Breeding, age and growth of the freshwater shark
Wallago attu (Bloch and Schneider) from the Dhir
Beel of the Brahmaputra Basin, Assam, India
Item Type article
Authors Goswami, P.K.; Devaraj, M.
Download date 27/07/2022 11:10:28
Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/31821
Journal of the Indian Fisheries Association 13
22, 1992, 13-20
BREEDING, AGE AND GROWTH OF THE FRESHWATER SHARK
WALLAGO ATTU (BLOCH AND SCHNEIDER) FROM THE DHIR BEEL
OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA BASIN, ASSAM, INDIA.
P.K. GOSW AMI* AND M. DEVARAJ
Central Institute of Fisheries Education, Versova, Bombay - 400 061.
ABSTRACT
The Dhir becl, one of the major live becls of the Brahmaputra basin, Assam, has an
area of 689 ha and is situated in Dhubli district of Assam. The dominance of fresh·water
shari<., Wal/ago attu (8.10%) in the becl is a striking feature. Restricted breeding of W. attu
. once a year from June to Septemebr ·was obsen'ed. The. mean obset'\'ed length was 37.5,
65.0, 84.5 and 99.0 em in the 6th, 12th, 18th and 24th months of age respectively. The length
growth coefficient (K), the asymptotic len!,Jfh (Loc ), and the arbitrary origin of the growth
curve (to), for W. attu were estimated to be 0.054484 per month, 136.16 em and 0.0355 month
respectively. The calculated life span (Toe) of the fish is 123.86 months (about 10 years). The
weight growth parameters were estimated where the monthly growth coefficient (K), the
as:vmptotic \Veight (Woc) and the arbitrary origin of' the growth cun'e (to) were found to be
0.0743 j>er month, 7636,92 gram and 0.431908 month respectively. The length - weight
relationship follows the cube law.
INTRODUCTION dominance of W attu among the catfishes. The
present investigation was taken up to study ti1e
The floodplain lakes (locally called as breeding, age and growti1 of W attu from the
beels) form the most potential fishel)' resources Dhir becl of the Bralunaputra basin, Assam.
of the state of Assam covering a total area of
1 lakh ha and are capable of producing an MATERIAL AND METHODS
annual fish crop of about 1000 kg/ha (Yadava,
1988). These natural waterbodies are mostly Recruitment pattern has been traced from
connected with the river Bralm1aputm and its the length frequency data collected from the
tributaries (live becls) and harbour a large Dllir beel during 1981 -1984 by tile Central
number offish fauna (indigenous to tllis region) Inland Capture Fisheries Research Institute
comprising Indian carps, catfishes, featherbacks (CICFRI) substation at Guwahati. The relative
and Hi/sa ilisha. Recruitment in the live beels condition ·factor was estimated in order to
takes place either by inbreeding or by nligration decipher the intensity of spawning in different
from the river or tributaries through the seasons. The spawning intensity of TV.al/u as
connecting chmmels. a function of time was detem1ined by the annual
recruitment pattern wllich was built by retracing
.The Dhir beel, one of the major live beels the length-frequencies for each month to their
of the Brahmaputra basin, Assam, has an area zero age by means of the age-length key (Pauly,
of 689 ha. The physico-chemical properties of 1982) in order to indicate the recruits (in % to
the soil and water and the biotic components the total annual recruitment) resulting from each
of the becl depict medium to high levels of month spawning. The relative condition factor
production potential of up to 160 kg/ha/yr. Kn (Le Crcn, 1951) was estimated from the
Further. amongst the catfishes. W. allu forms following form :
a substantial fishery in the Dhir beel. The . w
A:n=·;-;:-------------( 1)
abundance of benthic organisms as we11 as weed
fishes in the beel might have favoured the where, w is the observed weight and W is the
* College of Fisheries. Assam Agricultural University. P.O. Raha- 782 103. Nagoan, Assam.
14 GOSW AMI AND DEV ARAJ
calculated weight estimated from the equation, cient (K) and the arbitrary origin of the growth
W = a L b ----------- (2) curve (to) were calculated by Bagenal's (1955)
where, a and b are constant and exponent method.
respectively while L is the length of the fish.
Kn was calculated for different lengths and for The age of the fish for a given length has
different months, and used as an index of been derived from the growth formula (Eq.3)
maturation, spawning and postspawniri.g condi- by taking loge on both sides of the equation.
tions. In order to find out the value of Toe
corresponding to L;;, a value of 1t very close
In the scatter diagram of length modes (i.e. to Loc was substituted in the growth equation.
from the length- frequency data for W. attu)
plotted on the ordinates against time in Six hundred and twentysix W. attu of both
successive months on the abcissa, the progres- the sexes were used for length-weight relation-·
sion of modes was traced freehand through time ship. The weight W in gram - at - length (L)
and extrapolated to the time axis in order to in em relationship (Eq.2) was fitted. The weight
identify the number of broods per year class growth parameters for fitting the vonBertalanffy
and to detemrine the growth of successive equation (Eq.4) for the weight - at .. age,
broods (Devaraj, 1983). The data pertaining to
the juvenile stages were transposed wherever
necessary for the same month of different years
for the purpose of bridging the data gaps to were solved by Bagenal's (1955) method.
help extrapolate growth lines. Each brood was
considered separately for detemuning length in RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
em- at- a·ge in months. The mean length- at
- age thus calculated was smoothened by a Recruitment into the W. attu stock in Dhir
running average of three in order to remove beel was rather high at 4.16, 5.64, 4.56, 3.53
chance fluctuations, if any. and 3.63% in the months of January, February,
March, April and May respectively, lowest
ThevonBertalanffy (1938) growth function during June at 1.52 %. and July at 0.99%, but
(VBGF) was fitted (Eq. 3) to the mean length again increased from August at 2.49 to 3.66,
(em) - at - age (months) data computed from 4.78, 3.84 and 2.75 % in the months of
the results of modal progression analysis, September, October, November and December
(Table I). This evidently supports the earlier
It = Loc (l - e - K (t - to))------------ (3) observation by Qasim and Qayyum (1962) that
breeding of W. attu is restricted but prolonged
The growth parameters in Eq. 3 nan1ely, till the end of the monsoon during June to
the asymptotic length (Loc ), the growth coeffi- September.
Table I: Recruitment pattern (%) according to months for W. attu ciuring 1980- 1984.
Year J F M A M J J A s 0 N D
1980 18.18 22.73 22.73 22.27 9.09
1981 0.97 0.14 0.14 0.56 1.67 1.53 3.75 6.11 16.67 32.78 21.25 14.44
1982 35.93 19.76 7.78 7.19 9.58 4.79 2.99 2.99 1.80 0.60 1.20 5.39
1983 8.11 27.02 13.51 10.81 16.22 9.46 2.70 2.70 2.70 1.35 1.35 4.05
1984 4.88 20.73 32.93 23.78 12.80 2.44 2.44
Monthly 4.16 5.64 4.53 3.53 3.36 1.52 0.99 2.49 3.66 4.79 3.84 2.75
Average
BREEDING,' AGE AND GROWTH OF FRESHWATER SHARK WALLA GO ATTU 15
The relative condition factor Kn for species were estimated to be 0.05 per month,
different months revealed considerable vari- 136.16 em and 0.04 month respectively. The
ation. It was high in June and December, lengths estimated by the von Bertalanffy's
moderate in July and October and low from equation 37.8, 65.2, 84.9 and 99.26 em at the
January to May and in August, September and age of 6th, 12th, 18th and 24th months
Novermber (Fig.l) Kn values were high in the respectively agree well with the obsetVed
length groups in the range of 15.0 em to 30.0 lengths. The estimated life span (Toe) of the
em, but almost steady in the range of 35.0 em fish is 123.86 months (about 10 years).
to 90.0 em (Fig. 2). Freehand cuiVes drawn
through the length modes indicated restricted The length (L in em) and weight (W in
breeding of W. attu once a year from June to gran1s) relation based· on the observed data on
September (Fig.3). totallengtl1 L (em) and the corresponding total
weight W (gram) is fitted (Fig.4) by Eq.5 as
The mean obsetVed growth in length in follows
em -at - age in months was 37.5, 65.0, 84.5
29
and 99.0 em in the 6th, 12th, 18th and 24th W= 0.07 L · --------------- ( 5)
months respectively. The length growth coef-
ficient (K), the asymptotic length (Loc) and the where .? value was found to be 0.98.
arbitrary origin of the growth cmve (to) for the
2·0
~I 1·8
1-
0
1· 6
......
-0
c
0
u
1·4
1· 2
.....
"0
c 1· 0
0
u
0·8
Q.l
>
+-' 0·6
0
__.
01
IX 0·4
0·2
0
J F M A M J J A s 0 N D
Months
Fig. 1 : Monthwise relative condition factor (Kn) for W. attu {111 + F).
16 GOSW AMI AND DEV ARAJ
The weight growth parameters were esti- of Loc, Woc and K for W attu in the present
mated for the weight (g) data. The monthly study vividly reflect the very high productivity
growth coefficient (K), the asympototic weight and ample food for the fish in Dhir beel. The
(Woc) and the atbitrary origin of the growth size of 70 em attained by W.attu in the first
curve (to) were estimated to be 0.07, 7636.9 g year in Indian waters (Jayaram, 1977) is very
and 0.43 month respectively. close to the calculated length of 65 em in the
first year, in the present study. Further, the
asymptotic length (Loc) calculated for the
A high rate of growth in TV. attu was species ( 136.16 em) is close to the highest
observed in Dhir beel. Growth rates vary in length ( 103 em) observed in the length frequency
different ecosystems, as can be observed from data in the present study.
Table 2 for different species. The higher valu!;fS
3·0
2·5
_;I
...0
--
v
Cl
2·0
c
0 l·S
+'
"0
c
0
v
Ql
1·0
.::::
.....
Cl
Ql
0::
0·5
oL-~~--~~~--~~~--~~--~~~~~~~~~~
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 so 65 70 75 80 85 90
Class intervals (ems)
Fig. 2 : Lengthwise relative condition factor (K1i) for TY. attu (A1 + F).
BREEDING, AGE AND GROWTH OF FRESHWATER 'SHARK WALLAGO ATTU 17
1000
950
..
900
850
800
......
750
..
E 700.
u
r:: 650
.s::
.... 600
en
c
~ 550
a... 500
....
0
450 I
I
.s::
..... I
400
/1,
en I
r::
.2! I
350 I
a 300
I
"'0
0 It I I I
I
~
250 II
II I I
I I
lj
200
150
II
II
Ii
I I
I /I
I I I
1 I I
I 1I
I
I II
I
I I
/1
I
I
100 I I / I I I I I
I I ,(
I1 I / I I I' I
so II I I I I I 1 I
I I I I I I I I I
0
J A 0 0 F A J A 0 0 F A J A 0 0 F A J A 0 0
198l 1982 1983 1984
Time in monthly intervals
Fig. 3 : Growth lines filled through the scatter diagram of length modes plotted against
time indicating the major broods of W. attu during 1981-1984.
18 GOSWAl-.H AND DEY ARAJ
36
34
32
30'
28
26
No
24
)(
......
Ill
22
E
t:JI 20
c.
18
~I
-
.&:
1:1\
Ql
Hi
14
~
12
10
4
2
0
10 20 30 40 so 60 70 80 90
Length l in ems
Fig. 4 :Length- weight relationship in respect of1Y. attu (M +F) 1981-1984.
BREEDING, AGE AND GROWTH OF FRESHWATER SHARK /VALLA GO ATTU 19
Table II: Growth parameters of von Bertalaf.fo equatwn calculated jhr Labeo rohita and a few
siluroid catfishes jiYJ111 different ecosyste1i1s.
-------------------~----.
Species Loc K to Locality Author
(mm) (ammal) (monthly)
Labeo rohita 1015.00 0.276 0.33 River Ganga and Khan and
Yamuna Siddiqui (1973)
Labeo rohita 1517.90 0.923 -1.10 Getalsud Anon. (1983)
resetVoir. Bihar
Labeo rohita 912.00 0.382 -0.13 Govindgarh Lake Shreeprakash and
Gupta (1986)
Labeo rohita 1197.00 0.250 0.20 River Chowdhury (1989)
Bralunaputra,
Assam
Pangasius 936.00 0.20 -0.85 Nagmjunsagar Anon. (1983)
pangasius resetVoir, Andhra
Pradesh
II
A1ystusaor 860.00 0.23 -0.55 Anon. (1983)
Pseudeutropius 470.00 0.27 -0.21 " Ramakrislmaiah
tarkee (1984)
II II
Pangasius 867.6 (M) 0.22 (M) -0.09 (M)
pangasius 943 (F) 0.20 (F) 0.02 (F)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS long rough dab Hippoglossoides plates-
soides (Fabr.) J.A1ar. Bioi. Ass. U.K, 34:
The authors acknowledge the kind help 297-311.
and support rendered by Dr. A.G. Jhingran,
Ex-Director, Central Inland Capture Fisheries Bcrtalanffy, L.von. 1938. A quantitative theory
Research Institute (CICFRI), Barrackpore, West of organic growth. Hum. Bioi., 10 : 181 -
Bengal, India and also Dr. Y.S. Yadava, Senior 213.
Scientist, CICFRI, Barrackpore, in the present
study. The authors also acknowledge the kind ChowdhUQ', M. 1989. Age and growth of
help of Dr.V.R.P. Sinha, Director, Central Indian carps from the river Brahmaputra,
Institute of Fisheries Education, Versova, Assam. Ph. D Thesis, Universitv of'Guwa-
Bombay for the facilities extended for the hati, Assam : 124 p
completion of the study.
Dcvaraj, M. 1983. Fish population dynamics.
REFERENCES Course Manual, CIFE Bulletin 3(10) 83.
Central Institute (~l Fisheries Education,
Anonymous, 1983. Report on All India Coor- Bombay : 98 p
dinated Research Project on ecology and
fisheries of freshwater resetVoirs. March 9 Jayaram, K.C. 1977. Role of siluroid fishes
and 10, 1983. Central In!. Fish. Res. Inst., in aquaculture. J. In/: Fish. Soc. India, 9:
Barrackpore : 56p 84-91.
Bagcnal, T.B. 195.5. The growth rate of the Khan, R.A. and Siddi<Jui, A.Q. 1973. Studies
20 GOSW AMI AND DEV ARAJ
on the age and growth of rohu, Labeo Ramaluishnaiah, M. ~984. Some obsetvations
rohita (Ham.) from a pond (moat) and on the biology of Pseudeutropius tarkee
rivers Ganga and Yamuna. Proc. Indian (Day), a schilbied catfish from Nagmjun-
Sci. Acad, 39 (B) : 542 - 597. sagar resetvoir, A1atsya, 9 and 10 : 100 -
109.
Le Cren, E.D. 1951. The length weight
relationship and seasonal cycle in gonad Ramakrishnaiah, M. ·1986. Studies on the
weight and condition in perch (Perea fishery and biology of Pangasius pangasius
jluviatilis). J. Anim. Ecol., 20 : 201 - 2J9. (Ham.) of the Nagmjunsagar resetvoir,
Andhra Pradesh. Indian J Fish., JJ (3) :
Pauly, D. 1982. Studying single species 65 - 72.
dynamics in a tropical multispecies contexi.
Theory and Management of Tropical Shrccpral<.ash and Gupta, R.A. 1986. Studies
Fisheries. Pauly, D. and Murphy, G.I. on the comperative growth rates of three
(Eds.), ICLARAI Conference Proceedings, major carps of the Govindgarh 1ake.Indian
9 : 33 - 70. J Fish., JJ (1) : 45 - 53.
Qasim, S.Z. and Qayyum, A. 1962. Spawning Yadava, Y.S. 1988. Strategies for the conser-
frequencies and breeding season of some vation and management of oxbow lake
freshwater fishes with special reference to resources. In : Natl. Conf. Mang. Lakes,
those occuring in the plains of northern Inland Waterbodies, IPHE, India, 24 - 26
India. Indian J Fish., 8 (1) : 24 - 43. Nov., 1988 (Abstr.).
