Background:
Fishes of genus Ompok, widely called as ‘butter catfish’, and in India and neighboring countries commonly known as ‘Pabda’ are valued medium-sized silurid catfish having high consumer preference and good market price in many parts of India, particularly, East and North East India. Among the Ompok species, because of relatively better growth and bigger attainable size, the Indian butter catfish Ompok bimaculatus is the most preferred species for culture, and hence have a great demand for the seed of this fish. However, availability of seed of O. bimaculatus is very limited, as there was no specific hatchery system for seed production of this fish. Though farmers are trying to produce seed of this fish using plastic tubs, temporary polythene pools or even using cemented structures, because of their low efficiency seed availability of this fish still very low. In this background, the fiberglass reinforced plastics (FRP) made portable Pabda Hatchery is first of its kind, developed specifically for induced seed production of pabda to increase the production and availability of pabda seeds. The ‘Portable FRP Pabda hatchery’ is a relatively low cost hatchery system and hence can be affordable even by the small farmers / seed producers. As pabda fishes have a very good demand in big states like West Bengal and Assam, and many other North-Eastern states, the product is anticipated to have a good market:
Technology Details:
The major problem in adoption of pabda fish farming by the fish farmer is availability of pabda seed in required quantity. The ‘Portable FRP Pabda hatchery’ will help in addressing the issue of seed availability of Pabda. Using a single unit of the hatchery, 3 – 4 lakh nos. of 7-days old larvae of pabda can be produced in a breeding cycle, sufficient to cover about 15 ha water bodies (mixed pabda-culture system)..