Maharashtra's first hatchery for striped murrel (Channa striata), a fast-growing, high-value freshwater fish, has opened at Bhimashankar Fisheries in Kanase, Ambegaon taluka, Pune district, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) reports.

It was inaugurated by N. P. Sahu, director of the ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai, during an awareness programme on murrel breeding and culture. The hatchery was built with CIFE's technical guidance in collaboration with the Maharashtra Department of Fisheries.

Under a NASF-CCF Young Scientist Project, a CIFE team ran breeding and seed-production trials in July and August 2026 using an improved peptide-based hormone formulation for induced breeding, producing about 2.5 lakh (250,000) hatchlings and 45,000 fingerlings. More trials are under way.

The hatchery answers a local shortage. Around 50 to 60 farmers with farm ponds in the Pune region have repeatedly asked for murrel fingerlings, and without seed their ponds have been under-used. A steady supply of quality fingerlings should let them stock their ponds fully and raise fish output.

Sahu suggested developing a murrel cluster in the Pune region with the state fisheries department and stressed CIFE's role in technology transfer and training for farmers and entrepreneurs. The programme presented murrel as a promising species for diversifying aquaculture because of its fast growth, consumer demand and high market value.

Photo: Nilesh Heda / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: ICAR