Fish farmers need to know well how to manage mixed culture of pabda fish. In the past, fish were plentiful in the country's rivers, canals and beels; now many people farm pabda in ponds. This article explains how to manage pabda in mixed culture.

It is best to choose a pond that holds water for at least seven to eight months a year. A pond that holds water all year round, that is an older pond already used for other fish, is better still. The banks of a new pond should be repaired and aquatic weeds cleared. Apply lime at 1 kg per decimal, and two to three days later apply cow dung at 5 kg per decimal, which will produce natural food in the pond. Any predatory or unwanted fish must be removed.

Stock fingerlings when the water is 4 to 5 feet deep on average and turns light green. For mixed culture, stock healthy fingerlings per decimal as follows: 50 pabda and 100 shing of 2 to 3 inches, and 5 catla, 10 rui, 10 mrigel, 2 silver carp and 2 grass carp of 4 to 5 inches.

Give supplementary feed regularly at 3 to 8 per cent of the fish's body weight. In infertile ponds, apply 2 to 5 kg of rotted cow dung per decimal every 15 days to boost natural food. When the water turns dark green, stop applying dung and test the water's pH.

Note that pabda will eat relatively small fish in the pond, so make sure the other fish in the culture are larger than the pabda. By eating unwanted small fish, pabda keep the pond fit for farming and also grow faster.

Pabda can be harvested for sale when they weigh 60 to 70 grams. All the fish can be harvested seven to eight months after stocking, though fish harvested after more than a year have been seen to weigh more than twice as much.

Source: Staff Correspondent. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.