Inland Fisheries

1.3.3. Major inland fish species composition of Asia

In Asian freshwater fish fauna, the dominant groups are cyprinids (Cyprinidae, about 1,000 species), loaches (about 400 species) of the families Balitoridae and Cobitiidae, gobids (Gobiidae, 300 species), catfishes (Bagridae, about 100 species), and the Osphronemidae (85 species). In most countries in Asia, the main species in inland fisheries tend to be indigenous species, at times translocated across their natural range of distribution within the country boundaries. For example, the inland fisheries in China are predominated by major Chinese carp species, such as silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis), common carp (Cyprinus carpio) etc., whereas those in India and Bangladesh are predominated by Indian major carps, such as rohu (Labeo rohita), mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigal), catla (Catla catla) etc. Similarly, in Thailand the inland fisheries are predominated by indigenous catfish and snakehead species, as well in some waters by the native pelagic freshwater clupeid, the river sprat, Clupeichthys aesarnensis (Jutagate et al., 2003). However, in Sri Lanka, an island state with a relatively depauperate native fish fauna, the backbone of the inland fishery, particularly those based on self-recruitment, in large reservoirs, is almost entirely predominated by exotic tilapias. In Vietnam, the inland fisheries in the past was based primarily on alien species, regularly stocked, but in the last decade there had been a gradual shift to a predominance of indigenous species, small cyprinids species such as Toxobramis houdemeri, Pseudohemiculter dispar, Coulter erythropterus, Cranoglanis spp., etc.