal diseases Saprolegniasis Parasitic diseases Argulosis

Table- 4. Summary of health problems encountered in West Bengal freshwater fish farms (2006-2011) Health problem

Species affected mostly

Stage affected

Season

Mortality rate (%)

Treatment

Ulcer

C. mrigala, L. bata Channa spp

Fingerlings, Juveniles

Winter, post monsoon

Few fish daily/weekl y

Argulus

L. rohita, C. catla, C. mrigala C. catla

Fingerlings, Juveniles, Adult Fry to

Round the year

No mortality

Chemical KMnO4, CIFAX, Lime, curine, metacid Nuvan, Cleaner

Winter

Few fish

Salt,

White spot

Success Partial

Partial

Partial

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on gill Stunted growth Tail/fin rot

Dropsy Hemorrhage s

C. mrigala, L. bata, C. catla L. rohita, C. catla, C. mrigala C. mrigala C. catla L. rohita C. catla C.mrigala

advanced fry Fry, fingerlings

weekly

Lime

Rainy

No mortality

Mohua oil cake

Successf ul

Fingerlings

Summer

No mortality

Salt, KMnO4

Successf ul

Fingerlings, Juveniles Fingerlings, Juveniles

Winter, Summer, Winter

Few fish weekly Few fish weekly

KMnO4, Salt KMnO4, Lime

Not at all Successf ul

Table- 5. Prevalence of diseases in general and clinical symptoms in ornamental fish, Carassius auratus , (2006-2011).

Gross and clinical Signs

Amtala, South 24 Parganas Season Varieties Anorexia S, W All Crustacean infection S, M All Distended abdomen S, W+ R, O Dropsy M+ O Dorsal rigidity M+ O Emaciation W All Exophthalmia W+ R, O Faded pigment W R, O Fin rot / damage M, W, All Fungal infection W R, O Furuncles S, W+ O, Z Gill damage W+ All Hemorrhaging at base of S R, O fins S+, W R, O Hemorrhaging eye S R, O Hemorrhaging fins S R, O Hemorrhaging mouth S+ R, O Hemorrhaging opercula / S R, O gills S, M All Hemorrhaging skin S, M, W All Protozoan infestation M, W All Protruded anus / vent M, W All Sloughing off of scales S+ R, O Sluggish behaviour S+ All Spiral / erratic movement S+ All

Santragachi, Howrah

Arambagh, Hooghly

Season S, M S, W+ R+ M+ W+ M, W, W S, W+ W+ S S+, W S S S+ S S, M S, M, W M, W M, W S+ S+ S+

Season S, W S, M S, W W+ S, M W W W+ S+ S S+, W S S, M S, M, W S, M M, W S+, W W S

Varieties All R, O O O R, O All R, O O, Z All R, O R, O R, O R, O R, O R, O All All All All R, O All All

Varieties All All All R, O R, O R, O, B Z All R, O R, O R, O R, O All All R, O, L All R, O, L R, O, L R, O 59

Training Compendium

Stunted growth Tail rot / erosion Ulcers White nodules on gills / skin White spots on head Other abnormalities

S+ M, W+ S+ S, M, W

R, O All O All

S+ M, W+ S+ S, M, W

R, O All O All

S+, M W S+ S, M, W

R, O, L B, Z B, Z All

R: Red cap, B=Black, O: Oranda, L: Lion head, Z: Shubunkin, M: Monsoon (July – September), S: Summer (April June), W: Winter (November – January); +: More; -: Not observed.

Fig. 1 - Major problems encountered by the fish farmers of West Bengal 100

82.05

Respondents (%)

80

28.21

40

51.28

50.00

48.71

60

30.77

25.64

32.05 25.64

Others

Inundation due to …

Price (market) …

Financial

Disease

Siltation

Transport

Poaching

0

Managem ent…

20

Fig. 2 - Major diseases / abnormalities that cause production loss in West Bengal 67.95 70

50

37.18

40

43.59 37.18 35.9 30.77 25.64 25.64

30 20

Stunted…

Hemorrh…

Big/defor…

Gulping air

Aquatic…

White…

Dropsy

Tail/fin rot

0

Argulusin…

10 Ulcers

Respondents (%)

51.28

50.00

60

60

Training Compendium

Dropsy was noticed to be a very common disease in freshwater fishes of West Bengal, although only a fraction of total stock was affected. It was common during winter and summer seasons among the fingerlings and juveniles of C. mrigala and C. catla with affected fishes dying regularly. Although farmers used a variety chemicals like salt and potassium permanganate, they were unsuccessful and resorted to remove the affected fishes and through out of the pond. Hemorrhages or red spots of fingerlings and juveniles stages of IMC in winter season were also a common problem. Few fishes died weekly although farmers got success to get rid of the problem with application of potassium permanganate and lime. Average expected and actual fish production of respondent West Bengal farmers (7.5 bigha = 1 ha) 1000

100

100

Production (kg / bigha)

800 73.71

75

600 451.33

50

400

Percentage

612.34

25

200

0

0

Expected Production

Actual Production

Table 6- Parasitic Diseases in West Bengal. Fish Species Carps Catla catla > L. rohita and C. mrigala. Catla catla > L. rohita and C. mrigala.

Parasites Argulus

Season ………....

Summer

Helminth groups such as…..Summer Monogeneans (Dactylogyrus sp &Gyrodactylus sp.), 61

Training Compendium

Digeneans (Heterophyes heterophyes), …………. Monsoon Cestodes (Caryophyllaeus sp.), Nematodes (Camallanus sp.) Acanthocephalans (Pallisentis sp.) Catfishes: (Mystus vittatus, Clarias batrachus and Heteropneustes fossilis).

Helminth groups such as Monogeneans (Gyrodactylus sp., Dactylogyrus sp.), …..................Winter Digeneans (Diplostomum sp.)….Winter Cestodes (Caryophylleaus sp.), Nematodes (Anisakis sp. and Spirocamallanus sp.) and Acanthocephalans (Hypoechinorhynchus sp.)

Exotic Carps: (Hypothalmicthys molitrix,Ctenopharyngodon idella and Cyprinus carpio) Protozoans ( Trichodina sp,Zoothamnium sp, Vorticella sp, Epistylis sp, Chilodonella sp)... Winter Nematodes ( Camallanus sp, Indocucullanus sp. )…………. Winter and Acanthocephalans USE OF CHEMICALS IN AQUACULTURE The various chemicals used in grow-out farming and hatchery operations in freshwater aquaculture in India can be classified into the following broad categories: water/soil treatment products, disinfectants, piscicides, herbicides, organic fertilizers, inorganic fertilizers, feed additives, therapeutants and anesthetics. In freshwater aquaculture, it is common practice to treat the pond waters for mineralization of organic matter, for adjusting pH, and for disinfection. The chemicals used in this regard are lime in the form of lime stone (CaCO3), slaked lime (Ca(OH)2) or unslaked lime(CaO). Dried ponds are also sterilized using active iodine or potassium permanganate (KMnO 4). Soil conditioners that contain high numbers of sulfurdegrading bacteria and organic matter-decomposing bacteria are also used by some intensive shrimp culture farms. Health stone, zeolite,or porous aluminium silicate is applied along with lime to re-activate the soil for stabilizing algal growth and absorbing fouling materials. 62

Training Compendium

Disinfectants Common disinfectants used are sodium hypochlorite, benzalkonium chloride (BKC), calcium carbide, Na-EDTA, and zeolite. These are used mostly in hatcheries and, to a limited extent, in grow-out ponds. Piscicides In both freshwater and coastal aquaculture, eradication of unwanted predatory fishes is a commonpre-stocking management practice. The common fish toxicants used are mahua oil cake, teaseed cake, other plant derivatives and anhydrous ammonium substances. Herbicides Aquatic weeds are of common occurrence in fishponds in the country and are undesirable, as theypose serious problems by upsetting the oxygen balance and removing nutrients from the aquaticsystems. The common herbicides used for controlling aquatic weeds are 2,4-D; Dalapon; Paraquat; Diuron; ammonia; and many others. Organic Fertilizers: Use of organic manure in fish culture is an age-old practice. The manure used comes mainly from farm animals, the commonly used manures being cow dung, pig dung, poultry droppings, etc. Cattle manure and poultry droppings contain nitrates at the 0.5 % and 1-15% levels and phosphates at the 0.2 and 0.4% levels, respectively. The application of raw cow dung slurry helps to boost diatom bloom (Sarkar 1983). In modified extensive shrimp-culture ponds, 1,000 to 3,000 kg ofcow dung/ha is applied initially. It is followed by application of two dosages of 200 to 400 kg of cow dung on the 8th and 14th d, respectively. Poultry droppings contain higher quantities of soluble salts, inorganic substances and organic products than does cow dung, ensuring quick zooplankton production. In semi-intensive carp culture, large amounts of cow dung are applied toincrease the fertility and consequent natural productivity of the ponds. Natural food provides 50% of the food requirement in such carp culture ponds. Inorganic Fertilizers Considerable quantities of nutrients are removed from the pond ecosystem through the harvested fish crop. Hence, for proper management of pond soil and water, these elements need to be replenished from external sources. The fertilization schedule is prepared on the basis of the fertilitystatus of the soil. Soils with available nitrogen of >50, 25-50, or 6, 3-6, or 1.5

Live for several days

>1.0

Live for several hours

75 >1350 114

Training Compendium

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28

29 30 31 32 33 34 35

Sulphate (mg/l) Silica (mg/l) Iron (mg/l) Manganese (mg/l) Zinc (mg/l) Copper (mg/l) Cobalt (mg/l) Biochemical Oxygen Demand (B.O.D.) (mg/l) Chemical Oxygen Demand (C.O.D.)(mg/l) Hydrogen sulphate (mg/l) Residual chlorine (mg/l) Primary productivity (mg C/m3/day) Plankton (ml/100 litre) Chlorophyll - a (μgl1) Redox - potential (volts) Organic carbon in sediment (%)

20-200 4-16 0.01-0.3 0.001-0.002 0.002-0.01 0.003-0.005