Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 August 2009
The major carps such as Labeo rohita, Cirrhinus mrigala, Catla catla, and Labeo calbasu, which constitute important economic food-fishes in India, breed only in rivers, and consequently the spawn and fry of these fishes are collected from riverine resources for culture in ponds and tanks. The present paper describes our extensive survey of fish spawn-collection grounds in the River Ganges (from Barauni to Farakka, a stretch of about 256 km). In the course of these studies, active and major sites of spawning were located at Monghyr, Sultanganj, Akbarnagar, Sonbarsa, Bhagalpur, Colgong, Sahibganj, Rajmahal, Manikchak, and Farakka. Some of the environmental factors, such as water transparency, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and meteorological conditions for spawning of fishes, were analysed.