Subhendu Adhikari

• M.Sc., Ph D
• Principal Investigator at Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture

The barred spiny eel, Macrognathus pancalus, is a high-value food fish with significant market demand but limited aquaculture due to the absence of a defined culture protocol. Health monitoring is crucial for early disease detection, risk assessment, and optimizing rearing conditions and disease management. Hence, this study evaluated the health st...

Small indigenous fish species (SIS) are a rich source of essential nutrients, including proteins, vitamins, and minerals, making them a vital component of rural diets. Despite their nutritional significance, SIS are often undervalued and excluded from aquaculture in favor of larger commercial species. This study highlights an initiative by ICAR-CI...

An eight-month study (May to December 2022) was conducted to evaluate the reproductive traits of Amazon sailfin catfish Pterygoplichthys pardalis in relation to the nutrient contents (nitrogen and phosphorus) of the invaded sites of East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), India. Over the study period, a total of 608 adult specimens of the fish and 120 water s...

The prevalence of sailfin catfishes (Pterygoplichthys spp.) in inland waters, including vast aquaculture systems of India is rising. This might be a serious threat to the country’s native freshwater biological resources and aquaculture production. Therefore, studies were carried out to evaluate the impact of Amazon sailfin catfish Pterygoplichthys...

The present work of carbon balances in some aquaculture ponds in Gumla district, Jharkhand was conducted from July 2021 to November 2022 in three ponds with feeding and three ponds in non-feeding systems of fish culture. The pond sizes varied from 0.7 to 1.62ha, and the water depth of ponds varied from 1.5 to 1.8 m. The fish culture practices consi...

Background: The objective of the study was to examine the growth and development of M. pancalus larvae in captive conditions, including pigmentation patterns, yolk and oil globule utilization, growth rates and metamorphosis, as well as to identify suitable live food for larviculture. Methods: The larvae, produced through induced breeding, were kept...

To determine sex and maturity stages accurately without any physical injury and stress, especially for sensitive and high-value fish species, employing a noninvasive ultrasound imaging technique could be a desirable approach. The ultrasound imaging method as a powerful eco-friendly tool was established to determine sex, gonad volume, gonadosomatic...

Livelihood improvement of Scheduled Caste fish farmers of Sonarpur block of South 24 pargans of West Bengal, India though intervention of Scientific Aquaculture.

The striped spiny eel, Macrognathus pancalus, is a bottom-dwelling fi sh belonging to the family Mastacembelidae under the order Mastacembeliformes. Indigenous to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Nepal (Pathak et al. 2012), this species inhabits rivers, canals, beels, karanjali, tanks, ponds, paddy fi elds, and wetlands. Often r...

Invading sailfin catfish Pterygoplichthys spp. in East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), India were studied for their length-weight relationship (LWR), condition factor and reproductive characteristics covering pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. Using seine nets, fish samples were taken every month from May to December 2022 from five distinct EKW...

The growth and development of Naihati fish market seems promising, vibrant and sustainable. The market is unique because of a diverse group pf professionals including fishery, management, research,academics, traders are involved in seed trade. Facilities and amenities that Naihati market maintains are both attractive and customers are trade friendl...

The infestation of freshwater fish lice belonging to the genus Argulus occur repeatedly in freshwater fish farms due to poor management practices. Preventative methods and regular monitoring often fails to control the outbreak, and in tum chemical interventions become necessary. In the present study, the outbreak of freshwater fish lice Argulus in...

This study highlights a transfonnative initiative in the villages of Saheberabad I & II and Baburabad, located in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, aimed at enhancing livelihoods and fostering entrepreneurship among marginalized communities. The region primarily relies on agriculture, with limited cultivable land and scarce irrigation facilities. Two...

Moyna of Purba Medinipur district is widely known as an aquaculture hub of West Bengal, India. Though very good production is achievable from this fish culture system, management practices are inappropriate, which could create the sustainability problem of this culture system. The present study was thus undertaken for the estimation of plankton pop...

This work is basically on Livelihood development of Rural People Sonarpur block of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. The people were benifitated withscientific intervention of Aquaculture practices.

Tenualosa ilisha popularly known as ‘Hilsa’ is one of the most commercially important euryhaline food fish species in South Asian countries. Co-infection of Fusarium incarnatum FHHS2 and Acinetobacter bohemicus FHHK1 was reported for the first time in captive-reared pre-adult T. ilisha (average length 22.30 ± 0.92 cm and weight 93.48 ± 28.06 g) tha...

Hilsa culture in Freshwater pond after boat breeding in river.

The present study depicts the disease incidences in the aqua farms of Moyna, West Bengal, India, during 2018-2020 and aqua-drugs used by farmers to combat diseases. A total of 132 fish disease incidences were reported, among which parasitic diseases were the most common (53.03%) followed by bacterial diseases (27.27%), diseases due to poor nutritio...

It is difficult to predict the quality of water for its use in different purposes, like, drinking, recreational, irrigation, aquatic life etc by simply measuring the physical, chemical and biological parameters. The measurement/estimation of various parameters is also difficult and time consuming. Thus, developments of different indices are require...

The present study depicts the disease incidences in the aqua farms of Moyna, West Bengal, India, during 2018- 2020 and aqua-drugs used by farmers to combat diseases. A total of 132 fish disease incidences were reported, among which parasitic diseases were the most common (53.03%) followed by bacterial diseases (27.27%), diseases due to poor nutriti...

Hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha is a fascinating food fish. Its charming lustre, culinary flavour and medicinal importance make it a favourite of the people of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh in particular. However, it has complex habitat requirements, migrating between marine, estuarine and riverine waters. Usually, adults mature in the sea, and then ve...

Hilsa shad, Tenualosa ilisha, a euryhaline fish species, undertakes long migrations crossing diverse water bodies from river to sea to fulfil its life cycle. To culture hilsa in captivity, one important factor among others is to rear larvae up to fry stage in freshwater. Chlorella is one of the best of a few microalgae well accepted by Hilsa larvae...

The paper deals with Livelihood improvement through Aquaculture of Scheduled Caste Farmers of Kultali Block of West Bengal ,India

Hilsa, Tenualosa ilisha , is a commercially important high valued food fish in South Asian countries. Recently, much attention of this species has been paid for its conservation through captive culture due to its declining trend of population. Insufficient number of Hilsa seeds is the major bottleneck for its captive culture. This study aimed at de...

Climate change and temperature variations are of paramount importance to aquaculture. Here, we investigated the thermal stress response of five life stages of tilapia viz. spawn, fry, fingerling, juveniles and adults exposed to different temperatures (28°C to 40°C). Stress response was assessed in terms of survival/mortality, thermal shock, changes...

Success story on survival of climbing perch through live food.

The Indian butter catfish, Ompok bimaculatus (Bloch, 1794), is a high-value catfish that has gained immense consumer preference in South-East Asia. However, information on the nutritional requirements of this species is scanty. Hence, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of varying dietary lipid levels on growth, body composition, an...

The Indian butter catfish, Ompok bimaculatus (Bloch, 1794), is a high-value catfish that has gained immense consumer preference in South-East Asia. However, information on the nutritional requirements of this species is scanty. Hence, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of varying dietary lipid levels on growth, body composition, an...

Sailfin armoured catfish (Pterygoplichthys spp.), an alien invasive species of family Loricariidae has invaded extensively in wastewater-fed large aquaculture ponds (locally called 'bheries') of East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW), West Bengal, India. As there is no viable controlling method at present, commonly these fishes are removed by different physic...

Carbon footprint analysis for different freshwater aquaculture practices in different states of India along with Bay of Bengal was done. In West Bengal, the average inputs as carbon equivalent (CE) were [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]kg/ha with an average output of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]kg live weight/ha. In Odisha, the input...

A 22 d experiment was carried out to study the protein requirement of Ompok bimaculatus larvae (weight 0.11±0.01 g; length 20.49±0.70 mm). Three different formulated feeds were prepared with graded levels of crude protein i.e., with low (35% CP; LP), medium (40% CP; MP) and high (45% CP; HP) crude protein levels. The water quality parameters were o...

The proximate and fatty acid composition of Ompok bimaculatus (pabda) brood fish, egg and larvae were assayed to have an insight of the nutrient metamorphosis during early life of the species visa -vis parental nutrient composition. The collected brood fish, eggs and larvae were analyzed for proximate and fatty acid composition. The data revealed t...

Tenualosa ilisha popularly known as 'Hilsa' - a commercially important high valued food fish for its delicious taste, immense nutritional values for human health and high preference to the consumers across the South Asia, has received much attention for culture in confined waters and as a component under species diversification in aquaculture, sinc...

The Green House Gas Emission (GHGs) from the carp culture ponds (n = 12) of West Godavari, Krishna, and Guntur districts of Andhra Pradesh and from the ponds (n = 4) of Moyna, East Medinipur district of West Bengal, India was assessed through carbon storage and carbon footprint analysis. The average inputs as Carbon Equivalent (CE) were 14407 ± 265...

The problem of sewage disposal has received great attention worldwide. The raw sewage contains a variety of high inorganic and organic matters that affect natural water environment. To mitigate such problem, sewage may be recycled through aquaculture practice. Sewage recycling in aquaculture enhances water productivity through nutrients input. Prop...

Portable Fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP) pabda hatchery consisting of three incubation pools and three rearing tanks having capacity to accommodate about 45,000 - 50,000 nos. fertilized eggs and to produce about 10,000 – 15,000 nos. of early fry of Ompok bimaculatus (pabda) in a single cycle was developed, established and operated at Kalyani Fi...

In the present work, the salinity tolerance level of Indian major carp, Catla catla, genetically improved Labeo rohita (Jayanti rohu) and Cirrhinus mrigala were ascertained in terms of weight gain and mortality by exposing the fishes gradually to different levels of salinities for 45 days. Overall analysis of the result showed that, the severity of...

This communication has been designed for readers to understand the activities undertaken in the project and how CIFABROOD can be used for quality seed production with a bonus of it's act as to produce seeds during off season (premonsoon/Postmonsoon). The demonstration of this feed in seven states of India including hatchery owner's comments is pres...

The world's appetite for fish is growing steadily. Aquaculture has bridged that gap between the growing demand for fish and the almost stagnated wild fish catch, contributing at present nearly 47% of the world's total fish production of 171 million tonnes. Global aquaculture production has almost doubled between 2000 and 2016, it is estimated that,...

The world's appetite for fish is growing steadily. Aquaculture has bridged that gap between the growing demand for fish and the almost stagnated wild fish catch, contributing at present nearly 47% of the world's total fish production of 171 million tonnes. Global aquaculture production has almost doubled between 2000 and 2016, it is estimated that,...

Hydrological data were collected from the six ponds of 0.05 ha size in the farm of the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, India. Data on rainfall, run-off, evaporation, and seepage were collected from these ponds for the years 2013 and 2014. The rainfall was 175 ± 3.0 and 202 ± 5.0 cm in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The run-o...

Rapid spread and population increase of suckermouth armoured catfishes belonging to the genus Pterygoplichthys (Loricariidae) in the East Kolkata Wetlands (EKW) in recent times is of increasing concern, because of the notable possibility that these non-native catfishes are adversely affecting fish germplasm and commercial fishery of this unique eco...

Higher water temperature, sea-level rise and lower precipitation are the manifestations of climate change. Higher temperatures of water and changes in extreme events, like floods and droughts, are responsible for affecting water quality. These extreme events can also pollute water from different sources, like sediments, nutrients, pathogens, pestic...

The excessive and indiscriminate uses of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) through feed, fertilizers and manures in aquaculture ponds could play a vital role in the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2), methane (CH 4), and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). Therefore, it is important to know about the distributions of N and C in the aquaculture...

Unauthorized introduction of South American suckermouth armoured catfishes (Loricariidae) of the genus Pterygoplichthys into the waste water bheries of East Kolkata Wetland, West Bengal has led to their noticeable naturalization in this ecosystem. A total of 439 specimens collected during this study were externally evaluated for affirming the speci...

Unauthorized introduction of South American suckermouth armoured catfishes (Loricariidae) of the genus Pterygoplichthys into the waste water bheries of East Kolkata Wetland, West Bengal has led to their noticeable naturalization in this ecosystem. A total of 439 specimens collected during this study were externally evaluated for affirming the speci...

The presence of various inorganic and organic pollutants in aquatic streams has readily increased as a result of industrialization and urbanization. Among the technologies available, adsorption has widely been used for the removal of various contaminants from aqueous media, and accordingly different adsorbents have already been prepared over the ye...

We surveyed the fish farmers of five states, viz. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal of India for adaptation and mitigation strategies of climate change impact in freshwater aquaculture. In monsoon period especially when the cyclone occurred, overall 9% fish farmers responded regarding fish migration from one pond to another...

Experiments were conducted to study the effect of sodium arsenite (As III) on survival, growth, and feeding of Indian River prawn Macrobrachium mal-colmsonii. Significant differences (p< 0.05) in prawn survival were observed between 0.10 and 0.50mg/l of arsenic levels. Arsenic had a significant (p<0.05) effect on prawn growth as the prawns grew fas...

In this work, we aimed to study the trend of the annual and seasonal mean rainfall and temperature of India over the period of 1901–2014. The long-term trend of rainfall and temperature was evaluated by linear regression and Mann–Kendall test. The magnitude of the trend was assessed by Sen’s Slope. In the last 30 years, the annual and summer rainfa...

Freshwater aquaculture sector constitutes an important component of Indian fisheries contributing to more than 50% of the total fish production of the country. Fish being a protein rich crop, this high level of production demands transformation of good amount of nitrogen into fish flesh. It has been grossly estimated that 0.15 million ton of nitrog...

The water budgets for some aquaculture systems in three states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal were determined in the present study. The average evaporation and seepage loss from the aquaculture ponds throughout the year in Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jajpur, and Puri districts of Orissa were 164 ± 8.3 and 73 ± 16.5 cm, respectively; 152 ± 10...

A fifteen days experiment was conducted with the application of different agrochemicals such as lime, dolomite and gypsum in two levels to find out the phosphorous reduction potential of these chemicals at laboratory. Among the 3 agrochemicals gypsum showed better phosphorous reduction at the dose of 40 mg/L followed by dolomite had comparatively h...

The contribution of aquaculture and allied activities to the emission of green house gases and consequently to global warming is an emerging concern among environmentalists in the recent past. However, there exists ample scope for aquaculture activities to sequester carbon and thus compensate for the carbon emissions linked to aquaculture. This art...

Community based aquaculture, a subset of the rural aquaculture, is characterised with low fish production level. Sustainable improvement of productivity levels in such resources has remained a challenge. The study adopted a novel approach of technology transfer through aquaculture field school which involves provision of technical advices and no ph...

A nutrient budget was quantified for six polyculture ponds of giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) and Indian major carps (Catla catla, Labeo rohita, and Cirrhinus mrigala). The initial stocking size of prawn postlarva was 16.50 ± 0.54 mm with a body weight of 0.05 ± 0.001 g. Body weight of major carps was 9.0 ± 0.89 g. The duration o...

Phosphorus (P) is the most limiting nutrient element in the inland aquatic ecosystems. In Indian context also, many water bodies are deficient in the readily available form of the nutrient. The present effort was to understand the P-dynamics in relation to fish production. While feed and fertilizer are the main inputs of P for the culture systems,...

It is important to understand nutrient budgets of aquaculture practices for efficiency of input resources and to utilize all output nutrient sources. The aim of the present study was to develop a nutrient budget for giant freshwater prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) culture ponds. The study was conducted in farmer's ponds (0.25-0.5 ha) of Odisha, I...

The present study demonstrated the phytoremediation potential of water hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes, for the removal of copper (Cu) and Cadmium (cd). Young plants of equal size were grown in tap water and supplemented with 0.35, 0.70 and 1.05 mg/L of Cu and 0.27, 0.54 and 0.81 mg/L of Cd individually for 25 days. The experiment showed that both Cu...

The present study was conducted to determine the carbon (C) footprint of different aquaculture production systems in India. The total input (kg CE/ha) in different cultures, respectively, was 1,811 to 4,144 for scampi, 4,417 to 5,913 for polyculture, 4,090 to 8,873 for shrimp and 2,417 to 2,786 for carp. Of the total inputs, feed accounts for aroun...

A short term histological study was conducted to determine the impacts of technical grade synthetic pyrethroid insecticide, cypermethrin and carbamate pesticide, carbofuran on different phases of ovarian maturation of freshwater indigenous carp, Labeo rohita. Adult females of L. rohita were exposed to sublethal doses of carbofuran (0.06, 0.15 mg/L)...

Soil samples were collected from four aquaculture ponds (yellow perch culture), a control pond (without aquaculture activities, fallow pond), crop land (under corn), and forest land to estimate the carbon (C) sequestration potential in the Piketon county, Ohio, USA. The averaged total of C was 6.5 ± 2, 8.8 ± 2, 8.53 ± 0.2 and 10.49 ± 1.1 Mg/ha (Mg=...

Experiments were conducted for the study of nutrient budget in ten farmer's ponds (0.2-0.5 ha) in Orissa, India with a mean water depth of 1.0-1.2 m. Scampi (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) were stocked in these ponds at stocking density of 3.75-5.0/m(2). The average initial body weight of scampi was 0.02 mg. The culture period was for 4 months. Feed wa...

Experiments were conducted for the study of nutrient budget in farmers' ponds (0.4-0.6 ha) in Orissa, India, at stocking densities of 0.30-0.38/m(2) for scampi (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) and 0.60-0.70/m(2) for Indian major carps (Catla catla, Labeo rohita and Cirrhinus mrigala). The average initial body weights of scampi and the major carps were 0...

The effect of either boron (B) or molybdenum (Mo) on survival, growth and feed intake of Indian major carp, Cirrhinus mrigala (Hamilton), advanced fry was studied in two separate experiments. Survival rates of C. mrigala fry (2.78±0.14 g) following 50 days’ exposure to B at 0.01 (control), 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 mg·L were 100% at all concentrat...

Nutrient budget for shrimp (Penaeus monodon) culture was performed in ten culture ponds (0.4–1.0 ha) in Orissa, India, at stocking density of 10.0–22.10/m2. The average initial body weight of shrimps was 0.02 g. The culture period was for 4 months. Feed was the main input of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and organic carbon (OC). The FCR varied from...

Survival rate, growth and feed intake were determined for late juveniles (4.31 ± 0.18 g) of river prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii in freshwater with total ammonia-N (NH3-N+NH4-N) concentrations of 0.015 (control), 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg L−1 for 60 days at pH 7.53 ± 0.04 and temperature 24.0 ± 2.5°C. Survival rate was significantly (P<0.05) lower (54 ±...

: Survivability of juvenile giant freshwater prawns Macrobrachium rosenbergii exposed to 0.1 (control), 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg F/L for 60 days with static renewal of fresh water at pH 7.5±0.1 and a temperature of 24±4ºC was 100, 70, 50, and 50%, respectively. Growth of the prawns exposed to 1.0 and 1.5 mg F/L was significantly lower (P<0.05) than tha...

The culture of giant freshwater prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man) is fast expanding in Asia including India. Copper sulfate is extensively used in freshwater prawn culture ponds to control diseases and filamentous algae. In the present investigation, bioaccumulation of copper was studied in post-larvae (10 ± 1 mm; 0.008 ± 0.002 g) and juveni...

The present investigation deals with the interaction between accumulation of waterborne lead, cadmium and chromium with different calcium concentration (1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 mM L-1) in Cirrhina mrigala fingerlings in the laboratory. There was no mortality occurred in metal alone and metal treated with calcium. At the beginning there was no signifi...