The term "Bangla fish" is widely used among people in the fisheries trade, that is, fish farmers, fish farm owners, fish traders and fish marketing workers. The mrigal is one of these native "Bangla fish".

In some places the fish is better known as mirka or mirga. It lives in the lower layers of rivers, haors, ponds and other water bodies. It does not usually come up near the surface, but moves around near the bottom to find food.

Its scientific name is Cirrhinus cirrhosus. An adult fish reaches a maximum length of 80 centimetres. Mrigal are found everywhere in Bangladesh, in rivers, canals, beels, haors, baors, ponds and floodplains.

Senior upazila fisheries officer Farajul Kabir told Banglanews that the mrigal is a tasty fish that feeds from the bottom layer of water bodies. Zooplankton, small and large insects on the bottom, decaying organic matter, mud and sand are its food. As supplementary feed it eats rice bran, fishmeal, wheat bran, mustard oil cake and the like.

On maturity, he said the mrigal becomes mature at one year of age, though according to some it matures in six months. This depends largely on complete, balanced feed. Males of the same age mature somewhat earlier than females.

On breeding, the officer said one lakh eggs can be obtained from a mature mrigal weighing one kilogram. The fish does not spawn in closed water bodies; it lays its eggs in flowing rivers from May to July. Fry are seen being produced through artificial breeding from April.

Health-conscious people who are controlling their diet can choose mrigal instead of meat rather than relying fully on meat, the senior fisheries officer said. The fish's oil is very beneficial, preventing fat from building up in the blood vessels of the heart and keeping them clear and unnarrowed, so that blood flows well through the heart, he said.

Source: Banglanews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.