It is known as Murrels,the snake headed fishes and the mud fishes.The familiarly available species of murrels in India are 1.Channa marulius 2.Channa punctatus and 3.Channa striatus.These are found in freshwater ponds,lakes,canals and rivers.These fishes attain maturity with in 3-6 months of their age and breeds naturally even in confined waters through out the year.The murrels are carnivores and canibalists-the small fishes,insects,zooplanktons and their own breed are the natural foods.The murrels are air breathing fishes,can survive out side the pond environment for 2-4days.This is the reason why these fishes are sold live in the market.The murrels posses vertebral column only and do not contain the spicules or the small bones which makes it easy to eat.The murrel fish meat is considered to be delicacy.The Murrels fetch very high price to that of Carps.The selling price ranges from 600-1000 Rs a kg right at the pond bund.But till to date no large scale or commercial pond culture exists.The reasons for this are 1.these are cannibalists-eats its own breed say for example if we stock 3000 numbers/acre and after certain rearing period go for harvesting we find only 10-30 numbers .So no number,no tonnage.2.These are prolific breeders,breeds through out the year in case stocking density at the begining time of culture is 3000/acre we see lacks of baby murrels and 10-30 harvestable sized murrels at the end of culture period. Again no tonnage ,of course large number will be there.3.Murrels are carnivores eats huge quanitity of animal proteins but their FCR is very HIGH, means eats a lot grows little,thus economically not feasable.Thus the murrels available in the market are naturally caught from the wild and NOT from the culture ponds.Greater research work is essential to establish Murrel culture in ponds.
No comments:
Post a Comment