Present Status of the Fish Seed Producing Hatcheries in the Jessore Region, Bangladesh

Present Status of the Fish Seed Producing Hatcheriesin the Jessore Region, Bangladesh

1Md. Azharul Islam Sabuj, 2,*Sanjoy Banerjee Bappa, 3, MirMohammad Ali, 4 Md. Hasan-Uj-Jaman, 5 Dr. Md. Anisur Rahamn

Department of Fisheries and Marine Bioscience, Jessore University ofScience and Technology, Jessore, Bangladesh3Department of Aquaculture, Faculty of Fisheries, Patuakhali Scienceand Technology University, Patuakhali, Bangladesh5Professor Department of Fisheries and Marine Bioscience, JessoreUniversity of Science and Technology, Jessore, BangladeshCorrespondence: Sanjoy Banerjee Bappa, Department of Fisheries andMarine Bioscience, Jessore University of Science and Technology;Email: [email protected]

Abstract

An investigation was conducted on the hatchery owners duringthe period from May to September, 2012 to know about thepresent condition and find out the problems of the fish seedproducing hatcheries in the Jessore Region, Bangladesh.Training status of the hatchery owner’s show that in maximumcases they had no training. Funding source was self and loan,land ownership was own and lease. In the study, the maximumnumber of brood ponds, segregation ponds, circular tank,rectangular tank and hatching tank used by the Rupali fishhatchery was 11, 4, 1, 20 and 30 respectively. Most of thehatchery provides a manager and some assistants but have noskilled person. During the period of survey, the majormanagement problems found in Shamim fish hatchery. Thehatchery owners did not keep the record of the history oforigin of brood and not followed the proper sex ratio forartificial breeding. For these reason, the factors that areliable to create inbreeding or negative selection in the seedproduced in the hatchery. The highest seed production wasfound in Rupali fish hatchery (1500 kg/year) and the lowestproduction was in Shamim fish hatchery (600 kg/year). AsJessore contributes fifty percent of total fry and fingerlingproduction in Bangladesh, therefore, the stakeholders should

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focus on the trade issues, fish fry production; otherwise fishsupply would be interrupted as a whole.

Keywords: Present status, Hatchery, Fish seed production,Jessore and Bangladesh.

Introduction:

Bangladesh is an agricultural country (Banglapedia, 2012).Fisheries sector is one of the major components ofagricultural activities and plays a vigorous role innutrition, employment, income generation and foreign exchangeearnings. It is also well recognized for nutrition supply andemployment generation of rural population as well as forforeign exchange earning in Bangladesh (Ali et al., 2014). Thissector directly contribute approximately 4.37% of thecountry’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), however, the indirectcontributions from gross agricultural income are estimated at23.37% (DoF, 2013).

The availability of fish seed is an essential prerequisite forfish culture. The main sources of fish seeds in Bangladesh arespawn produced in government and private hatcheries, and somecollected from rivers. In 2012-2013, the number of governmentfish hatcheries or fry production farms was 936 but most ofthem are private fish hatcheries (DoF, 2013).

Jessore is one of the richest districts of Bangladesh inrespect of its vast, diverse and unique fisheries resources inthe form of physical, biological and others. In Jessoredistrict the numbers of public and private hatcheries arepresent. But now few private hatcheries are closed. Nowadaysdue to the degradation of ecological balance, naturalresources of fish seeds are destroyed. So, hatchery is now themain source of fish seed production.

The term “Hatchery” is considered in broadest sense as afacility where fish fry and fingerlings suitable for stockingin growth ponds are produced in artificial manner by the

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process of induced breeding technique. Induced breeding is atechnique whereby ripe brood fishes are stimulated by treatingthem with inducing agents to breed in captivity. Thestimulation promotes a timely release of eggs and milt fromripe breeders. It is now used as a widely accepted means ofartificial propagation to overcome constraints in fish seedsupply particularly for species that do not breed incaptivity.

With the success of fish seed production through inducedbreeding and the increasing demand for quality fish seed foraquaculture practices, the government of Bangladeshestablished a number of hatcheries in public sector indifferent parts of the country. In addition to production offish seed, these public sector fish seed farms acted ascenters of technology transfer and trained a large number ofprivate entrepreneurs who were interested in establishinghatcheries on their own initiatives. Since 1980, thetechnology for production of Indian major carps and some othercommercially important fish species has been transferred toprivate sector from public sector and due to its simplicity alarge number of hatcheries have been established in bothsectors. About 936 private hatcheries and public nurseryproduced 0.49 million fry (DoF, 2013).

Aquaculture production has been significantly increased inrecent years in Bangladesh because of adoption of variousimproved aquaculture technologies. But the most stumblingblocks to hinder the increasing trend of aquacultureproduction in Bangladesh are the lacking of good qualityhatchery-produced seeds of various farmed fish species.

The quality of seeds has been deteriorated over the years dueto technical inefficiencies of the hatchery owners related toimproper Broodstock management, unplanned interspecifichybridization and mating of closely related breeders in the

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hatcheries. As a result, reduced growth, high mortality, poorfecundity, disease susceptibility of seeds and breeds has beenobserved. It is essential to formulate policies andinterventions to produce high quality fish seeds in thehatcheries for supporting the sustainable aquacultureproduction in Bangladesh. Therefore, this study was aimed toget up-to-date overview of the current characteristics andmanagement practices of the fish seed production farms, socio-economic aspects and technical capabilities of the owners andimplications of the good quality supply system in the Jessoreregion, Bangladesh.

Materials & Methods

Study areaThe study area was conducted on Sadar Upazila in Jessoreregion since July 2012. Jessore Sadar Upazila is the mostpioneer and popular for finfish production in our country(Fig. 1). There were eighty two (82) hatcheries in Jessore Sadar Upazilaand most of the hatcheries are situated at Chanchra region. Atpresent 34 hatcheries are running there. Among them 12hatcheries were surveyed for comparative study. The full nameof these hatcheries Acota Fish Hatchery (AFH), Al Amin FishHatchery (AMFH), Chowdhury Fish Hatchery (CFH), KapotakkhoFish Hatchery (KFH), Madhumoti Fish Hatchery (MFH), Maa FatemaFish Hatchery (MFFH), Rita Fish Hatchery (RIFH), Rupali FishHatchery (RUFH), Sonali Fish Hatchery (SOFH), Suvro FishHatchery (SUFH), Shamim Fish Hatchery (SHFH), Rahman FishHatchery (RFH).

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Fig. 1: Map showing the study area.

Data collectionThe present information was collected by direct survey andobservation method. Data were collected by direct interviewingof the hatchery owners or managers. Several visits were madeto the study area to collect accurate data. Data wereassembled through field survey at the area by using astructural questionnaire based on the methods of FGD (FocusGroup Discussion), PRA (participatory Rural Appraisal), RRA(Rapid Rural Appraisal).Secondary data were also collectedfrom Fisheries & Marine Resource Technology, Khulna Universityand also collected from internet browsing.

Data Analysis

The results obtained in the experiment were subjected tostatistical analysis. Qualitative and quantitative analysis ofall kinds of data were carried out. MS Excel was used to store

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all the data. MS Excel was also used for presentation of thetables and graphs obtained from different types of data.

Results and Discussions:

Existing Facilities of the Hatchery: From the surveyed data (Table 1),it was found that the total number of brood ponds used byRupali fish hatchery for holding broods was 11 which comparedwith other hatcheries, they only used maximum 7 to minimum 6brood ponds for holding broods. In comparatively, Shamim fishhatchery used only 4 brood ponds for holding broods. Thesenumbers of ponds are not sufficient for stocking large numberof brood. This insufficient brood stocking increase the chanceof mating of closely related individual. That is the chance ofinbreeding (Shah, 2004). In comparatively among the hatchery,average number of circular tank, rectangular tank and hatchingjar were 1, 20 and 30 are present in RUFH. Most of thehatchery provides have no circular tank, rectangular tankranges from maximum 16 to minimum 12 and the number of jarsranges from maximum 20 to minimum 14 (Table 1). Most of thehatchery provides a manager and some assistants but have noskilled person. But in RUFH the manpower in differentcategories was 1 manager, 5 hatcheries assistants and 2skilled persons (Table 1).

Table 1: The present situation of surveyed hatchery in Jessoreregion, Bangladesh

Sl.No.

Name ofHatchery

General hatchery proper (Number)

Broodponds

Circulartank

Rectangulartank

Hatchingjar

Skilledperson

Staff

Overheadtank

Nurserypond

Segregationpond

01 AFFH 6 0 16 20 0 04 01 02 002 AMFH 5 0 12 15 0 03 01 03 1

03 CFH 5 0 16 20 0 07 01 04 204 KFH 6 0 12 20 0 06 01 02 005 MFH 8 0 10 15 0 04 01 02 0

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06 MFFH 7 0 12 20 0 06 01 02 107 RIFH 6 0 12 14 0 04 01 03 008 RUFH 11 1 20 30 2 07 02 04 409 SOFH 7 0 12 20 0 06 01 03 210 SUFH 6 0 16 20 0 05 01 04 111 SHFH 4 0 12 14 0 04 01 02 012 RFH 5 0 16 18 o O5 01 03 1

Water quality parameter: Water quality parameter is the mostimportant factor for brood fish health, growth, survival rateand reproduction. In brood fish ponds suitable temperature,DO, pH and transparency are needed for their survival. Incomparatively, the average DO, pH and transparency was obtainedto be 6 mg/l, 7.5 and 27.5 cm (Table 2).

Sl.No

Name ofhatchery

Temperature(0c)

DO (mg/l) pH Transparency(cm)

01 AFH 25 4.25 6.25 2202 AMFH 25.5 4 6.5 1703 CFH 24.5 4.25 6.75 1904 KFH 26 4.75 5.75 20.505 MFH 27 4.25 5.25 19.506 MFFH 27.5 4.5 6 19.507 RIFH 24.5 5.25 6.25 20.508 RUFH 27.5 6 7.5 27.509 SOFH 26 4.25 5.25 22.510 SUFH 26.5 4 6.25 1811 SHFH 25.5 3 9 1612 RFH 26 4.25 5.25 18.5 Table 2: The water quality parameters of brood stock ponds inthe surveyed hatchery in Jessore region

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In the comparative study showing the values of parameters DO,pH and transparency. In RUFH the value of this three factorsare good but in SHFH this value is poorer among all thehatcheries because of their water quality is deteriorated byover feeding and also producing huge algal bloom. Finally theDO decreases with increasing pH from desired level.

Nameofhatchery

Culture strategies Stockingdensity/decimal

Types of feed FeedingFrequency(Times)

Extensive

Semiintensive

Intensive

<60 >60 Formulatedfeed

Commercialfeed

Natureof feed

AFH + + + Floating

1-2

A MFH + + + Floating

01

CFH + + + Floating

01

KFH + + + Sinking

1-2

MFH + + + Sinking

1-2

MFFH + + + Sinking

02

RIFH + + + Sinking

1-2

RUFH + + + Floating

01

SOFH + + + Sinking

1-2

SUFH + + + Sinking

1-2

SHFH + + + Floating

02

8

RFH + + + Sinking

02

Table 3: Culture strategies & feeding management of broodfishes in surveyed hatcheries, Jessore region, Bangladesh

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Seed production of the hatchery:

At present, aquaculture is fully dependent on hatcheryproduced fry. Hatchery produced fry & fingerlings are suppliedto the different parts of our country from the Jessore region.A small part of fry are supplied outside the area of JessoreSadar and fulfill the total demand of fry for aquaculture andfulfill the demand of food supply in our area and alsocontribute to the national economy of our country. Many feedproduced company are directly involved in this sector. Inaspects of our country especially Jessore region hatcheryproduced one third of the fry and fingerlings.

Serial No Name of hatchery Production (kg)/year1 AFH 9002 AMFH 7503 CFH 8004 KFH 8505 MFH 8506 MFFH 10007 RIFH 8508 RUFH 15009 SOFH 110010 SUFH 90011 SHFH 60012 RFH 750 Table 4: The present seed production of surveyed hatchery inJessore region, Bangladesh

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In comparatively among all the hatcheries, RUFH producedhighest amount of fry in Jessore area (1500 kg/ year). Duringthe period of study, it was observed that the production offish seeds are not sufficient than production capacity. Moreor less similar observation was found in the study of Islam etal. (2002), Hossain and Siddique (2009). The annual productioncapacity (Kg) of some of the surveyed private hatcheriesranged from minimum 350 to maximum 2000 kg. The totalproductions of fry of some surveyed hatcheries were lowest 600to highest 1500 kg.

Fig. 2: Comparative study on present seed production ofsurveyed hatchery in Jessore region

In the fig. 2 showing the fry production per year among allthe hatcheries. Here in RUFH production is highest and in SHFHfry production is lowest. In comparatively among all thehatcheries, it can be said that RUFH showing the good DO, pH &transparency value (Table 2) and it contains lowest amount ofproblems thus the disease cannot be destructive in it (showingFig. 3). So, the production of RUFH is higher (Fig. 2). But inSHFH they can’t monitor their water quality parameter and alsofaced a lot of problems because their hatchery management is

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not well managed and they have no skilled person formonitoring and maintaining breeding protocol. So, theirproduction is lowest among all the hatcheries (Fig. 2).

Problems faced by the hatchery owners:

Sound health management practice is a key to success in anyhatchery operation. In the study areas, hatchery operatorsmentioned several problems they encountered in theiroperations. Most of the hatchery owners faced some technical,economic and social problems.

Fig. 3: Comparative study on the problems faced by the privatehatchery owners

In the comparative study, the highest percentages of problemsare faced by SHFH because of their lower management system andtheir hatchery facilities are not well managed. In case ofRUFH, their management systems are well prepared. So, theyfaced some minor problems. The problems faced by the hatcheryowners are lack of skilled person, Insufficient water in dryseason, Drainage system, lack of credit, lack of marketingfacility, theft, joint partnership, taking lease of pond &flood.

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After conducting the survey, it has been found that thehighest number of ponds provided by the RUFH was 11and othershatchery were provided maximum 07 to minimum 04 numbers ofbrood ponds. These numbers of ponds are not sufficient forstocking large number of brood. This insufficient broodstocking increase the chance of mating of closely relatedindividual. That is the chance of inbreeding (Shah, 2004).

In the study area, major management problems and constraintsfaced by the hatchery owners are lack of technologicalknowledge, lack of credit, joint partnership, taking lease ofpond, flood and insufficient water in dry season. The presentfindings more or less similar from the result described bySalam et al. (2008) who mentioned that about 28.57% and 9.52%owners claimed that the production of farms hampered due tolack of technical knowledge and insufficient water in the dryseason.

In order to supply adequate water to the tanks or hatchingjars, underground water from deep or shallow tube well isnecessary. Also adequate temperate, DO, pH and transparencyshould be maintained in brood fish pond. Most of the hatcheryprovides one overhead tank to supply water but in RUFH theyhave two overhead tanks for supplying water into the broodholding tanks and hatching jars.

The success of the hatchery operations depends upon theskilled manpower and other manpower such as hatcheryassistant, labor employed in netting and brood selection,brood carrying in the hatchery, brood feeding, pump driver,night guard etc. In RUFH had an average number of 8 people ofwhich 1 was manager, 2 skilled person and 5 assistants. Butmost of the hatchery provides a manager and some assistants.The number of hatchery assistances varies to maximum 5 tominimum 2 including the night guard. The hatchery operationsproduce more success with the respect to low genetic error

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when the broods are handled by more skilled person in thehatchery.

During the investigational period, maximum number of circulartank, rectangular tank and hatching jar were 1, 20 and 30 arepresent in RUFH. But most of the hatchery provides have nocircular tank, rectangular tank ranges from maximum 16 tominimum 12 and the number of jars ranges from maximum 20 tominimum 14. In hatchery, a minimum number of rectangular tankand hatching jar are needed and one circular tank must beneeded for quality seed production. Fewer numbers of tanks andjars indicates the lower optima which are important withregard to creating genetic concerns (Shah, 2004).

Sex ratio of the breeding individuals is not ideally followedin most hatcheries. The hatchery technicians depend on theirexperience in maintaining breeding protocol for artificialbreeding. Sometimes the technicians use the milt of differentspecies due to lack of milt of the species. This unplannedbreeding results in generation of genetic underclass carpseeds and produces low quality seeds of slow growth rate, poorsurvival power etc. (Dutta, 2000).

In the study area, it was recorded that, the occurrence ofdisease were the most common problems in hatchery. While themajor diseases reported in hatcheries were sudden spawnmortality, fish lice, gill rot, fin rot and anchor warm. Thisfindings of the study differ from the study of Hasan andAhmed (2002) who reported that diseases were less prevalentin hatcheries than in nurseries and the economic loss due todisease was about 7.6% of the profit.

In the study area , it was found that mature brood fishes areselected for seed production by some sign or body parametersuch as swollen abdomen, protruded reddish vent etc., themales are selected by checking roughness of the pectoral finsand presences of milt by sight pressure on the abdomen.Suitability quality of the brood fishes are the principal

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determinant of quality seed produced from a hatchery. Thesefindings are similar to the study of Chaudhury (1959) whoreported that mature male and female brood fishes are selectedby their external characteristics and healthy, disease free,uninjured broods are selected for the induced spawning.

During the period of study, it was observed that theproduction of fish seeds are not sufficient than productioncapacity. More or less similar observation was found in thestudy of Islam et al. (2002), Hossain and Siddique (2009). Theannual production capacity (kg) of some of the surveyedprivate hatcheries ranged from minimum 350 to maximum 2000 kg.The total production of fry of some surveyed hatcheries werelowest 600 to highest 1500 kg.

Prospects of Hatchery

Fish is an essential daily food item for the people ofBangladesh and such demand for fish is increasing with theincreasing of population. Aquaculture has been givenimportance in Bangladesh because of its potential for exportearning, generation of employment for the rural sector and itscontribution to the supply of animal protein for thepopulation. With the decline of the natural fish productionand increase of demand, aquaculture venture has been emergedas a most vital wing of fish production and aquaculture is nowfully dependent on the hatchery produced seed. For aneffective development of aquaculture, good quality of fishseed is highly essential. But it has been claimed that, thehatchery produced fry are not of good quality. That is most ofthese are slow growth rate, poor survivability, poor diseaseresistance power etc. There are the prospects of fish seedproducing hatcheries in the Jessore Region, Bangladesh as

to fulfill the demand of fish for growing population, fishproduction should be developed through hatchery produced fry,unused water body can be stocked by hatchery produced fry,hatchery will be developed through fisheries research

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development, to protect endangered fish species, artificialbreeding process should be operated in hatchery, Unemploymentproblem can be removed through hatchery development and ourcountry can earn foreign exchange by exporting hatcheryproduced fry.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Jessore Science and TechnologyUniversity for providing financial support, other facilitiesfrom Fisheries and Marine Bioscience Department, and gratitudeto the hatchery owner and technician, skilled and unskilledlabor for their cooperation to collect necessary information.

References

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Chaudhury, H. 1959. Notes on external charactersdistinguishing sex of breeders of the common Indian carps.Sci.Cult.25(10): 258-259.

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