Fish and Fishery of Aspidoparia (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) of the River Padma

Abstract

Bangladesh has vast fishery resources. The inland water areas of the country comprises 1.03 million hectares of rivers, canals and estuaries; 1,14,161 hectares of natural depressions such as the beals' and 'haors'; 1,61,943 hectares of ponds and tanks, 5,488 hectares of ox-bows; 68,800 hectares of Karnafuli reservior; 2.8 million hectares of flood plains and 87,300 hectares of brackish water aquaforms (Rahman, 1989). A total of 260 species of indigenous species of fin fishes are found in the freshwater habitats of Bangladesh and majority of these fishes are small sized (Rahman, 1989). The small indigenous fishes (SIS) form an important human food item, rich source of complete proteins containing all the essential aminoacids in right proportion. Fish protein is said to be more healthier and cholesterol free and also contains fatty acid which help in cholesterol absorption in the body tissues. The people are advised to take much smaller fish than meat. According to FAO report, (1991), fish contain 72% water, 19% protein, 89% fat, 0.15% calcium 0.25% phosphorus and 0.10% vitamin A,B,C and D. National Household Expenditure Survey (NHES) shows that anmel fish consumption in Bangladesh peaked in 1985 at 13.2 kg/person, had declined to 12.6 kg/person by 1992. This is in the same agreement with the information developed by North West Area Development Study (NWADS), which shows that overall fish supply has stagnated, resulting in price increase in real terms of over 2.8% per annum in the Northwest Region (Interim Report Vol-5 ADB February, 1997). The SIS fishes thus, make a very significant contribution to the daily intake of fish. Moreover, Siddiqui (1985) reported that in Bangladesh about 80 percent of the population is poor and they mainly depend on small size fish for their daily supply of animal protein at a reasonable price. Another advantages of small size fish is that they could easily breed and grow in water bodies, where culture of other major fishes are impossible. However, the ever expanding programme of flood control, drainage and irrigation is interfering with the whole ecological system in fishery resources, thereby causing both loss and degradation of their habitats. Which will inevitably lead to diminution and even disappearance of 95 percent of inland fish production. The present species 4. morer is mostly available in the river systems of Bangladesh. The biology of this species had been reported by Sultana (1991), Bhuiyan et al. (1992) compared the past and present data on the landing of the species together with the market price found that the natural production of the species is decreasing due to construction of the Farakka Barrage and oder FCD projects which caused detremental effect on the national aquatic system. Moreover, over exploitation of fish population and indiscriminate use of agrochemicals also adversely affected the fisheries resources. A. morar is an important species due to its high nutritional value in terms of protein content. Inspite of its usefulness as a source of protein, no detailed studies on the chemical and biochemical investigation has so far been reported. This is a small sized fish with a maximum size of 145 man, feiches the hightest market price due to its taste and flavour. This fish generally live in shallow water of the sandy bottom and medium current areas of the rivers. We hope the present finding may help to increase its population in the river Padma near Rajshahi